Jesus was our source of healing

JESUS WAS OUR SOURCE OF HEALING
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Isaiah53:5 5But he was pierced for our
transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;the
punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by
his wounds we are healed.
GreatTexts of the Bible
Vicarious Healing
With His stripes we are healed.—Isaiah53:5.
1. “I pray thee, of whom speakeththe prophet this? of himself, or of some
other man?” Such was surely the very natural question put by the Ethiopian
strangerwho had gone to worship at Jerusalem, and returning, sat in his
chariot and read this passageofthe prophet Isaiah. Even now, with all the
light shed upon the interpretation of this passage by the New Testamentand
by the history of eighteencenturies of Christian experience, men are still
repeating the eunuch’s question. “I pray thee of whom speakeththe prophet
this?” Some would persuade us that the prophet is speaking of the nation of
Israel; others would persuade us that Jeremiahis the servant of the Lord who
is led as a lamb to the slaughter;and others againthat it is the prophet
himself or the better part of the people who occasionallybore the burden of
the rest.

Unquestionably there is a difficulty in this passage. And it is just this, that the
prophet does speak ofthe servant of the Lord who occupies so very prominent
a part in all the later chapters of the prophet Isaiah,—he does speak ofthe
servant of the Lord sometimes as the nation of Israel, sometimes as the
prophet himself, and at other times of a third person. For instance, in the very
first place where the servant of the Lord is mentioned—in the eighth and
ninth verses of the forty-first chapter—“Thou, Israel, art My servant, Jacob
whom I have chosen.” And again, in the forty-secondchapter, and the
nineteenth verse, “Who is blind, but My servant? or deaf, as My messenger
that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s
servant?” The context very plainly shows that he is speaking of the nation at
large;and the prophet himself is spokenofas the Lord’s servant in the forty-
fourth chapter, “Thatconfirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the
counselof His messengers.”Buthere is one, “the servantof the Lord,” who is
certainly not the nation if he atones for the nation; and certainly is not the
prophet, for the prophet joins himself with the rest of the nation as one of
those who need atonement:—“All we like sheephave gone astray.”
How are we to understand this? How is it that the servant of the Lord is the
nation, is the prophet, is the coming Redeemer? Justfor this reason, that the
true Redeemer, born of the seedof Abraham, is so absolutelyone with Israel
that the whole history of Israeland the whole history of Israel’s great
representative men, whether prophets, priests, or kings, is fashionedon the
lines of the greatredemption, and can be interpreted only by the life and
sufferings and death and victory of the greatRedeemer. You will remember
that St. Matthew sees the fulfilment of Hosea’s words, “Outof Egypt have I
calledmy son,” in the going down of our Lord into Egypt in His infancy and
His sojourn there. Yet we know that Hosea is speaking of the literal Israel, for
he says, “When Israelwas a child, then I loved him, and calledmy sonout of
Egypt.” St. Matthew sees that what is true of Israelis true also of the Christ.

2. Now here we have the greattruth of a suffering Messiah, a suffering
Redeemer, brought out in all its fulness as we have it nowhere else in the Old
Testament. The details are so striking that we cannot wonder that againand
againthis passageis quoted in the New Testament, as having its fulfilment in
Christ. Our Lord Himself sanctions the application when He declares, “ForI
say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplishedin Me. And He
was reckonedamong the transgressors.”And Philip’s answerto the eunuch
was this, “Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and
preachedunto him Jesus.” No passagein the Old Testamentteaches so
unequivocally the doctrine of vicarious atonement. True, the whole sacrificial
system of Israelprefigures it, for the sacrificerbrings the victim in
acknowledgmentthat he is sinful, and that his own life is forfeit. In the
twenty-secondPsalmwe have the Messiahforsakenof God, persecuted,
reviled, spat upon, pierced, done to death, and reaping the greatreward of His
sufferings in the glory that should follow; but here, and here alone, in the
whole of the Old Testament, we have a person, Himself of spotless innocence,
entering into the whole fellowshipof human suffering, led as a lamb to the
slaughter, wounded for our transgressions,having the chastisementof our
peace upon Him, bearing our iniquity laid upon Him by the law, making
intercessionfor the transgressors, andreceiving as His recompense that He
should see His seed, that the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in His hand,
that He should divide the portion with the greatand the spoil with the strong.
I do not wonder, as we read the prophecy with all its minuteness of detail, and
as we look down on the ages and searchin vain for any figure but One in all
history in whom its lineaments canbe traced, that in his greatdefence of
Christianity Paleyshould have basedhis whole argument from prophecy on
this single chapter which he transcribes at length; or that Luther should have
said that there is not in all the Old Testamenta clearerprophecy both of the
sufferings and of the resurrectionof Christ.
3. In the text sin is spokenof as a disease. It is a disease, however, whichis,
humanly speaking, incurable. The only cure is a vicarious one. So we have—

1. Sin as a disease.
2. An incurable disease.
3. Cured vicariously.
I
Sin as a Disease
There would be no need to talk about healing if sin had not been regardedby
God as a disease. It is a greatdeal more than a disease, itis a wilful crime; but
still it is also a disease.It is often very difficult to separate the part in a crime
which disease ofthe mind may have, and that portion which is distinctly
wilful. We need not make this separationourselves. If we were to do so in
order to excuse ourselves, that would only be increasing the evil; and if we do
it for any other reason, we are so apt to be partial, that I am afraid we should
ultimately make some kind of palliation for our sin which would not bear the
test of the day of judgment. It is only because ofGod’s sovereignty, and His
infinite grace, andHis strong resolve to have mercy upon men, that, in this
instance, He wills to look upon sin as a disease. He does not concealfrom
Himself, or from us, that it is a greatand grievous fault; He calls it a trespass,
a transgression, iniquity, and other terms that setforth its true character.
Neverin Scripture do we find any excuse for sin, or lessening ofits
heinousness;but in order that He might have mercy upon us, and deal
graciouslywith us, the Lord is pleasedto regard it as a disease, and then to
come and treat us as a physician treats his patients, that He may cure us of the
evil.

1. Sin is a disease, first, because it is not an essentialpart of man as he was
created. It is something abnormal, it was not in human nature at the first.
“Godmade man upright.” Our first parent, as he came fresh from the hand of
his Maker, was withouttaint or speck ofsin; he had a healthy body inhabited
by a healthy soul. There was about him no tendency to evil, he was created
pure and perfect; and sin does not enter into the constitution of man, per se,
as God made it. It is a something which has come into us from outside. Satan
came with his temptation, and sin entered into us, and death by sin.
Therefore, let no man, in any sense whatever, attribute sin to God as the
Creator. Let him look upon sin as being a something extraneous to a man,
something which ought never to have had a locus standi within our nature at
all, a something that is disturbing and destructive, a poisoneddart that is
sticking in our flesh, abiding in our nature, and that has to be extracted by
Divine and sovereigngrace.
2. Sin is like a disease becauseit puts all the faculties out of gear, and breaks
the equilibrium of the life forces, just as disease disturbs all our bodily
functions. When a man is sick and ill, nothing about him works as it ought to
do. There are some particular symptoms which, first of all, betray the
existence ofthe virus of disease;but you cannotinjure any one power of the
body without the restbeing in their measure put out of order. Thus has sin
come into the soulof man, and put him altogetherout of gear. Sometimes, a
certain passionbecomes predominant in a person quite out of proportion to
the restof his manhood. Things that might have been right in themselves,
grow by indulgence into positive evils, while other things which ought to have
had an open existence are suppresseduntil the suppressionbecomes a crime.
As long as a man is under the powerof sin, his soul is under the powerof a
disease whichhas disturbed all his faculties, and takenawaythe correctaction
from every part of his being.
3. Sin is a disease becauseit weakens the moral energy, just as many diseases
weakenthe sick person’s body. A man, under the influence of some particular

disease, becomesquite incapacitatedfor his work. There was a time when he
was strong and athletic, but disease has enteredhis system, and so his nerves
have lost their former force; and he, who would be the helper of others,
becomes impotent, and needs to be waitedupon himself. Does notthe apostle
speak of us as being “without strength” when “in due time Christ died for the
ungodly?” The man has not the power or the will to believe in Christ, but yet
he can believe a lie most readily, and he has no difficulty in cheating himself
into self-conceit. The man has not the strength to quit his sin, though he has
powerto pursue it with yet greaterenergy. He is weak in the knees, so that he
cannot pray; he is weak in the eyes, so that he cannot see Jesus as his Saviour;
he is weak in the feet, so that he cannot draw near to God; he has withered
hands, dumb lips, deaf ears, and he is palsiedin his whole system.
4. Sin is like a disease becauseit either causes greatpain or deadens all
sensibility, as the case may be; I do not know, says Spurgeon (whose divisions
of sin consideredas a disease are here followed), which one might rather
choose, whetherto be so diseasedas to be full of pain, or to be suddenly
smitten by a paralytic stroke, so as not to be able to feel at all. In spiritual
things, the latter is the worse ofthe two evils. There are sinners who appearto
feel nothing; they sin, but their conscience does notaccuse themconcerning it.
They purpose to go yet further into sin, and they rejectChrist, and turn aside
from Him even when the Spirit of God is striving with them, for they are
insensible to the wrong they are doing. They do not feel, they cannotfeel, and,
alas!they do not even want to feel; they are callous and obdurate, and, as the
apostle says, “pastfeeling.” In others, sin causes constantmisery. I do not
mean that godly sorrow which leads to penitence, for sin never brings its own
repentance;but by way of remorse, or else of ungratified desire, or
restlessnesssuchas is natural to men who try to fill their immortal spirits with
the empty joys of this poor world. Are there not many who, if they had all
they have ever wishedfor, would still wish for more? If they could at this
moment gratify every desire they have, they would but be as men who drink
of the brine of the sea, whose thirst is not thereby quenched, but only
increased.

