In Charles Dickens’ famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities, he writes of two men who, although they looked very similar, and both loved the same young lady, but they were very different in character. Sidney Carton was a man who wasted his life on drink and cynicism, and he lost out on the affections of Lucy Manette to Charles Darnay. But at a crucial time in the story, the debauched Carton takes the place of his rival for Lucy in prison, and goes to the guillotine to die in his place. It’s a sad and poignant ending to Dickens’ book, and yet many people might think it somewhat fitting, that a man who had wasted his own life might die in order to bless some other people, who were better than he was.

What is inconceivable, however, is that One who was infinitely better than any of us, would give HIS life to save ours. And of course, that is the Christian story, isn’t it: that Jesus, the glorious Son of God, took our place on the cross, and died for our sins. 

This morning, as we continue our study in Isaiah 53, we are moving to verse 4: “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.” Here we find the almost inconceivable truth that the Messiah would take our place in what theologians call the “Substitutionary Atonement,” bearing our griefs, and our sins, in His body on the cross. 

I.  The Mistaken Diagnosis

:4 “We ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” 

These words were spoken from the perspective of those who were watching Jesus. As they watched Him suffer, they believed that He was getting what He deserved; that God had “smitten Him” for some evil in His life. This was common in Jewish theology: if they saw a person suffering, they believed it must be a direct consequence of their sin. God was giving them what they deserved. We see a number of examples of that mindset in scripture:

— This was the theology behind the story of Job: his friends believed that all the things that came upon him, must have happened because of his sin. They stood by and watched, and said in Job 4:8, “Those who sow trouble harvest it.” They thought was:  “These things don’t happen to someone who didn’t do something to deserve it; so what did you do, Job?!” They saw a direct “cause & effect” relationship between calamity and sin: if you have a calamity, then your sin must have directly caused it. 

— Jesus’ disciples had the same attitude in John 9:1-3, “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he would be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Jesus’ disciples were reflecting the theology they had been brought up in: if you sin, you pay for it directly, right here on earth. If something bad happens to you, like that man’s blindness; it must be a direct result of sin. The only question for them was, WHOSE sin caused it?, his own, or his parents’. But to them it had to be the result of somebody’s personal sin. 

–In Luke 13, it says, “There were some present who reported to (Jesus) about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them: ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but you unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” People believed those Galileans suffered that fate because they were great sinners.

Now, lest you assume that this kind of thinking has died out, we still hear the same kinds of things today. Cheryl & I were serving in Louisiana in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. In the aftermath of that storm, a number of people said something like: “This was God’s punishment upon the wickedness of New Orleans!” Fred Luter, the pastor of the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, and one of the state’s outstanding pastors, took exception to that idea. His pointed out that his church building was absolutely devastated by the hurricane, while most of the French Quarter (known for its moral decadence) was totally unscathed! Luter said, if Hurricane Katrina was a judgment from God, He missed most of His targets! So we need to be very careful about assigning specific targets and reasons for God’s judgments. 

Now, of course there ARE consequences for sin (as we shall see) and God does send judgments here on earth. But we need to be careful about saying that we know the mind of God, and that we know who He is punishing and who He is not. Sometimes God causes or allows things to happen for reasons way beyond our understanding. Remember what Joseph said in Genesis: ”You intended it for evil, but God meant it for good.” God “causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him…”. So we need to be very careful about making judgments as to why bad things happen to some people or or groups. , and especially about assigning a direct cause and effect relationship to sin and calamity. You aren’t God; you don’t know! 

An integral part of the Christian faith is that every good and evil is not rewarded in this life. There is some good we do here, for which we may see no blessing in this life, but God will reward us for it in eternity. And there is a lot of evil in this world, that people “seem” to get away with, that will not be punished until the eternal judgment. That’s part of our basic Christian faith. This world is not all there is. Everything is not judged or rewarded in this life. 

