Why Did Christ Have to Be Pierced for Our Transgressions?
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Charles Dickens’ masterful book, “A Tale of Two Cities” ends with intense emotion seldom seen in modern novels. Two of the characters (Carton and Darnay) looked so much alike they appeared as twins, and they both fell in love with the same woman, Lucie. In the dénouement, Darnay, now married to Lucie, is condemned to death by members of the French Revolution. Carton takes Darnay’s place so Darnay may enjoy the rest of his life with Lucie and their daughter. As Carton is led to the guillotine, a priest utters, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live (John 11:25). Carton’s last words before death are, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
One innocent man took the place of a condemned, guilty man. The Bible tells us Jesus was and is an innocent man, completely pure and sinless. Yet He suffered and died in our place. One innocent man took the place of all of history’s sinful souls. The emotion we experience is because of our shame and gratitude. What Jesus did is greater than any novelist’s plot ever written because we are the guilty ones for whom our Lord Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, died. His suffering and death are outlined in the words of the prophet Isaiah, who wrote of the Suffering Servant 700 years before Jesus the Messiah’s birth.
It is fitting Isaiah’s very name means The Lord is salvation. Isaiah is often referred to as the fifth Gospel because of its many references to the Lord Jesus and to salvation. Aside from the Psalms, Isaiah is the most quoted book in the New Testament, especially about Jesus.
Isaiah 55:3 says,
“But He was pierced for our transgressions;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with His wounds we are healed.”
What Is the Context of Isaiah 53?
Isaiah 53 is a message about the suffering Servant — the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage is part of Isaiah’s servant songs (Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12). The servant song to which this verse belongs begins in Isaiah 52:13, and it’s an essential section of the book, for here the work of God’s Servant is defined.
The people had just been told in the beginning verses of chapter 42 that they will see the Lord return to Zion, but that part of the promise is geographic and is only a portion of what God had planned. The people have been rebellious and looked elsewhere for their hope. They had been lax in their observance of the sacrificial laws and had lived unholy lives. Everlasting forgiveness and fidelity to God’s covenant was needed, and these songs look forward to the way of deliverance, which comes only in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. Pastor Chuck Swindoll says “The book of Isaiah provides us with the most comprehensive prophetic picture of Jesus Christ in the entire Old Testament.”
In his book, the prophet Isaiah speaks to the southern kingdom of Judah during a time when Judah and Israel were divided. As we have seen, it is a time of great apostasy, for the people have fallen away from the Lord. God used Isaiah to warn the people of coming judgment and also promise a future hope. Isaiah 53 is entirely about the suffering servant.
What Does This Verse Mean?
Isaiah was a prophet of God. As such (and as true for every writer of Scripture), Isaiah penned what the Lord God inspired him to. This, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, is all about Jesus Christ and is a theological powerhouse in its incorporation of sin and Christ’s atoning sacrifice for sin.
“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.”
Isaiah says the servant will be wounded and crushed for our sins.
“The punishment that brought us peace was on Him,”
Our peace (reconciliation) with God comes through the punishment wrought on the servant.
“And by His wounds we are healed.”
Here Isaiah anticipates the sins of God’s people as being absolved through the redeeming act of God’s servant. He would stand before God as both the representative and substitute for God’s people and bear the guilt and punishment for their sin so they might have peace with God. His death from the wounds heals us spiritually. Because the servant was crushed for our sins, the healing He brings is for the sins and the spiritual death wrought by Adam and charged to every human since.
The Apostle Peter explicitly teaches this as he refers to Isaiah 53:4-5 in 1 Peter 2:24, “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.”
In an earlier chapter, Isaiah prophesied about the sign the Lord would provide, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign; the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). How would Isaiah have understood this? Did he know this was about Jesus? Two scholars address this issue:
Darrell Bock, (Dallas Theological Seminary) says “His [Isaiah’s] text anticipates a decisive delivering figure of the end who suffers and then is exalted.”
Steve Ham of Answers in Genesis offers this thought: “The prophets were given amazing revelation from God, and it is hard to know what they must have been thinking when communicating this revelation to the people.”