5. Sin is also like a disease, because itfrequently produces a manifest
pollution. All disease in the body does pollute it in some way or other. Turn
the microscope upon the part affected, and you will soondiscoverthat there is
something obnoxious there. But sin in the soul pollutes terribly in the sight of
God. There are quiet, respectable sins which men can concealfrom their
fellow-creatures,so that they can keeptheir place in society, and seemto be
all that they ought to be; but there are other sins which, like the leprosy of old,
are white upon their brows. There are sins that are to be seenin the outward
appearance ofthe man; his speechbetrays him, his walk and conversation
indicate what is going on within his heart.
6. Sin is like disease becauseit tends to increase in the man, and will one day
prove fatal to him. You cannotsay to disease, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but
no further.” There are some diseases thatseemto come very gradually, but
they come very surely. There is the hectic flush, the trying cough, the painful
breathing, and we begin to feel that consumption is coming, and very soon—
terribly soonto those who love them—those who were once hale and hearty,
to all appearance, becomelike walking skeletons, forthe fell disease has laid
its cruel hand upon them, and will not let them go. So, my friend, as long as
sin is in you, you need not deceive yourself, and think you canget rid of it
when you will, for you cannot. It must be driven out by a higher powerthan
your own; this disease must be cured by the greatPhysician, or else it will
keepon increasing until at last you die. Sin will grow upon you till, “when it is
finished, it bringeth forth death.” God grant that, before that awful ending is
reached, the Lord Jesus Christ may come and cure you, so that you may be
able to say, “With His stripes we are healed.”1 [Note:C. H. Spurgeon.]
II
Sin as an Incurable Disease

If some part of the human body is bruised or cut or broken by an outside
force, nature sets about at once to repair the injury. There is a resident power
within, which at once comes to the rescue. Steadfastmethods of life and
growth assertthemselves;there is a busy knitting of brokenligaments and
wounded tissues, mysterious processesofchannelling, forcing new paths of
life—all striving to get back on the road towards the specific perfection to
which nature had started.
Is there a work of moral and spiritual repair going on analogous to this? Do
men’s sins heal of themselves from resident inner forces? Is there, apart from
the intervention of God and Christ, a coursing stream of health which works
out fresh channels, knits togetherthe laceratedmoral tissues and steadfastly
moves towards life? Does the disposition to stealcure itself, or the sin of
impurity, or slandering, or greed? Is there not generally a going from bad to
worse until some power from the outside arrests a man? And why? Because
sin is a wound inflicted not upon the surface or the extremities, but upon the
vitals. It has reachedthe shrine and centre of implanted life, and the poison is
flowing in the streams which should have been for its health.
The inherent life of the body may be able by a quickened effort to repair the
partial loss wroughtby a force external to itself; but it was no partial loss, no
localinjury that had maimed and deformed the spirit of man; it was not a
merely and wholly external force that still draggedand beat him down from
the glory for which God had fashioned him. No, the whole head was sick, and
the whole heart faint. In the individual and in the race alike the ethical basis
of development was conditionedby the perversion of past generations:as the
personaland spiritual being woke to self-consciousnesshe found that in the
very depths of his life evil was present with him, and he by sin sore let and
hindered in running the race that was setbefore him.

On the deepestthoughts and the purest minds of the heathen world there had
fallen from time to time the passing gleamof a hope that there might be some
powerwhich could repair the ruin of a sinful race, and cut off the pitiless
entail of guilt and misery. The faith, that, by some mysterious efficacy, a pure
act of sacrifice might heal the hereditary taint of an accursedhouse, lay near
to the most clearand constantforms under which a Greek conceivedhis
relation to the Unseen. It was this belief that hindered his greatconceptionof
Nemesis from ever approaching to the immorality or despair of fatalism. He
believed that a single act of pride or violence provoked a doom which held its
course through sin and punishment, and sin and punishment, from one
generationto another: he traced the dark bequestof Tantalus, or Labdacus,
or Xerxes: and he felt that the power of outragedholiness was astir, and that
there would be no peace for the wicked. But he also believed that there was an
act which could arrest even the blind and ruthless curse:that the taint by
which strength and cunning were smitten and sank down and died, was
powerless againstthe sacrifice ofa pure obedience. Sucha sacrifice he saw in
the utter submission, the prostrate humiliation, of Oedipus, in the self-
forgetful righteousness ofOrestes’vengeance, in Antigone’s allegiance to the
heavenly Voice. And from such a sacrifice in every case there came forth a
newness oflife which could push back the threatening death and wake the
voice of joy and health in the dwellings of the righteous. So the thunderous
air, the terror and agonyof the Oedipus Tyrannus, passes into the solemn,
tender stillness of Colonus:and
The promise of the morrow
Is glorious on that eve,
Dearas the holy sorrow

When goodmen cease to live.
So in the Electra the same chorus which has sung of the everlasting doom, the
ceaseless, wearyviolence ofthe sons of Pelops, breaks into a blessing when
Orestes’service is fulfilled:—
O seedof Atreus, after many woes,
Thou hast come forth, they freedom hardly won,
By this emprise made perfect.
So does Antigone win deliverance from the black tide of the unweariedcurse,
and lay hold on the goodhope of a love that is strongerthan death. But in the
costof eachsuch saving act, in the horror and anguish and cruelty and
slaughterwhich gatherround the sacrifice, the conscience ofGreeceassented
to the law that without shedding of blood is no remissionof sin: in the
narrowness and imperfection of that which even the costliestand purest
offering could achieve, it ownedthat the true healing of the nations must wait
for the obedience of One who should be more than man, and for sorrow like
unto which there was not any sorrow.1 [Note:F. Paget, Faculties and
Difficulties, p. 181.]
III
Vicarious Healing

1. What is Vicariousness?Whenwe speak of“vicarious atonement,” what do
we mean? “Vicarious” means something that is done by one on behalf of
another because he is unable to do it himself. You have an obligation to fulfil,
and you are unable to fulfil it, and anotherfulfils it on your behalf. Your
obligation is this: you ought to obey the law of God perfectly, but you do not
and cannot. You have, every one of you, broken the law, and you have done
wrong againstGod, for every sin is a wrong againstGod. You owe, therefore,
reparation to God. You deserve punishment, for your sin is a breach of the
law, the eternal and immutable law of God which cannot be broken with
impunity; and that the majesty of law may be held and God’s justice satisfied,
you must bear the penalty of transgression. And then, further, you need to
have the enmity done awaywith, which exists betweenyou and God. You need
a new heart of reconciliationwhich will bring you into fellowshipand peace
with God. How is this atonement, this at-one-ment, to be effected? Plato said,
“Deliberate sinmay perhaps be forgiven, but I do not see how.” How is this
reparation to be made to God and to the majesty of His law? How is the guilt
which rests upon us to be taken away? Who is the person that is able to take
upon Himself all the sin of the world and to make perfect satisfactionto God’s
holy law, and so to bring us guilty sinners near to God?
(1) First, He must be a willing victim, laying down His life of Himself freely,
for if the punishment of the smallestsin were inflicted on Him without or
againstHis will the justice of heaven would be infringed.
(2) Next, He must be a spotless victim, for one taint or spotwould do away
with the efficacyof the sacrifice—the sinless alone canatone for the sinful.
(3) Further, He must be capable of offering satisfactionforthe sins of the
whole world; and no man can do this. A man, even a perfect man, cannot
atone for all men’s sins. He can only clearhimself. He cannot open his arms
and claspall men to his bosomand make all their burdens his own. Let him be

as philanthropic as he may, the effects ofhis death as a martyr would be
unfelt beyond his own circle. To do a thing which should affect the whole race
of man, those who have long since returned to the dust, and those who are not
yet fashionedout of the dust, requires surely the same amount of power as
where He creates andsustains men. The victim must have the powerof God,
to take upon Himself all human needs, and weaknesses, andsorrows, and
sufferings, and sins; but if He is to suffer for sin, if he is to stand in the place
of man and to write with His own hands the lessonthat sin should not go
unpunished—He must also be man, to suffer as one of us, and for us.
How could man rise towards the specific type when his ruin had reachedthat
spiritual being to which had been intrusted the secretofthis perfection? The
one answermay be given in words takenfrom St. Athanasius—None could
change the corruptible to incorruption save He who also in the beginning
made all things from nothing; none could renew in man the Image of God
save the express Image of His Person;none could make the dying to be
deathless save He who is the Life, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
2. Upon what, then, does the possibility of vicarious healing rest? It rests upon
two things:—
1. The identification of the Healerwith those He has come to heal.—Before
they say “with His stripes we are healed,” they must be able to say, “Surely he
hath borne our griefs, and carriedour sorrows.”Theirlife must be His by
voluntary adoption—its perils, its pains, its privations, His! He must be
involved in it all. He must taste its troubled life—“drink its sour grape and eat
its bitter bread.” He must be numbered even with the transgressors—mustbe
content to be taken for one of them, to be misunderstood for their sake, to get
near to them, understand them and representthem. And gradually the eyes of
the people will open. This one, so unselfish and pure and loving, is bearing
their iniquities. In bringing misery upon themselves they are bringing it upon

Him. Forthemselves they deserve it, and they expect it. But He is wounded for
their transgressions, andbruised for their iniquities. Nobody cancome really
to their help and not be involved in their retribution. At last they begin to see
the shame and folly of their sin. They never hated their sins when they saw
them in themselves, but now they see them in Him, the mark of them in pain
upon His face, in agonyupon His heart. A new loathing, a new penitence
surges within them. They can bear it no longer. The innocent Sufferer draws
them out of their captivity, and by His stripes they are healed.
Look at the life of Moses,sentas a national redeemerfrom the curse and yoke
of Egypt. He identifies himself with his slave-brethren, and the wrath of the
oppressorfalls on him as well as on them. This was the first secretof the
confidence he won from them. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried
our sorrows.”Thenlook on further, and see how he was involved in all the
consequencesofthe sins of his people. They, you say, deservedthose weary,
hopeless years ofwanderings in the desert; but he did not. Yet because he had
given himself to them, “he was wounded for their transgressions, and bruised
for their iniquities.” He had no part nor lot in the sin of idolatry, but he was
numbered with the transgressors. He bore more of the burden of shame,
humiliation and contrition than they who did the sin.1 [Note:C. S. Horne, The
Soul’s Awakening, p. 102.]
2. The possibility of vicarious healing depends, in the secondplace, upon the
powerof innocent vicarious suffering. This is an inexplicable law, but equally
it is indisputable. That we need for our soul’s awakening to see our sin, not in
ourselves, but in another, is a strange truth, but truth it is. Yonder young man
has never realisedhis sins, though he has suffered for them. He is callous and
careless, but one day he notices a look in his mother’s face, and sees the lines
of care about the mouth and brow, and the truth flashes upon him, “Thatis
what my sin has done.” Her innocent suffering brings him to himself, and with
its stripes he is healed. Or let us change the illustration. Christian people will
always differ as to the merits of particular wars, but all Christian people are

