Objection: Jesus’ Bearing of Sicknesses Is Just a Metonymy
Metonymy is probably not a word you use when you talk with your friends – unless you all happen to be seminary professors. A metonymy is a figure of speech that reverses cause and effect by referring to something closely related to something else. The objector correctly notes that the Bible DOES contain metonymies. Then he concludes that Jesus’ bearing of sicknesses is another one.
So let’s give the objector some credit for pointing out these verses:
Luke 2:30:
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
In this case, Simeon’s eyes did not actually see God’s salvation – they saw the cause of salvation (Jesus) but not His effect – salvation – that would be accomplished later. So cause and effect have been reversed.
Luke 16:29:
Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
In this case, it was impossible for the rich man’s five brothers to actually hear Moses and the prophets, who were long gone at that point. Moses and the prophets were the cause of prophecies – the effect was the prophecies themselves. So cause and effect have been reversed.
So now the objector assumes that “Surely He hath borne our sicknesses” (which IS literally what Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:4, as any honest seminarian would have to admit) is a metonymy that reverses the cause (bearing sin) with the effect (sicknesses) and thus really means that Jesus hath borne our sins, not our sicknesses. He goes on to say that the cause (sin) and effect (penal judgment) have been transposed and that Isaiah must have meant that He was punished for sin, which CAUSES sickness. In other words, Isaiah was only saying that Jesus bore our SINS (cause), not our SICKNESSES (effect).
At least this particular objector has the good sense to admit that Matthew 8:17 refers to the atonement – a fact missed by many other objectors.
I will start by saying that the Bible is full of straightforward statements that are not metonymies! The existence of a few metonymies does not prove that any Bible statement is likely to be a metonymy. (I could list such statements by the thousands, but that would lead to monotony.)
How can we tell that Jesus was really bearing sicknesses, according to Isaiah? We could “ask” Isaiah himself by looking at Isaiah 53:10 where God “made Him (Jesus) sick.” That undercuts the metonymy argument right there. Isaiah 53:10 could not reasonably be considered a metonymy and it clearly states that Jesus was (literally in the Hebrew) “made sick.” So this is no figure of speech. He really WAS made sick. But where did those sicknesses come from? US! God laid OUR sicknesses on Him as part of the punishment for our sins.
No reasonable person could assume that Moses and the prophets were still alive to be heard, or that Simeon saw what Jesus did on the cross. Thus, there is clear evidence that these HAVE to be metonymies. However, this isn’t the case with Jesus’ bearing of sickness. You should ALWAYS assume that Bible verses are literal unless you can PROVE that they are figurative. Otherwise, you’ll go around concluding that any verse you don’t like is merely figurative, which is what some people do.
The evidence is overwhelming that Jesus bore CONSEQUENCES for sin and not just sin itself, so statements by Isaiah and Matthew could not be metonymies. If Jesus did not bear our sicknesses, what right did He have to remove them in the gospels before He suffered with them? How could mere symbols of Jesus in the Old Testament produce both forgiveness and physical healing, only to have the real Jesus only offer forgiveness to mankind?
The objector admits that sin is the cause of sickness, so dealing with man’s sin problem should also deal with man’s sickness problem!
Most importantly, if Jesus bore our sins but not the physical punishments prescribed in the Law’s curse, how could He have ransomed us by paying the price for sin in our place? He HAD to be punished as the Law prescribed, which means that He HAD to be made sick. Otherwise, He would not have paid our ransom price, and it would still be left for us to pay. God is just – He HAS TO punish sin. The only way He could stop US from having to be punished for our sins was to send Jesus to be punished for our sins in our place! Thus, He HAD to bear not only our sins but the punishment for them as well.
So you should be able to see that the fact that He “bore our sicknesses” is a literal statement that CANNOT be considered a metonymy.