In what is called Isaiah’s commission (Isaiah 6), the Lord gave Isaiah an astonishing view of the throne room of heaven, where he saw a vision of the pre-incarnate Christ. The text reads, “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne” (Isaiah 6:1). Twice in John 12, the Gospel writer (and beloved friend of Jesus) speaks of Isaiah. Verse 41 is where John discloses Isaiah truly saw Jesus Christ in the vision he describes in Isaiah 6:1. Again, this was hundreds of years before Jesus came as a baby.
Why Did Jesus Have to Be Broken on Our Behalf?
The answer to this question has its roots in Genesis 3, and from it springs the Gospel. God’s creation was good, until sin entered when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. And now, we are all born sinners (Psalm 51:5), both in Adam, the first man as our representative head, and by our own personal actions (Romans 3:23; 5:12). We all deserve death, and in fact are already darkness. Not in darkness but darkness itself (Ephesians 5:8). We are utterly helpless in our sin (Romans 5:6-8), and our only way to life is from God.
Hebrews 9:22b assures us “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Because Adam was a human, a human would have to shed his blood to atone for man’s sins, according to God’s righteous standards and laws. But God sent Jesus (John 3:16) — fully God and fully man (Philippians 2:5-11) to die the death we fully deserved — to be persecuted, and endure a horrific death on the cross of crucifixion. God raised Jesus to justify us, and therefore proved He was and is God’s Son.
To have Jesus’ perfect righteousness imputed to us and our sins assigned to Him, we must repent of our sins and believe in Jesus. It is wholly His grace which saves us and nothing we do saves us (Ephesians 2:5-8). Salvation is from God; it’s the Gospel. Living a “good” life is never enough because we are commanded to share the good news (the Gospel) which includes the horrifying implications of rejecting the only One who can save us.
Why Did His "Chastisement" Bring Us Peace?
Until we as humans are exonerated from our sin, we live in a hopeless state, our only end being total separation from goodness (God). God’s perfect plan for our peace is the only solution. Because a human (Adam) sinned, a sinless man must suffer and die to atone for that sin. Jesus as fully God and fully man brought us peace through His death and resurrection. The Bible tells us the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), therefore, His punishment for our sins required death. God cannot look upon or overlook sin because to do so would be to deny Himself (Exodus 34:6-7). Death satisfies God’s holy justice. Because our Prince of Peace lives, so do those who surrender to Him as Lord and Savior.
What Does This Mean for Us Today?
People who do not know the Lord Jesus exist in a world of hopelessness, which leaves them wanting for a peace they try to gain from the world. But the world is empty apart from Christ and the peace they desperately need is godly peace. The void unbelievers have in their hearts can only be filled by a Savior. An unsaved person tries everything the world says will bring them peace, including illusions of a grand self-image, dependence on self or on idols claiming to make one happy (money, sex, glory, fame, etc.). And when none of these things work, they cling to psychology, thinking a look into self will help. But the end of that road leads to a cliff. What then?
Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ know peace through Him. In the midst of the most trying circumstances — even persecution or the death of a saved loved one — a Christian knows an eternity of peace in the presence of Christ awaits him. This life on earth is enjoyed as kingdom ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), making much of Jesus, and manifesting His name by sharing the Gospel. All of this is made possible because Jesus was pierced for us. Hallelujah!
A dip into the Old testament is not enough to gain the full reward that comes from deep study of its thirty-nine books. There exists in the Old Covenant a vast richness of God’s movement in history and our redemption, highlighted of course by the prophecies concerning the coming of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ.
Alec Motyer gives us encouragement. “Never tire, then, of reading and re-reading the prophets. If a passage seems at first sight puzzling, ask the question, why did the prophet say this?” The journeys we are privileged to take through the pages of Scripture will reap treasure the world can never offer, much less fulfill. I pray you dive in and see Jesus throughout the Old Testament. As you do, pray for your unbelieving loved ones to come to a saving faith in Jesus.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/gabrielabertolini