one in the hatred and horror of war. And if one were to go further one would
say that it is not in the actualfield of battle, where hate and passionare so
strongly mingled with heroism and devotion, that its misery is most realised.
It is emphatically suffering innocence that kills the warspirit in us. By these
stripes we are healed. Soldiers who have kindled with the fierce excitement
and dark enthusiasm of war, when they have come face to face with suffering
innocence, have grown sick and sad, and confessedto an ungovernable
revulsion of feeling. All the love of war dies out. By the stripes of suffering
innocence they are healed.
Yesterday afternoon, as the sun went down, I sat by the bedside watching the
wan face of a wife and mother who had prematurely worn out her life in toils
for her husband and children, and was eventhen most absorbed in certain
tender parting charges concerning them when she should be no longer able to
care for them. “She wouldna be there,” said the stalwartbut deeply grieved
husband, “but for slavin’ and slavin’ for us.” There was an instance of
vicarious self-sacrifice. Inthe annals of womanhoodthere are many such. And
whateverwe may think about its justice or expediency, there is something in
us which endears to us the personwho has obeyed the sacredlaw, and our
pulses beat quicker at a thing which puts fresh honour upon our community.1
[Note:F. W. Luce, in The Treasury, September 1902, p. 353.]
Stanley, in one of his books on African travel, tells of the crime of Uledi, his
native coxswain, and what came of it. Uledi was deservedlypopular for his
ability and courage, but having robbed his master, a jury of his fellows
condemned him to receive “a terrible flogging.” Thenuprose his brother
Shumari, who said, “Uledi has done very wrong; but no one can accuseme of
wrong-doing. Now, mates, let me take half the whipping. I will cheerfully
endure it for the sake ofmy brother.” Scarcelyhad he finished when another
arose, and said, “Uledi has been the father of the boat, boys. He has many
times risked his life to save others; and he is my cousin; and yet he ought to be
punished. Shumari says he will take half the punishment; and now let me take

the other half, and let Uledi go free.”1 [Note:B. J. Gibbon, Visionaries, p.
114.]
3. The Lamb of God on the altar of sacrifice is a deep and dark mystery. How
is it possible that my punishment should lie on Him? What justice can there
be in the suffering of the innocent for the guilty? The prophet anticipates the
greatmisunderstanding of the world: “Yet we did esteemhim stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted.” Thus was Christ judged according to outward
appearance;it seemedas if He were so greviously smitten on accountof His
own sin. And although in our days no one goes quite so far, yet the mystery of
the atonementby substitution is still a stumbling-block. It is incomprehensible
to human intelligence, yet Scripture plainly declares the vicarious nature of
Christ’s sufferings. This is the stumbling-block of the Cross, whichhas in all
ages beenan offence to the world. Many have made shipwreck of their faith
on this rock, esteeming Christ not as a sacrifice forus, but merely as a martyr
to His own cause, andan example of patient endurance. Consequently millions
of Christians keepGoodFriday in vain; they will not acceptmysteries which
are too vast for human reason. The Lamb of God, the Divine hostage for our
guilt, sinks in their idea of Him to a mere man, who left us a perfect example,
but did not obtain grace and salvation, righteousness and peace, forus. Not
thus did the prophet speak of Christ: “But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisementofour
peace was upon him.” The words are plain enough, He suffers for our sake
and in our stead;“he carried our sorrows.”To this all the apostles bear
witness when speaking ofChrist as our throne of grace, as the expiation for
our sins. St. Peterwrites: “Who his own selfbare our sins in his own body on
the tree.” Christ’s testimony of Himself is this: “My flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world”; and the witness borne throughout the New Testament,
from that of John the Baptist to the Revelation, is the same; whereverChrist
appears, it is in a garment dipped in blood.

“In a large family of evil-doers, where the father and mother are drunkards,
the sons jail-birds, and the daughters steepedin shame, there may be one—a
daughter—pure, sensible, sensitive, living in the home of sin like a lily among
thorns; and she makes all the sin of the family her own. The others do not
mind it; the shame of their sin is nothing to them; it is the talk of the town, but
they do not care. Only in her heart do their crimes and disgrace meetlike a
sheafof spears, piercing and mangling. The one innocent member of the
family bears the guilt of all the rest. Even their cruelty to herself she hides, as
if the shame of it were her own. Such a position did Christ hold in the human
family.”1 [Note:J. Stalker, Imago Christi.]
4. There seemto be three demands made by the human conscienceonthis
greatmystery.
1. It must be an actof justice.—How is it that God should punish for the
guilty? If Christ is innocent, and yet is punished, how is this in accordance
with any principle of justice? In the first place, it is certainthat we do see
every day in our lives the innocent suffering for the guilty, not through any
fault of their own, but simply from the circumstances in which they are
necessarilyplaced. When a pious and saintly mother suffers for a vicious son,
you sayit is unjust. Well, it is part of the constitution of the world. We cannot
alter it. It runs through the whole of God’s providence. The innocent man who
has done no harm suffers for the profligacy and wickedness ofthose who are
nearestto him. Therefore when Christ our Lord put Himself into our place,
He placed Himself in the position of one who, though perfectly innocent—and
none of us are perfectly innocent—yet took upon Himself the burden of our
guilt and of our sins. This is only an illustration. Of course it is not for one
moment maintained that we can fathom all the depth of the meaning of the
Atonement. How is that possible, when He who made atonement for us is the
Son of God? How can we explain all His sufferings, or the meaning of all those
sufferings? But surely we can get some glimpse of the love in those sufferings.

Why should the world so greatly wonderthat we are cleansedfrom sin by the
transfer of our guilt to another? Surely earthly parents bear the sins of an
erring son, both in suffering and in interceding for him. In the act of washing
our hands the stain passes into the waterand the towel; in cleansing a
garment the dust is transferred to the air or to the ground. Why should it be
said that God was unjust in letting Christ suffer for us? Did not Christ
willingly undertake the suffering? If a friend pays our debts for us, is our
creditor unjust in accepting that payment? And surely God is not unjust in
pardoning our sins for Christ’s sake, since Christ, as the secondancestorof
our race, gives Himself up in the name of us all; and since no one can
appropriate the precious fruits of this death unless he has in faith become
spiritually one with the Lamb of God, in order that, in this communion, he
may die unto sin.
Could not God forgive without the suffering of Jesus?There is only one
answer:He could not. The reasonwhy He could not is difficult to see, but it is
not beyond the understanding. No earthly parallel is adequate. We can only
see “through a glass darkly.” If a governorpardons a prisoner two interests
must be maintained: the government must continue to be antagonistic to
crime, and the welfare of the governedmust not be overlooked. If God
forgives, His own integrity and the interestof His children must be secured. Is
this done in the death of Jesus? Doesthe death of Jesus make us fearand
reverence Godmore or less than we should do otherwise? It must be said that
it increases ourfear of Him. On the other hand, does the suffering of Jesus
make it easieror more difficult for us to sin? It makes it much more difficult.
By the death of Jesus Godforgives and remains holy, and the people receive
an impulse awayfrom sin.
“The Well is deep.”
The saying is most true:

Salvation’s well is deep,
Only Christ’s hand can reachthe waters blue.
And even He must stoop to draw it up,
Ere He can fill thy cup.
2. It must be an actof love.—Truly this is a greatmystery, which we must
here contemplate in silent meditation, and which eternity alone can unveil.
Every sacrifice was a mystery; every actof laying, as it were, sin upon the
victim was mysterious. Infinitely more so was the death of our Lord. Still,
Scripture gives us one master-keyby which we may penetrate into this as into
every mystery—it is love. It was love that could not bear to leave mankind
under sentence of death, thus frustrating the objectof creation;love could
plan out a wayof escape,and find means to effectit.
You will often hear it said that God was angry with man, and that Christ
turned awayHis wrath. Holy Scripture tells us that “Godso loved the world.”
He is angry with sin, but “Godso loved the world that he gave his only-
begottenSon.” And againwe sometimes hearit said that the wrath of God
was poured out upon His Son. But Jesus Christ tells us, “Therefore my Father
loveth me, because Ilay down my life for the sheep.” So that His sacrifice
calledforth afresh as it were the very love of God which had been His from all
eternity.

In a particular district of France there is a schoolfor poor boys who have
neither father nor mother to care for them, and who run homeless about the
streets. It is a very goodschool, and the boys who enter it are caredfor and
helped, to become goodmen. But sometimes bad boys get in, and boys who
will not try to be better. A boy of this sort one day stabbed another in the arm
with a knife. Now in that schoolthey have two very wonderful rules: 1st. Bad
boys, when they do mischief, are tried by the scholars, not by the masters.
And the sentence the other boys passedon this cruel lad was, that he should
be kept three weeks in a dark cell, and fed on bread and water. 2nd. But in
this schoolsubstitutes are allowedin punishments. Any boy may come
forward and sayhe will bear the punishment to which an evil-doer has been
sentenced. So, whenthe sentence was pronounced, the question was asked
whether any boy was willing to bear this punishment. And, to the surprise of
all the school, the boy whose arm had been stabbed stepped forward and said,
“I will bear it in his stead.” And that was agreedto, but the master said, “The
criminal must take the bread and waterto the cell.” So the boy whose arm
had been stabbed went into the cell to bear the punishment. And the boy who
stabbed him carriedthe bread and waterthree times a-day to the cell. He
went through his task six days. But then he broke down; three times every day
to see the pale face of the boy he had stabbed in prison for him made him see
how cruel he had been, and he came to the masterand insisted on bearing the
rest of the punishment himself.1 [Note: A. Macleod, The Child Jesus, p. 78.]
When we speak ofpunishment, what do we mean? What do we mean by
saying that our Lord was punished for our transgressions?I do not think that
the expressionis altogetheran applicable one. I was reading the other day a
lecture delivered by the Rev. JosephCook in Boston, in America, in which he
says, “Guilt or obligation to satisfy the demands of a violated law may be
removed when the author of the law substitutes his own voluntary
chastisementfor our punishment. When such a substitution is made, the
highest possible motives of loyalty to that rule are brought to bear upon the
rebellious subject. If any greatarrangementon that principle has been made
by the Father, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of the Universe, that arrangement
meets with exactness the deepestwant of men. It is the highestpossible

dissuasive from the love of sin; it is the only possible deliverance from the
guilt of sin, in the sense, not of personalblameworthiness, but of obligation to
satisfy the violated law which says I ought.” And then he gives this striking
illustration of meeting the objectionthat Christ being innocent was punished.
He says, “There was a New England schoolmaster—Isaw his death mentioned
in the papers the other day—who made it a rule that if a pupil violated any
law of the schoolthe mastershould substitute his own voluntary sacrificial
chastisementfor that pupil’s punishment.” The pupils were quite willing, and
for that reasonthe measure was effective among them. “One day,” he said, “I
calledbefore me a pupil, nine or ten years of age, who had violated an
important regulationof the school. All the pupils were looking on, and they
knew what the rule of the schoolwas. I put the ruler into the hand of the
offending pupil, I extended my hand, I told him to strike. The instant the boy
saw my extended hand, and heard my command to strike, I saw the struggle
begin in his face. A new light sprang up in his countenance, a new nature
seemedto be rising within him. I kept my hand extended, and the schoolwas
in tears. The boy struck once, and he himself burst into tears. I constantly
watchedhis face, and it seemedin a bath of fire, giving him a new nature. The
boy seemedtransformed by the idea that I should take the chastisementin
place of his punishment. He went back to his seat, and ever after was one of
the most docile of all the pupils in the school, although at first he had been one
of the rudest.” Have we not here a glimpse of the principle on which the
atonement operates?In the example was the master punished? Strictly
speaking, no. Was he guilty? Certainly not. Was the personaldemerit of the
pupil transferred to the master? No. What was it that happened? He
voluntarily acceptedthe chastisementinsteadof the pupil’s punishment.
Punishment, strictly speaking, is inflicted for personalguilt. Chastisement
may be inflicted for the improvement of him who suffers it, or for the benefit
of those who witness it, but the latter does not imply guilt.1 [Note: BishopJ. J.
S. Perowne.]
Dr. Lowsonof Hull, who died in a London nursing home on 14th March 1906,
had had a distinguished career, and was one of the most skilful surgeons in the
country. Whilst in practice in Huddersfield he was called upon to perform the