But Isaiah 53 says this would be the mindset of those who would look at Jesus. They would think He suffered because He was a false Messiah: He suffered, so He must have sinned; He must have been a false teacher. So as He hung on the cross, they mocked Him, and taunted Him, because they assumed He was getting what He deserved: “We esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.” However, as we will see, this was a mistaken diagnosis. Jesus had not sinned at all; someone else was the real culprit. 

II.  The Real Culprits

The truth was, it was not Jesus’ sin that caused His suffering. Isaiah 53 says He didn’t suffer for His own sins; He suffered for OURS!  Verse 4 says, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried.” Yes, the griefs and sorrows Jesus bore were the result of sin — OUR sin, not His. Verse 4 here says, “OUR griefs He Himself bore, and OUR sorrows He carried.”

This word “bore” is used repeatedly in the book of Leviticus:

— Lev. 5:1 If a person doesn’t testify when he has seen something, “then he will BEAR his guilt” (the word “bear” here is the same as what we find in Isaiah 53)

— Lev. 5:17 If a person breaks God’s commands unintentionally, “still he is guilty and shall BEAR his punishment.” 

— Lev. 24:15 “If anyone curses God, he will BEAR his sin.” 

All through Leviticus, we see this expression “he will bear his sin … he will bear his sin …”. The Bible says there are consequences for disobeying God; if you sin, you will bear those consequences. And Leviticus shows us a wide variety of sins for which you will bear the consequences: 

— If you curse God to His face, in a high-handed, blasphemous way, You will bear your sin. 

— Or if you sin in what we might consider a “lesser” way: if you know something to do, but just don’t do it – that too is sin, and you will bear the consequences of that. 

— And even if there was something You didn’t even know to do — but should have — that too is sin, and you will bear the consequences of that. The Bible says that ALL these things are sins — what we might call sins of “commission, omission, and ignorance” — but ALL these sins make us accountable to God.

And we have all committed these same types of sins, haven’t we? All of us have sinned to God’s face; all of us have had times when we knew just what God told us not to do, and we did it anyway.  And we’ve all committed sins of omission: we’ve known things we should have done, but didn’t. And how many sins have we committed in ignorance on top of that — sins we should have known about, but because we weren’t as devoted to God’s word as we should have been, we didn’t? We’ve all committed sins: of commission, omission, and ignorance: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 

And the Bible says our sin has consequences. Leviticus says “you shall bear your guilt.” That is what :4 is talking about here. The “griefs” and “sorrows” it talks about there, are the consequences of our sin. We’ve all sinned, and all of us should have to bear the consequences of our sin – both here on earth, and for eternity in hell. We “bear” or carry the weight and guilt or our sins on our lives like a “toilsome burden.”

John Bunyan’s famous story Pilgrim’s Progress opens with him saying “As I slept, I dreamed a dream” and as he dreamed, he saw a man named Pilgrim who had a book in his hand, who was troubled by what he read ~ and he had a burden on his back. Pilgrim in this story is an allegory of a man on his journey to heaven. The burden  on his back is a picture of the guilt and weight of sin on our lives. At one point in the story, Pilgrim says: “I fear that this burden that is upon my back will sink me lower than the grave, and I shall fall into (hell).” Pilgrim in that story is a picture of every one of us; how “ALL have sinned and all short of the glory of God.” How each of us has this burden of the weight of our sins on our back, which would drag us down to hell. These are the burdens and sorrows that Isaiah 53 talks about here, and they are OURS; they are the things we deserve to be punished for. 