operationof tracheotomyfor diphtheria. The tube suddenly became blocked,
and with no thought for himself Dr. Lowsonat once suckedthe wound and
rescuedthe patient from imminent death. Within a few days he was himself
strickenwith the disease, and, owing to serious complications which it left
behind, he was incapacitatedfrom work for a year. For his noble acthe
receivedthe Albert Medal. The illness which has resulted in his death
commencedthrough blood-poisoning causedthrough pricking his finger
whilst performing an operationfor appendicitis without fee.2 [Note:Daily
News, 16thMarch1906.]
3. It must not be in vain.—This demand is met by the prophet in a later verse
of this same chapter—“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be
satisfied.” Here it is enough to notice the fundamental factthat Christ died
once for all. The penalty, paid once, cannotbe exactedtwice. And so they who
die with Him are free from the fear of a seconddeath, or of any form of
punishment. Deathhath no longerany dominion over them. There is no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And, more than that, Christ,
being made a curse for us, has redeemedus from the curse of the Law, that
the righteousnessofthe Law might be fulfilled in us.
RecallJosephCook’sillustration. Suppose the boy had been calledup and
punished a secondtime, after the master had been chastised, wouldthat have
been right? The master acceptedthe chastisementvoluntarily, and now he
cannot callup that boy and punish him again. The schoolwould say it was
wrong. Why? What has the master done? He has paid the debt of the boy to
the school, andto the law which he broke, but the master is not to blame. In
this, which we can understand as a human transaction, we may perhaps catch
a glimpse of an infinitely greatertransaction, whichwe call the Atonement. In
the case ofthe scholarguilt meant two things. Where there is personal
blameworthiness, there is the obligation to do something to pay the debt due
to the schooland to the law. It is eternally true of the boy that the violation of
the law, his personal demerit, was not transferredto the master; only his

obligation to pay the debt is removed by the voluntary sacrifice ofthe master.
Now I understand when that is done by a voluntary act of the master, a
motive has been brought to bearon the boy which will transform him, if
anything can. Nothing cantake hold of human nature like such convincing
justice and love.1 [Note: BishopPerowne.]
I bore with thee long wearydays and nights,
Through many pangs of heart, through many tears;
I bore with thee, thy hardness, coldness, slights,
For three-and-thirty years.
Who else had dared for thee what I have dared?
I plunged the depth most deep from bliss above;
I not My flesh, I not My spirit spared:
Give thou Me love for love.
For thee I thirsted in the daily drouth,

For thee I trembled in the nightly frost:
Much sweeterthou than honey to My mouth:
Why wilt thou still be lost?
I bore thee on My shoulders and rejoiced:
Men only marked upon My shoulders borne
The branding cross;and shouted hungry-voiced,
Or waggedtheir heads in scorn.
Thee did nails grave upon My hands, thy name
Did thorns for frontlets stamp betweenMine eyes:
I, Holy One, put on thy guilt and shame;
I, God, Priest, Sacrifice.
A thief upon My right hand and My left;

Six hours alone, athirst, in misery:
At length in death one smote My heart and cleft
A hiding-place for thee.
Nailed to the racking cross, than bed of down
More dear, whereonto stretch Myselfand sleep:
So did I win a kingdom—Share My crown;
A harvest—Come and reap.2 [Note:Christina G. Rossetti.]
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Divine Atonement
Isaiah53:5
W.M. Statham

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.
We shall never understand the atonement. From Anselm's day to our own
there have been ever-changing theories of it. But the fact remains; and,
mysterious as it is, we learn that there was a Godward aspectofit, as well as a
manward aspect. But into "the cup which my Fatherhath given me to drink"
no man, no angel, can look.
I. THIS IS THE REVELATION OF DIVINE SACRIFICE. "He gave
himself." But he was more than wounded by the treatment of his character,
and by the contempt of his claims, and by the forsakings ofhis own disciples.
It is not enough to say that the pride of the Jew and the scornof the Greek
and the power of the Romancrucified him. He was "deliveredup for our
offences."So here "the chastisementof our peace was upon him; and with his
stripes we are healed."
II. THIS IS THE SUBJECT OF ETERNALSONG. Heavenrings with the
grateful acclaim, "Unto him that loved us, and washedus from our sins in his
own blood,... to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." And the
presence ofthe redeemedthere at all is distinctly statedto rest upon the
sacrifice ofChrist. Because "theyhave washedtheir robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb, therefore are they before the throne of God."
This, at all events, has been the Catholic teaching of Christendom in all ages;
and fill the hymnology of the Church in all its various branches. Roman and
Anglican, Lutheran and Puritan, have united in a common adorationof the
cross and passion, thus antedating the praises of eternity. - W.M.S.

Biblical Illustrator
But He was wounded for our transgressions.
Isaiah53:5
The sufferings of Christ
L. D. Bevan, D. D.
Three things suggestthemselves as requiring explanation to one who seriously
contemplates the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ.
1. An innocent man suffers.
2. The death of Jesus is the apparent defeat and destruction of one who
possessedextraordinary and supernatural powers.
3. This apparent defeatand ruin, insteadof hindering the progress ofHis
work, became at once, and in all the history of the progress ofHis doctrine has
been emphatically, the instrument whereby a world is conquered. The death
of Jesus has not been mourned by His followers, has never been concealed, but
rather exulted in and prominently setforth as that to which all men must
chiefly look if they would regard Christ and His mission right. The shame and
the failure issue in glory and completestsuccess. Whatis the philosophy of
this? Has any everbeen given which approaches the Divinely revealed
meaning supplied by our text? "He was wounded for our transgressions," etc.
We learn here —
I. THE SUFFERINGSOF JESUS CHRIST RESULTED FROM OUR SINS.
II. THE SUFFERINGSOF JESUS WHERE RELATED TO THE DIVINE
LAW.

III. THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS BECAME REMEDIALOF HUMAN
SINFULNESS.
(L. D. Bevan, D. D.)
A short catechism
J. Durham.
1. What is man's condition by nature?
(1)Under transgression.
(2)Under iniquities.
(3)At feud with God.
(4)Under wounds and most loathsome diseasesofa sinful nature.
2. How are folks freed from this sinful and miserable condition?
(1)In general, before the quarrel can be taken away, and their peace can. be
made, there must be a satisfaction.
(2)More particularly there must be a satisfaction, because there is the justice
of God that hath a claim by a standing law; the holiness of God, that must be
vindicated; the faith of God, that must cause to come to pass what it hath
pledged itself to, as well in reference to threatening as to promise.
3. Who maketh this satisfaction? The text says, "He" and "Him." The
Messiah.
4. How does He satisfy justice?
(1)He enters Himself in our room.
(2)Christ's performance and payment of the debt according to His
undertaking, implies a covenantand transactionon which the application is
founded.

(3)Our Lord Jesus, in fulfilling the bargain, and satisfying justice, paid a dear
price: He was wounded, bruised, suffered stripes and punishment.
5. What are the benefits that come by these sufferings?
(1)The benefits are such that if He had not suffered for us, we should have
suffered all that He suffered ourselves.
(2)More particularly we have peace and pardon. Healing.
6. To whom hath Christ procured all these goodthings?
(1)The elect;
(2)who are guilty of heinous sins.
7. How are these benefits derived from Christ to the sinner?
(1)Justly and in a legalway;
(2)freely.
(J. Durham.)
Sin
B. J. Gibbon.
Verses 5 and 6 are remarkable for the numerous and diversified references to
sin which they make. Within the short compass of two verses that sad fact is
referred to no less than six times, and on eachoccasiona different figure is
used to describe it. It is transgression— the crossing ofa boundary and
trespassing upon forbidden land. It is iniquity — the want of equity: the
absence ofjust dealing. It is the opposite of Peace — the root of discord and
enmity betweenus and God. It is a disease ofthe spirit — difficult to heal. It is
a foolish and wilful wandering, like that of a stray sheep. And it is a heavy
burden, which crushes him on whom it lies. So many and serious are the
aspects ofsin.
(B. J. Gibbon.)

D. Dickson, D.D.
I. ATTEND TO THE SUFFERINGSOF THE SON OF GOD, as described in
the text. The sufferings of the Saviour are describedin the Scriptures with
simplicity and grandeur combined. Nothing canadd to the solemnity and
force of the exhibition.
1. The prophet tells us that the Son of God was "wounded." The Hebrew
word here translated "wounded," signifies to run through with a sword or
some sharp weapon, and, as here used, seems to refer to those painful wounds
which our Lord receivedat the time of His crucifixion.
2. The prophet tells us that the Son of God was "bruised." This expression
seems to have a reference to the labours, afflictions, and sorrows which our
blessedLord sustained, especiallyin the last scenes ofHis life.
3. The prophet tells us that the Son of God bore chastisements andstripes.
II. CONSIDERTHE PROCURING CAUSE OF THE SUFFERINGSOF
THE SON OF GOD. "Our transgressions.""Ouriniquities."
III. ATTEND TO THE GRACIOUS DESIGN AND HAPPY EFFECTSOF
THE SUFFERINGSOF THE SON OF GOD. "The chastisementofour peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed."
1. One gracious designand blessedeffectof the sufferings of the Son of God
was to procure for us reconciliationwith God.
2. The renovating of our nature.
(D. Dickson, D.D.)
Substitution
C. Clemance, D. D.

There is no more remarkable language than this in the whole of the Word of
God. It is so cleara statement of the doctrine of the substitution of the
innocent for the guilty, that we do not hesitate to say, no words could teachit
if it be not taught here. We are distinctly told —
I. THAT THERE BELONGS TO US A SAD AND GRIEVOUS WEIGHT OF
SIN. There are three terms expressive of what belong to us: "our
transgressions,""ouriniquities," "gone astray." These three phrases have
indeed a common feature; they all indicate what is wrong — even sin, though
they representthe wrong in different aspects.
1. "Transgressions."The word thus translated indicates sin in one or other of
three forms — either that of missing the mark through aimlessness, or
carelessness, ora wrong aim; or of coming short, when, though the work may
be right in its direction, it does not come up to the standard; or of crossing a
boundary and going overto the wrong side of a line altogether. In all these
forms our sins have violated the holy law of God.
2. "Iniquities." This word also has reference to moral law as the standard of
duty. The Hebrew word is from a root which signifies "to bend," "to twist,"
and refers to the tortuous, crooked, winding ways of men when they conform
to no standard at all save that suggestedby their own fancies or conceits, and
so walk "according to the course of this world."
3. The third phrase has reference rather to the God of Law, than to the law of
God, and to Him in His relation to us of Lord, Leader, Shepherd, and Guide.
There is not only the infringement of the greatlaw of right, but also universal
neglectand abandonment of Divine leadership and love; and as the result of
this, grievous mischief is sure to follow. "Like the sheep," they find their way
out easilyenough; they go wandering over "the dark mountains," eachone to
"his own way," but of themselves they can never find the wayhome again.
And so far does this wandering propensity increase in force, that men come to
think there is no home for them; the loving concernof God for the wanderers
is disbelieved, and the Supreme Being is regardedin the light of a terrible
Judge eagerto inflict retribution. And all this is a pressure on God. He misses
the wanderers. And through the prophet, the Spirit of God would let men

know that the wanderings of earth are the care of Heaven. Nor let us fail to
note that in these verses there is an entirely different aspectof human nature
and actionfrom that presented in the verse preceding. There, the expressions
were "our griefs," "oursorrows." Here, they are "our transgressions," etc.
Griefs and sorrows are not in themselves violations of moral law, though they
may be the results of them, and though every violation of moral law may lead
to sorrow. Still they must not be confounded, though inseparably connected.
Grief may solicitpity: wrong incurs penalty. And the sin is ours. The evil is
wide as the race. Eachone's sin is a personalone: "Every one to his own
way." Sin is thus at once collective and individual. No one can charge the guilt
of his own sin on any one else. On whom or on what will he castthe blame?
On influences? But it was for him to resistand not to yield. On temptation?
But temptation cannotforce. In the judgment of God eachone's sin is his own.
II. THIS SERVANT OF GOD BEING LADEN WITH OUR SINS, SHARES
OUR HERITAGE OF WOE. How remarkable is the antithesis here —
Transgressions;iniquities; wanderings, are ours. Wounds; bruises;
chastisements;stripes, are His. There is also a word indicating the connection
betweenthe two sides of the antithesis, "wounded for our transgressions" —
on accountof them; but if this were all the explanation given, it might mean
no more than that the Messiahwouldfeel so grieved at them that they would
bruise or wound Him. But there is a far fuller and clearerexpression:"The
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." This expressionfixes the sense
in which the Messiahwas woundedand bruised on our account. In pondering
over this, let us work our way step by step.
1. The inflexibility of the moral law and the absolute righteousness andequity
of the Lawgiverin dealing with sin are thoughts underlying the whole of this
chapter. The most high God is indeed higher than law;and though He never
violates law, He may, out of the exuberance of His own love, do more than law
requires, and may even cease to make law the rule of His action. But even
when that is the ease, andHe acts χωρὶς νόμου ("apart from law," Romans
3:21), while He manifests the infinite freedom of a God to do whatsoeverhe
pleaseth, He will also show to the world that His law must be honoured in the
penalties inflicted for its violation. This is indicated in the words, "The Lord
hath laid on Him," etc. Nor ought any one for a moment to think of this as

"exaction." Exactnessis not exactingness;it would not be calledso, nor would
the expressionbe toleratedif applied to a judge who forbade the dishonouring
of a national law, or to a father who would not suffer the rules of his house to
be broken with impunity.
2. It is revealedto us that in the mission of this servant of Jehovah, the Most
High would acton the principle of substitution. When a devout Hebrew read
the words we are now expounding, the image of the scapegoatwouldat once
present itself to him.
3. The Messiahwas altogetherspotless;He fulfilled the ideal typified by the
precept that the sacrificiallamb was to be without blemish. Being the
absolutely sinless One, He was fitted to stand in a relation to sin and sinners
which no being who was tainted with sin could possibly have occupied.
4. The twofold nature of the Messiah — He being at once the Sonof Godand
Son of man, qualified Him to stand in a double relation; — as the Sonof God,
to be Heaven's representative on earth — as the Son of man, to be earth's
representative to Heaven. Thus, His offering of Himself was God's own
sacrifice (John3:16; 1 John 4:10; Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:19), and yet, in
another sense, it was man's own sacrifice (2 Corinthians 5:14, 21;Galatians
3:13).
5. By His incarnation, Christ came and stoodin such alliance with our race,
that what belongedto the race belongedto Him, as inserted into it, and
representative of it. We need not use any such expressionas this — "Christ
was punished for our sin." That would be wrong. But sin was condemned in
and through Christ, through His taking on Himself the liabilities of a world,
as their one representative Man who would stand in their stead;and by the
self-abandonment of an unparalleled love, would let the anguish of sin's
burden fall on His devoted head. Paul, in his Epistle to Philemon pleads for
Onesimus thus, "If he hath wrongedthee or oweth thee ought, put that to my
account." So the Son of God has acceptedour liabilities. Only thus can we
explain either the strong language of the prophecy, or the mysterious sorrow
of Christ depicted in the Gospelhistory. On whatever grounds sin's
punishment was necessaryhad there been no atonement, on precisely those

grounds was an atonement necessaryto free the sinner from deserved
punishment. This gracious work was in accordwith the appointment of the
Father and with the will of the Son.
6. Though the law is honoured in this substitution of another for us, yet the
substitution itself does not belong to law, but to love! Grace reigns;law is not
trifled with; it is not infringed on: nay, it is "established."
III. CHRIST HAVING ACCEPTED OUR HERITAGE OF WOE, WE
RECEIVE THROUGH HIM A HERITAGE OF PEACE.
(C. Clemance, D. D.)
Vicarious suffering
J. Stalker, D.D.
In a large family of evil-doers, where the father and mother are drunkards,
the sons jail-birds and the daughters steepedin shame, there may be one, a
daughter, pure, sensible, sensitive, living in the home of sin like a lily among
thorns. And she makes all the sin of the family her own. The others do not
mind it; the shame of their sin is nothing to them; it is the talk of the town, but
they do not care. Only in her heart their crimes and disgrace meetlike a sheaf
of spears, piercing and mangling. The one innocent member of the family
bears the guilt of all the rest. Even their cruelty to herself she hides, as if all
the shame of it were her own. Such a position did Christ hold in the human
family. He enteredit voluntarily, becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our
flesh; He identified Himself with it; He was the sensitive centre of the whole.
He gathered into His heart the shame and guilt of all the sin He saw. The
perpetrators did not feelit, but He felt it. It crushed Him; it broke His heart.
(J. Stalker, D.D.)
With His stripes we are healed
The disease ofsin

I. IT IS A WASTING DISEASE;it bringeth the soul into a languishing
condition, and wasteththe strength of it (Romans 5:6). Sin hath weakenedthe
soul in all the faculties of it, which all may discern and observe in themselves.
II. IT IS A PAINFUL DISEASE, it woundeth the spirit (Proverbs 18:14).
Greatness ofmind may support us under a wounded body, but when there is a
breach made upon the conscience,whatcan relieve us then? But you will say,
They that are most infected with sin feel little of this; how is it then so painful
a disease?
1. If they feelit not, the greateris their danger; for stupid diseasesare the
worst, and usually most mortal.
2. The soul of a sinner never sits so easybut that he has his qualms and pangs
of conscience, andthat sometimes in the midst of jollity; as was the case of
Belshazzar, while carousing in the cups of the temple.
3. Though they feelnot the diseases now, they shall hereafter.
III. IT IS A LOATHSOME DISEASE.
IV. IT IS AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE. Sincometh into the world by
propagationrather than imitation: yet imitation and example hath a great
force upon the soul.
V. IT IS A MORTALDISEASE, if we continue in it without repentance.
( T. Manton, D.D.)
Recoveryby Christ's stripes
1. None but Christ can cure us, for He is the Physician of souls.
2. Christ cureth us not by doctrine and example only, but by merit and
suffering. We are healed by "His stripes."
3. Christ's merit and sufferings do effectour cure, as they purchased the
Spirit for us, who renewethand healeth our sick souls (Titus 3:5, 6).

( T. Manton, D.D.)
Healed by Christ's stripes
J. Benson, D.D.
"With His stripes we are healed." We are healed — of our inattention and
unconcern about Divine things. Of our ignorance and unbelief respecting
these things. Of the disease ofself-righteousnessand self-confidence. Ofour
love to sin, and commissionof it. Of our love to the riches, honours and
pleasures of this world. Of our self-indulgence and self-seeking.Ofour
lukewarmness and sloth. Of our cowardice and fear of suffering (1 Peter4:1).
Of our diffidence and distrust, with respectto the mercy of God, and His
pardoning and accepting the penitent. Of an accusing conscience, andslavish
fear of God, and of death and hell. Of our generaldepravity and corruption of
nature. Of our weaknessand inability; His sufferings having purchasedfor us
"the Spirit of might." Of our distresses andmisery, both present and future.
(J. Benson, D.D.)
His stripes
B. J. Gibbon.
This chapter is not mainly an indictment. It is a Gospel. It declares in glad
while solemn language that, terrible as sin is, it has been dealt with. The
prophet dwells purposely upon the varied manifestations of the evil in order
to emphasize the varied forms and absolute completeness ofits conquest. He
prolongs the agonythat he may prolong the rapture.
I. OUR NEED OF HEALING. There is no figure which more aptly represents
the serious nature and terrible consequencesofsin than this one of bodily
sickness. We know how it prostrates us, takes the brightness out of life, and,
unless attended to, cuts life short. Sicknessin its acutestform is a type in the
body of sin in the soul. Sin is a mortal disease ofthe spirit. A common