So Isaiah 53 says people would see Jesus suffering, and make a “Mistaken Diagnosis;” they would think He was suffering for something He did wrong.  But WE are “the real culprits.” It was OUR sins He was bearing. So Isaiah 53 is describing what theologians call “The Substitutionary Atonement”: 

III.  The Substitutionary Atonement

Each of us deserves to bear the punishment for our own sins. But by God’s grace, something else happened instead. Verse 4 says “Surely OUR griefs, HE Himself bore, and OUR sorrows, HE carried.” What Jesus suffered, was not for His own sin. The Bible says repeatedly that He had no sins. Verse 9 here says: “He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” Hebrews says: ”He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus did not suffer for His own sins. It says “OUR griefs He bore… OUR sorrows He carried.” What Jesus suffered, He suffered for US! This theme begins to unfold here, and then it’s emphasized repeatedly in Isaiah 53:  it repeatedly says:“Our… He”; “our … He.” What was OURS, HE took: “OUR griefs, HE bore. OUR sorrows; HE carried.” And it’s not just verse 4; it continues in verse 5 and beyond: “HE was pierced for OUR transgressions; HE was crushed for OUR iniquities; the chastening for OUR well-being fell upon HIM; by HIS scourging, WE are healed.” 

This is the vital, scriptural doctrine of the “Substitutionary Atonement” of Jesus: 

— “Atonement” means to “make amends” or make payment; 

— “Substitutionary” means He took the place of someone else. So the “Substitutionary Atonement” means that Jesus “made the payment” for our sins by dying as a substitute for us, on the cross.

Leviticus had said that whoever sinned would “bear” the guilt and punishment of his sin. But here Isaiah says HE took OUR sins; HE took OUR sorrow. HE picked up the guilt and punishment that we deserved and took them upon Himself. 

Later on, the book of Leviticus (16:21-22) explains the concept of the “scapegoat.” In this ritual, they were to take a goat, and it says: “Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel… the (scape)goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land”. So the people of Israel were to take a goat, and confess their sins over it, in a symbolic sense transferring their sins to this goat, who would “BEAR ALL THEIR INIQUITIES” to a far-away land. The “scapegoat” bore their sins. The “Scapegoat” of Leviticus was a “prophetic picture” of what Jesus would do for us. Isaiah 53 says He became the “scapegoat” for our sins; He bore the guilt and punishment of OUR sins on on the cross, in His Substitutionary Atonement. 

In the ancient world, they had an interesting ceremony, called the Mesopotamian King substitute ritual: in which a common man would take the place of the king, and suffer any ill effects that would otherwise fall upon the king. Some of you may have read the children’s book, The Whipping Boy; it was written a few years back, by Sid Fleischman, and it won the Newbery Medal in 1987 for best children’s literature. The story was about a boy who was whipped any time the prince misbehaved. That this story, while fiction, was actually based on real, historical fact. In the 1600s they believed that no one but the king was worthy to punish the king’s son. But since the king was rarely around, there was no one “worthy” to punish the prince. So what they did instead was pick a “whipping boy” — usually one of the prince’s friends — who would be punished every time the prince acted up. So the prince sinned – but the whipping boy paid for it!  This was similar to that ancient Mesopotamian King substitute ritual, where the common man suffered as a substitute for the king. 

There have been different examples of this kind of thing all through history, where the common man would suffer for the king. BUT HERE IS THE INCREDIBLE THING: WHEN JESUS CAME, INSTEAD OF THE COMMON MAN SUFFERING FOR THE KING, THE KING SUFFERED FOR THE COMMON MAN!  Jesus, the Son of God, the glorious King took OUR sins on Himself, as if He were a “scapegoat,” as if He were the “whipping boy”! The King of Kings substituted Himself for the common sinner! It is just what I Peter 2:24 says: “HE Himself bore OUR sins in His body on the cross.” The King suffered in our place. THAT is the “Substitutionary Atonement.” Jesus made atonement for us, as our Substitute.

This is the single most important thing you need to understand about Jesus. Jesus did NOT just come to this earth to be a good teacher. He did not come just to be an example of how we should live. He did not come just to show, in some generic way, “God’s love” for us, or to identify with us. He did in fact do all these things: He was a good teacher; He was an example for us; He did show us God’s love, and He did identify with us, and became just like us. But He did all of these things for one great reason: He came to die as our Substitute on the cross, to make the Substitutionary Atonement for us. He said in Matthew 20:28 that He came “to give His life a ransom for many.”