Scriptural emblem for it, found in both Old and New Testaments, is leprosy
— the most frightful disease imaginable, loathsome to the observerand
intolerably painful to the sufferer, attacking successivelyand rotting every
limb of the body, and issuing slowly but certainly in death.
1. It is complicated. It affects every part of the moral being. It is blindness to
holiness, and deafness to the appeals of God. There is a malady known as
ossificationofthe heart, by which the living and beating heart is slowly turned
to a substance like bone. It is a type of the complaint of the sinner. His heart is
hard and impenitent. He suffers, too, from the fever of unhallowed desire. The
lethargy of spiritual indifference is one of his symptoms; a depraved appetite,
by which he tries to feed his immortal soul on husks, is another; while his
whole condition is one of extreme debility — absence of strength to do right.
In another part .of the book our prophet diagnoses more thoroughly the
disease ofwhich he here speaks (Isaiah1:5, 6). No hospital contains a
spectacle so sickening and saddening as the unregenerate human heart.
2. The disease is universal. "There is none righteous; no, not one." What the
Bible declares, experience confirms. The ancient world, speaking through a
noble literature that has come down to us, confessesmany times the condition
expressedby Ovid, "I see and approve the better things, while I follow those
which are worse." Christendomfinds its mouthpiece in the apostle Paul, who,
speaking ofhimself apart from the help of Christ, mournfully says, "When I
would do good, evil is present with me." And modern culture reveals its
deepestconsciousness in the words of Lowell, the ambassador-poet, "In my
own heart I find the worst man's mate." It is a feature of the malady that the
patient is often insensible to it. But from every lip there is at leastoccasional
confessionofsome of its symptoms. There is discomfort in the conscience;
there is dissatisfactionatthe heart; and there is dread in the face of death and
the unknown beyond. The Scriptures are the Rontgenrays of God, and their
searching light reveals behind an uneasy conscience, behind a dissatisfied
heart, behind the fear of death, behind all the sorrows andevils of life, that
which is their rimary cause — the malady of sin.
3. This disease is incurable — that is, apart from the healing describedin the
text. "The end of these things is death" — spiritual death; insensibility to

God, and absence of the life of fellowshipwith Him which is life indeed —
physical death, in so far as that natural process is more than mere bodily
dissolution, and is a fearful and hopeless leapinto the dark; for "the sting of
death is sin" — and eternal death. Men are greatat quack remedies, and the
world is equally flooded with nostrums for the disease ofsin. And what is the
result of these loudly-hawked specifics?Theyare as useless as the charms
which our grandmothers used to scare awaydiseases.The Physicianis He who
gave His back to the smiters; the balm is the blood which flowedfrom "His
stripes."
II. OUR MEANS OF HEALING. "With His stripes." "Stripes" does not
mean the lashes that fell on His back, but the weals whichthey left. We
remember how He "sufferedunder Pontius Pilate" before He "was crucified,
dead and buried." His back was bared, His hands were tied to a low post, and
a coarse,muscular giant flourished a whip above Him. It was a diabolical
instrument, that Roman whip — made of leather with many thongs, and in
the end of eachof them a piece of iron, or bone, or stone. Every stroke fetched
blood and ripped open the quivering flesh. The Jewishlaw forbade more than
forty stripes being given, but Christ was scourgedby Romans, who recognized
no such merciful limit. But as we know that Pilate intended the scourging to
be a substitute for crucifixion, and hoped that its severity would so melt the
Jews to pity that they would not press for the worse punishment — which end,
however, was not reached — we may infer that He was scourgeduntil He
could bear no more, until He could not stand, until He fell mangled and
fainting at His torturer's feet. Nearlytwo thousand years have passedsince
that awful affliction, but its significance is eternal. But how can the sufferings
of one alleviate the sufferings of another?
1. Becausethe sight of them moves us to sorrow. There are certain maladies of
the mind and heart for which there is hope if the emotions can be stirred and
the patient made to laugh or cry. There is hope for the sinner when the
thought of his sin melts his heart to sorrow and his eyes to tears. Sorrow for
sin — repentance of wrong-doing — is the first stage in recovery. And there is
nothing that will cause penitence like a sight of the Saviour's wounds.

2. The sight of them relieves our consciences.Foras we look at those livid
weals we know He did not deserve them. We know that we did merit
punishment direr far. And we know that He endured them, and more
mysterious agonies ofwhich they were the outward sign, in our stead. Then,
gradually, we draw the inference. If He suffered for us, we are free. If our
load was laid on Him, it is no longer upon us. Conscienceaccepts thatlogic.
3. The sight of them prevents further outbreaks. This cure is radical. It not
only heals, it also strengthens. It gradually raises the systemabove its
tendency to sin. Forthe more we gaze upon those livid stripes, the more
intolerable and hateful sin, which causedthem, appears, and the more
difficult it becomes for us to indulge in it. Our medicine is also a strong tonic,
which invigorates the spiritual nature and fortifies its weaknesses.Stanley, in
one of his books on African travel, tells of the crime of Uledi, his native
coxswain, and what came of it. Ulodi was deservedly popular for his ability
and courage, but having robbed his master, a jury of his fellows condemned
him to receive "a terrible flogging." Thenuprose his brother, Shumari, who
said, "Uledi has done very wrong;but no one can accuse me of wrong-doing.
Now, mates, let me take half the whipping. I will cheerfully endure it for the
sake ofmy brother." Scarcelyhad he finished when another arose, and said,
"Uledi has been the father of the boat boys. He has many times risked his life
to save others; and he is my cousin;and yet he ought to be punished. Shumari
says he will take half the punishment; and now let me take the other half, and
let Uledi go free." Surely the heart of the guilty man must have been touched,
and the willing submission by others to the punishment he had merited must
have restrained him from further outbreaks as the strict infliction of the
original penalty never could. By those stripes he would be healed. Even so, the
stripes of our Lord deliver us from the very tendency to sin. For the disease to
be healed the medicine must be taken. Our very words "recipe" and "receipt"
remind, us of this. They are related, and signify "to take." The selfsame word
describes the means of cure, and commands that it be used. Look upon His
wounds! And let those of us who have lookedfor our cure, still look for our
strengthening. We should not have so many touches of the old complaint if we
thought oftener of the stripes by which we are healed. Look all through life,
and you will grow strongerand holier.

(B. J. Gibbon.)
The universal remedy
Not merely His bleeding wounds, but even those blue bruises of His flesh help
to heal us. There are none quite free from spiritual diseases.One may be
saying, "Mine is a weak faith;" another may confess, "Mine is distracted
thoughts;" another may exclaim, "Mine is coldness oflove;" and a fourth may
have to lament his powerlessnessin prayer. One remedy in natural things will
not suffice for all diseases;but there is a catholicon, a universal remedy,
provided in the Word of God for all spiritual sicknesses,and that is contained
in the few words — "With His stripes we are healed."
I. THE MEDICINE ITSELF WHICH IS HERE PRESCRIBED — the stripes
of Our Saviour. By the term "stripes," no doubt the prophet understood here,
first, literally, those stripes which fell upon our Lord's shoulders when He was
beaten of the Jews, and afterwards scourgedofthe Romansoldiery. But the
words intend far more than this. No doubt with his prophetic eye Isaiah saw
the stripes from that unseen scourge held in the Father's hand which fell upon
his nobler inner nature when His soul was scourgedforsin. It is by these that
our souls are healed. "But why?" First, then, because ourLord, as a sufferer,
was not a private person, but suffered as a public individual and an appointed
representative. Our Lord was not merely man, or else his sufferings could not
have availed for the multitude who now are healedthereby. He was God as
well as man. Our Saviour's sufferings heal us of the curse by being presented
before God as a substitute for what we owe to His Divine law. But healing is a
work that is carried on within, and the text rather leads me to speak ofthe
effectof the stripes of Christ upon our characters and natures than upon the
result prodeced in our position before God.
II. THE MATCHLESS CURES WROUGHT BY THIS REMARKABLE
MEDICINE. Look attwo pictures. Look at man without the strickenSaviour;
and then behold man with the Saviour, healed by His stripes.
III. THE MALADIES WHICH THIS WONDROUS MEDICINEREMOVES.

1. The mania of despair.
2. The stony heart.
3. The paralysis of doubt.
4. A stiffness of the knee-jointof prayer.
5. Numbness of soul.
6. The fever of pride.
7. The leprosy of selfishness.
8. Anger.
9. The fretting consumption of worldliness.
10. The cancerof covetousness.
IV. THE CURATIVE PROPERTIES OF THE MEDICINE.
1. It arrests spiritual disorder.
2. It quickens all the powers of the spiritual man to resistthe disease.
3. It restores to the man that which he lost in strength by sin.
4. It soothes the agony of conviction.
5. It has an eradicating poweras to sin.
V. THE MODES OF THE WORKING OF THIS MEDICINE. The sinner
hearing of the death of the incarnate God is led by the force of truth and the
powerof the Holy Spirit to believe in the incarnate God. The cure is already
begun. After faith come gratitude, love, obedience.
VI. ITS REMARKABLY EASY APPLICATION.
VII. Since the medicine is so efficacious,since it is already prepared and freely
presented, I do beseechyou TAKE IT. Take it, you who have known its power
in years gone by. Let not backslidings continue, but come to His stripes afresh.
Take it, ye doubters, lest ye sink into despair; come to His stripes anew. Take

it, ye who are beginning to be self-confidentand proud. And, O ye who have
never believed in Him, come and trust in Him, and you shall live.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
A simple remedy
I. THESE ARE SAD WORDS. Theyare part of a mournful piece of music,
which might be called"the requiem of the Messiah."
1. These are sadwords because they imply disease.
2. There is a secondsorrow in the verse, and that is sorrow for the suffering
by which we are healed. There was a cruel process in the English navy, in
which-men were made to run the gauntlet all along the ship, with sailors on
eachside, eachman being bound to give a stroke to the poor victim as he ran
along. Our Saviour's life was a running of the gauntlet betweenHis enemies
and His friends, who all struck Him, one here and anotherthere. Satan, too,
struck at him.
II. THESE ARE GLAD WORDS.
1. Becausethey speak ofhealing.
2. There is another joy in the text — joy in the honour which it brings to
Christ.
III. THESE ARE SUGGESTIVE WORDS. Whenevera man is healed
through the stripes of Jesus, the instincts of his nature should make him say,
"I will spend the strength I have, as a healedman, for Him who healed me."
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christopathy
I. GOD HERE TREATS SIN AS A DISEASE. Sin is a disease —

1. Becauseit is not an essentialpart of man as he was created. It is something
abnormal.
2. Becauseit puts all the faculties out of gear.
3. Becauseit weakensthe moral energy, just as many diseases weakenthe sick
person's body.
4. Becauseit either causes greatpain, or deadens all sensibility, as the case
may be.
5. Becauseit frequently produces a manifest pollution.
6. Becauseit tends to increase in the man, and will one day prove fatal to him.
II. GOD HERE DECLARES THE REMEDYWHICH HE HAS PROVIDED.
1. Beholdthe heavenly medicine.
2. Rememberthat the sufferings of Christ were vicarious.
2. Acceptthis atonement and you are savedby it.
4. Let nothing of your own interfere with the Divine remedy. Prayer does not
heal, but it asks for the remedy. It is not trust that heals;that is man s
application of the remedy. Repentance is not what cures, it is a part of the
cure, one of the first tokens that the blessedmedicine has begun to work in the
soul. The healing of a sinner does not lie in himself, nor in what he is, nor in
what he feels, nor in what he does, nor in what he vows, nor in what he
promises. It is in His stripes that the healing lies.
III. THE REMEDYIS IMMEDIATELY EFFECTIVE. How are we healed?
1. Our conscience is healedof every smart.
2. Our heart is healedof its love of sin.
3. Our life is healed of its rebellion.
4. Our consciousness assuresus that we are healed. If you are healedby His
stripes you should go and live like healthy men.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Healed by Christ's stripes
Mr. Mackay, ofHull, told of a personwho was under very deep concernof
soul. Taking the Bible into his hand, he saidto himself, "Eternallife is to be
found somewhere in this Word of God; and, if it be here, I will find it, for I
will read the Book right through, praying to God over every page of it, if
perchance it may containsome saving messagefor me." The earnestseeker
read on through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and so on; and though Christ is
there very evidently, he could not find Him in the types and symbols. Neither
did the holy histories yield him comfort, nor the Book ofJob. He passed
through the Psalms, but did not find his Saviour there; and the same was the
case with the other books till he reachedIsaiah. In this prophet he read on till
near the end, and then in the fifty-third chapter, these words arrestedhis
delighted attention, "With His stripes we are healed." Now I have found it,
says he. Here is the healing that I need for my sin-sick soul, and I see how it
comes to me through the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessedbe His
name, I am healed!"
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Self-sufficiencyprevents healing
I saw a pedlar one day, as I was walking out; he was selling walkingsticks. He
followedme, and offered me one of the sticks. I showedhim mine — a far
better one than any he had to sell — and he withdrew at once. He could see
that I was not likely to be a purchaser. I have often thought of that when I
have been preaching: I show men the righteousness ofthe Lord Jesus, but
they show me their own, and all hope of dealing with them is gone. Unless I
can prove that their righteousness is worthless, they will not seek the
righteousness whichis of God by faith. Oh, that the Lord would show you
your disease, andthen you would desire the remedy!

( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sin deadens sensibility
It frequently happens that, the more sinful a man is, the less he is conscious of
it. It was remarkedof a certain notorious criminal that many thought him
innocent because, whenhe was chargedwith murder, he did not betray the
leastemotion. In that wretchedself-possessionthere was to my mind
presumptive proof of his greatfamiliarity with trims; if an innocent person is
chargedwith a greatoffence, the mere charge horrifies him.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
The chastisementofour peace "The chastisementby which our peace is
effected" - Twenty-one MSS. and six editions have the word fully and
regularly expressed, ‫ונימלש‬ shelomeynu ; pacificationum nostrarum, "our
pacification;" that by which we are brought into a state of peace and favor
with God. Ar. Montan.
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
But he was wounded - Margin, ‹Tormented.‘ Jerome and the Septuagintalso
render this, ‹He was wounded.‘ Junius and Tremellius, ‹He was affectedwith
grief.‘ The Chaldee has given a singular paraphrase of it, showing how
confusedwas the view of the whole passagein the mind of that interpreter.
‹And he shall build the house of the sanctuary which was defiled on accountof
our sins, and which was delivered on accountof our iniquities. And in his

doctrine, peace shallbe multiplied to us. And when we obey his words, our
sins shall be remitted to us.‘ The Syriac renders it in a remarkable manner,
‹He is slain on accountof our sins,‘ thus showing that it was a common belief
that the Messiahwould be violently put to death. The word rendered
‹wounded‘ (‫מללל‬ mecholâl ), is a Pual participle, from ‫ללל‬ châlalto bore
through, to perforate, to pierce; hence, to wound 1 Samuel31:3; 1 Chronicles
10:3; Ezekiel28:9. There is probably the idea of painful piercing, and it refers
to some infliction of positive wounds on the body, and not to mere mental
sorrows, orto generalhumiliation. The obvious idea would be that there
would be some actof piercing, some penetrating wound that would endanger
or take life. Applied to the actual sufferings of the Messiah, it refers
undoubtedly to the piercing of his hands, his feet, and his side. The word
‹tormented,‘ in the margin, was added by our translators because the Hebrew
word might be regardedas derived from ‫לול‬ chûl to writhe, to be tormented,
to be pained - a word not unfrequently applied to the pains of parturition. But
it is probable that it is rather to be regardedas derived from ‫ללל‬ châlal “to
pierce, or to wound.”
For our transgressions -The prophet here places himself among the people
for whom the Messiahsuffered these things, and says that he was not
suffering for his own sins, but on accountof theirs. The preposition ‹for‘ (‫ממ‬
min ) here answers to the Greek διά dia on accountof, and denotes the cause
for which he suffered and means, even according to Gesenius (Lex.), here, ‹the
ground or motive on accountof, or because ofwhich anything is done.‘
Compare Deuteronomy 7:7; Judges 5:11; Esther5:9; Psalm68:30; Romans
4:25: ‹Who was delivered for ( διά dia ) our offences.‘Compare 2 Corinthians
5:21; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 2:24. Here the sense is, that the reasonwhy he
thus suffered was, that we were transgressors.All along the prophet keeps up
the idea that it was not on accountof any sin of which he was guilty that he
thus suffered, but it was for the sins of others - an idea which is everywhere
exhibited in the New Testament.
He was bruised - The word used here (‫אכד‬ dâkâ') means properly to be
broken to pieces, to be bruised, to be crushed Job6:9; Psalm 72:4. Applied to
mind, it means to break down or crush by calamities and trials; and by the
use of the word here, no doubt, the most severe inward and outward

sufferings are designated. The Septuagint renders it, Μεμαλάκιστα
Memalakista -‹He was rendered languid,‘ or feeble. The same idea occurs in
the Syriac translation. The meaning is, that he was under such a weightof
sorrows onaccountof our sins, that he was, as it were, crushedto the earth.
How true this was of the Lord Jesus it is not necessaryhere to pause to show.
The chastisementofour peace - That is, the chastisementby which our peace
is effectedor securedwas laid upon him; or, he took it upon himself,‘ and
bore it, in order that we might have peace. Eachwordhere is exceedingly
important, in order to a proper estimate of the nature of the work performed
by the Redeemer. The word ‹chastisement‘(‫מסוּמ‬ mûsâr ), properly denotes
the correction, chastisement, orpunishment inflicted by parents on their
children, designedto amend their faults Proverbs 22:15; Proverbs 23:13. It is
applied also to the discipline and authority of kings Job 22:18; and to the
discipline or correctionof GodJob 5:17; Hosea 5:2. Sometimes it means
admonition or instruction, such as parents give to children, or God to human
beings. It is well rendered by the Septuagintby Παιδεία Paideia by Jerome,
Disciplina. The word does not of necessitydenote punishment, though it is
often used in that sense.
It is properly that which corrects, whetherit be by admonition, counsel,
punishment, or suffering. Here it cannot properly mean punishment - for
there is no punishment where there is no guilt, and the Redeemerhad done no
sin; but it means that he took upon himself the sufferings which would secure
the peace ofthose for whom he died - those which, if they could have been
endured by themselves, would have effectedtheir peace with God. The word
peace means evidently their peace with God; reconciliationwith their Creator.
The work of religion in the soul is often representedas peace;and the
Redeemeris spokenof as the great agentby whom that is secured. ‹Forhe is
our peace‘(Ephesians 2:14-15, Ephesians2:17;compare Acts 10:36; Romans
5:1; Romans 10:15). The phrase ‹upon him,‘ means that the burden by which
the peace ofpeople was effectedwas laid upon him, and that he bore it. It is
parallel with the expressions which speak ofhis bearing it, carrying it, etc.
And the sense of the whole is, that he endured the sorrows, whatever they
were, which were needful to secure our peace with God.

And with his stripes - Margin, ‹Bruise.‘ The word used here in Hebrew (‫לרומח‬
chabbûrâh ) means properly stripe, weal, bruise, that is, the mark or print of
blows on the skin. Greek Μώλωπι Mōlōpi Vulgate, Livore. On the meaning of
the Hebrew word, see the notes at Isaiah1:6. It occurs in the following places,
and is translatedby stripe, and stripes (Exodus 21:25, bis); bruises Isaiah1:6;
hurt Genesis 4:23;blueness Proverbs 20:30; wounds Psalm38:5; and spots, as
of a leopard Jeremiah13:23. The proper idea is the wealor wound made by
bruising; the mark designatedby us when we speak of its being ‹black and
blue.‘ It is not a flesh wound; it does not draw blood; but the blood and other
humors are collectedunder the skin. The obvious and natural idea conveyed
by the word here is, that the individual referred to would be subjectedto some
treatment that would cause sucha wealor stripe; that is, that he would be
beaten, or scourged. How literally this was applicable to the Lord Jesus, it is
unnecessaryto attempt to prove (see Matthew 27:26). It may be remarked
here, that this could not be mere conjecture How could Isaiah, sevenhundred
years before it occurred, conjecture that the Messiahwouldbe scourgedand
bruised? It is this particularity of prediction, compared with the literal
fulfillment, which furnishes the fullest demonstration that the prophet was
inspired. In the prediction nothing is vague and general. All is particular and
minute, as if he saw what was done, and the description is as minutely
accurate as if he was describing what was actually occurring before his eyes.
We are healed - literally, it is healed to us; or healing has happened to us. The
healing here referred to, is spiritual healing, or healing from sin. Pardonof
sin, and restorationto the favor of God, are not unfrequently representedas
an act of healing. The figure is derived from the fact that awakenedand
convictedsinners are often representedas crushed, broken, bruised by the
weight of their transgressions, andthe removal of the load of sin is repesented
as an actof healing. ‹I said, O Lord, be merciful unto me; heal my soul, for I
have sinned againtthee‘ Psalm 41:4. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am
weak;O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed‘ Psalm6:2. ‹Who forgiveth all
thine, iniquities; who healeth all thy diseasesPsalm103:3. The idea here is,
that the Messiahwould be scourged;and that it would be by that scourging
that health would be imparted to our souls.