There is an old Jewish tradition attached to Isaiah 53:4. The word that is used for “stricken” of God here, is the same Hebrew word used in II Kings 15:5, where it says that “the LORD afflicted the king, and he became leprous.” So this word “stricken” was sometimes used of someone afflicted with leprosy. So some Jews before the time of Christ, reading Isaiah 53, believed that it meant the Messiah would actually be a leper: “stricken” of God; “stricken” with leprosy!

But the Messiah was not a leper; Jesus did not literally take our “sicknesses” upon Himself by getting sick Himself. Instead what He bore was our SINS in His body; He bore the sins which are the cause of all our of griefs and sorrows. “OUR griefs, HE bore; OUR sorrows, HE carried,” in the “Substitutionary Atonement” that He made for us. 

And He did not just do this for “the world;” He did it for YOU personally. Galatians 2:20 says “He loved ME, and gave Himself for ME.” Jesus came to be the once-and-for-all sacrifice who would pay for YOUR sins, in YOUR place, so that you don’t have to worry about the forgiveness of sins any more. Jesus paid for YOUR sins once and for all on the cross in the Substitutionary Atonement. 

The question is: Have you ever trusted what He did for you on the cross to save you? See, many people think that Christianity is about “coming to church” and “trying to do good things” in the hopes of making atonement for ourselves with God. But the Bible says you can’t do enough to make yourself right with God. Psalm 49:8 says “The redemption of (your) soul is costly” and you should stop trying to do it! You can’t make your own atonement with God. This is what Jesus came for: to do for you what you couldn’t do for yourself. He died on the cross as YOUR substitute; to atone for YOUR sins, that if you would put YOUR trust in what He did for you, then YOU will be saved! If you’ve never done it before, today, acknowledge your sins to God, stop trying to pay for your own sins, and put your trust in the Substitutionary Atonement Jesus made for you on the cross. 

Let me add one more thing that I think will speak to some of us who are already Christians. Many Christians feel very badly when they sin, and they end up “beating themselves up” over their sins. And I understand that; we don’t want to disobey the Lord; we feel badly when we do, and honestly it is good to be convicted about your sins. But listen, once you have confessed that sin to the Lord, and if you have really repented of it and claimed God’s forgiveness for it, if you are still “beating yourself up” about that sin, then you have not fully apprehended the Substitutionary Atonement of Jesus the way you should have. You don’t need to “beat yourself up” over your sins – Someone Else has already been beaten up for them!  JESUS took the beating for you. The Messiah became the “scapegoat.” Amazingly, the Son of God became your “whipping boy.” Jesus took the punishment for your sins. So rejoice! Rejoice in His Substitutionary Atonement; rejoice that He bore your sins; rejoice with the old song:

“My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought; my sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!” 

THAT is the Substitutionary Atonement:  “OUR griefs, HE Himself bore, and OUR sorrows, HE carried.” 

INVITATION:

— Several lessons today/things to apply: stop judging outwardly, as if everyone who experiences bad in this world deserves it. People misdiagnosed Christ; we often misdiagnose others too.

— Or maybe you think someone is “getting away” with something because you don’t see them getting punished in this world — or you don’t feel like you are being rewarded for some good. Remember everything is not rewarded or punished in this life. That is our Christian faith. Trust God! Trust that He WILL make it all right in eternity. Entrust that situation to Him!

— Are you a Christian, but are still “beating yourself up” for a past, confessed sin? Stop it. Trust that Jesus was beaten up for you!

— Or maybe there’s someone you should already forgiven, but you are still “beating them up” for their sins. Stop taking that out on them. The same Jesus who forgave YOUR sins, forgave them. Forgive them, just like Christ has forgiven you. 

— Most importantly, have you ever trusted Jesus as the One who made the Substitutionary Atonement for your sins? If not, give Him your sins, and your life, right now …