It would be in our place, and in our stead; and it would be designed to have
the same effectin recovering us, as though it had been inflicted on ourselves.
And will it not do it? Is it not a fact that it has such an effect? Is not a man as
likely to be recoveredfrom a course of sin and folly, who sees anothersuffer
in his place what he ought himself to suffer, as though he was punished
himself? Is not a waywardand dissipated sonquite as likely to be recoveredto
a course of virtue by seeing the sufferings which his careerof vice causes to a
father, a mother, or a sister, as though he himself When subjected to severe
punishment? When such a son sees thathe is bringing down the gray hairs of
his father with sorrow to the grave; when he sees that he is breaking the heart
of the mother that bore him; when he sees a sisterbathed in tears, or in
danger of being reduced to poverty or shame by his course, it will be far more
likely to reclaim him than would be personalsuffering, or the prospectof
poverty, want, and an early death. And it is on this principle that the plan of
salvationis founded. We shall be more certainly reclaimed by the voluntary
sufferings of the innocent in our behalf, than we should be by being personally
punished. Punishment would make no atonement, and would bring back no
sinner to God. But the suffering of the Redeemerin behalf of mankind is
adapted to save the world, and will in fact arrest, reclaim, and redeemall who
shall ever enter into heaven.
(Sin is not only a crime for which we were condemned to die, and which
Christ purchasedfor us the pardon of, but it is a disease whichtends directly
to the death of our souls, and which Christ provided for the cure of. By his
stripes, that is, the sufferings he underwent, he purchased for us the Spirit
and grace ofGod, to mortify our corruptions, which are the distempers of our
souls;and to put our souls in a goodstate of health, that they may be fit to
serve God, and prepare to enjoy him. And by the doctrine of Christ‘s cross,
and the powerful arguments it furnisheth us with againstsin, the dominion of
sin is brokenin us, anal we are fortified againstthat which feeds the disease -
Henry.)
The Biblical Illustrator

Isaiah53:5
But He was wounded for our transgressions
Three things suggestthemselves as requiring explanation to one who seriously
contemplates the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ.
1. An innocent man suffers.
2. The death of Jesus is the apparent defeat and destruction of one who
possessedextraordinary and supernatural powers.
3. This apparent defeatand ruin, insteadof hindering the progress ofHis
work, became at once, and in all the history of the progress ofHis doctrine has
been emphatically, the instrument whereby a world is conquered. The death
of Jesus has not been mourned by His followers, has never been concealed, but
rather exulted in and prominently setforth as that to which all men must
chiefly look if they would regard Christ and His mission right. The shame and
the failure issue in glory and completestsuccess. Whatis the philosophy of
this? Has any everbeen given which approaches the Divinely revealed
meaning supplied by our text? “He was wounded for our transgressions,” etc.
We learn here--
I. THE SUFFERINGSOF JESUS CHRIST RESULTED FROM OUR SINS.
II. THE SUFFERINGSOF JESUS WHERE RELATED TO THE DIVINE
LAW.
III. THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS BECAME REMEDIALOF HUMAN
SINFULNESS. (L. D.Bevan, D. D.)
A short catechism

1. What is man’s condition by nature?
2. How are folks freed from this sinful and miserable condition?
3. Who maketh this satisfaction? The text says, “He” and “Him.” The
Messiah.
4. How does He satisfy justice?
5. What are the benefits that come by these sufferings?
6. To whom hath Christ procured all these goodthings?
7. How are these benefits derived from Christ to the sinner?
Sin
Verses 5 and 6 are remarkable for the numerous and diversified references to
sin which they make. Within the short compass of two verses that sad fact is
referred to no less than six times, and on eachoccasiona different figure is
used to describe it. It is transgression--the crossing ofa boundary and
trespassing upon forbidden land. It is iniquity--the want of equity: the absence
of just dealing. It is the opposite of Peace--the rootof discord and enmity
betweenus and God. It is a disease ofthe spirit--difficult to heal. It is a foolish
and wilful wandering, like that of a stray sheep. And it is a heavy burden,
which crushes him on whom it lies. So many and serious are the aspects ofsin.
(B. J. Gibbon.)
I. ATTEND TO THE SUFFERINGSOF THE SON OF GOD, as described in
the text. The sufferings of the Saviour are describedin the Scriptures with
simplicity and grandeur combined. Nothing canadd to the solemnity and
force of the exhibition.
1. The prophet tells us that the Son of God was “wounded.” The Hebrew word
here translated “wounded,” signifies to run through with a sword or some

sharp weapon, and, as here used, seems to refer to those painful wounds
which our Lord receivedat the time of His crucifixion.
2. The prophet tells us that the Son of God was “bruised.” This expression
seems to have a reference to the labours, afflictions, and sorrows which our
blessedLord sustained, especiallyin the last scenes ofHis life.
3. The prophet tells us that the Son of God bore chastisements andstripes.
II. CONSIDERTHE PROCURING CAUSE OF THE SUFFERINGSOF
THE SON OF GOD. “Our transgressions.”“Ouriniquities.”
III. ATTEND TO THE GRACIOUS DESIGN AND HAPPY EFFECTSOF
THE SUFFERINGSOF THE SON OF GOD. “The chastisementof our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.”
1. One gracious designand blessedeffectof the sufferings of the Son of God
was to procure for us reconciliationwith God.
2. The renovating of our nature. (D. Dickson, D.D.)
Substitution
There is no more remarkable language than this in the whole of the Word of
God. It is so cleara statement of the doctrine of the substitution of the
innocent for the guilty, that we do not hesitate to say, no words could teachit
if it be not taught here. We are distinctly told--
I. THAT THERE BELONGS TO US A SAD AND GRIEVOUS WEIGHT OF
SIN. There are three terms expressive of what belong to us: “our
transgressions,”“ouriniquities,” “gone astray.” These three phrases have
indeed a common feature; they all indicate what is wrong--evensin, though
they representthe wrong in different aspects.

1. “Transgressions.”The word thus translated indicates sin in one or other of
three forms--either that of missing the mark through aimlessness,or
carelessness, ora wrong aim; or of coming short, when, though the work may
be right in its direction, it does not come up to the standard; or of crossing a
boundary and going overto the wrong side of a line altogether. In all these
forms our sins have violated the holy law of God.
2. “Iniquities.” This word also has reference to moral law as the standard of
duty. The Hebrew word is from a root which signifies “to bend,” “to twist,”
and refers to the tortuous, crooked, winding ways of men when they conform
to no standard at all save that suggestedby their own fancies or conceits, and
so walk “according to the course of this world.”
3. The third phrase has reference rather to the God of Law, than to the law of
God, and to Him in His relation to us of Lord, Leader, Shepherd, and Guide.
There is not only the infringement of the greatlaw of right, but also universal
neglectand abandonment of Divine leadership and love; and as the result of
this, grievous mischief is sure to follow. “Like the sheep,” they find their way
out easilyenough; they go wandering over “the dark mountains,” eachone to
“his own way,” but of themselves they can never find the way home again.
And so far does this wandering propensity increase in force, that men come to
think there is no home for them; the loving concernof God for the wanderers
is disbelieved, and the Supreme Being is regardedin the light of a terrible
Judge eagerto inflict retribution. And all this is a pressure on God. He misses
the wanderers. And through the prophet, the Spirit of God would let men
know that the wanderings of earth are the care of Heaven. Nor let us fail to
note that in these verses there is an entirely different aspectof human nature
and actionfrom that presented in the verse preceding. There, the expressions
were “our griefs,” “oursorrows.” Here, they are “our transgressions,” etc.
Griefs and sorrows are not in themselves violations of moral law, though they
may be the results of them, and though every violation of moral law may lead
to sorrow. Still they must not be confounded, though inseparably connected.
Grief may solicit pity: wrong incurs penalty. And the sin is ours. The evil is
wide as the race. Eachone’s sin is a personal one:“Every one to his own
way.” Sin is thus at once collective and individual. No one can charge the guilt
of his own sin on any one else. On whom or on what will he castthe blame?

On influences? But it was for him to resistand not to yield. On temptation?
But temptation cannotforce. In the judgment of God eachone’s sin is his own.
II. THIS SERVANT OF GOD BEING LADEN WITH OUR SINS, SHARES
OUR HERITAGE OF WOE. How remarkable is the antithesis here--
Transgressions;iniquities; wanderings, are ours. Wounds; bruises;
chastisements;stripes, are His. There is also a word indicating the connection
betweenthe two sides of the antithesis, “wounded for our transgressions”--on
accountof them; but if this were all the explanation given, it might mean no
more than that the Messiahwouldfeel so grieved at them that they would
bruise or wound Him. But there is a far fuller and clearerexpression:“The
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” This expressionfixes the sense in
which the Messiahwas woundedand bruised on our account. In pondering
over this, let us work our way step by step.
1. The inflexibility of the moral law and the absolute righteousness andequity
of the Lawgiverin dealing with sin are thoughts underlying the whole of this
chapter. The most high God is indeed higher than law;and though He never
violates law, He may, out of the exuberance of His own love, do more than law
requires, and may even cease to make law the rule of His action. But even
when that is the ease, andHe acts χωρὶς νόμου … (“apart from law,” Romans
3:21), while He manifests the infinite freedom of a God to do whatsoeverhe
pleaseth, He will also show to the world that His law must be honoured in the
penalties inflicted for its violation. This is indicated in the words, “The Lord
hath laid on Him,” etc. Nor ought any one for a moment to think of this as
“exaction.” Exactnessis not exactingness;it would not be calledso, nor would
the expressionbe toleratedif applied to a judge who forbade the dishonouring
of a national law, or to a father who would not suffer the rules of his house to
be broken with impunity.
2. It is revealedto us that in the mission of this servant of Jehovah, the Most
High would acton the principle of substitution. When a devout Hebrew read
the words we are now expounding, the image of the scapegoatwouldat once
present itself to him.

3. The Messiahwas altogetherspotless;He fulfilled the ideal typified by the
precept that the sacrificiallamb was to be without blemish. Being the
absolutely sinless One, He was fitted to stand in a relation to sin and sinners
which no being who was tainted with sin could possibly have occupied.
4. The twofold nature of the Messiah--He being at once the Son of God and
Son of man, qualified Him to stand in a double relation;--as the Son of God, to
be Heaven’s representative on earth--as the Sonof man, to be earth’s
representative to Heaven. Thus, His offering of Himself was God’s own
sacrifice (John3:16; 1 John 4:10; Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:19), and yet, in
another sense, it was man’s own sacrifice (2 Corinthians 5:14; 2 Corinthians
5:21; Galatians 3:13).
5. By His incarnation, Christ came and stoodin such alliance with our race,
that what belongedto the race belongedto Him, as inserted into it, and
representative of it. We need not use any such expressionas this--“Christ was
punished for our sin.” That would be wrong. But sin was condemned in and
through Christ, through His taking on Himself the liabilities of a world, as
their one representative Manwho would stand in their stead; and by the self-
abandonment of an unparalleled love, would let the anguishof sin’s burden
fall on His devoted head. Paul, in his Epistle to Philemon pleads for Onesimus
thus, “If he hath wronged thee or oweththee ought, put that to my account.”
So the Son of God has acceptedourliabilities. Only thus can we explain either
the strong language of the prophecy, or the mysterious sorrow of Christ
depicted in the Gospelhistory. On whatevergrounds sin’s punishment was
necessaryhad there been no atonement, on preciselythose grounds was an
atonement necessaryto free the sinner from deservedpunishment. This
gracious work was in accordwith the appointment of the Fatherand with the
will of the Son.
6. Though the law is honoured in this substitution of another for us, yet the
substitution itself does not belong to law, but to love! Grace reigns;law is not
trifled with; it is not infringed on: nay, it is “established.”

Jesus was our source of healing

Jesus was our source of healing

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