Chapter 53

This is one of the most marvellous and most concentrated passages in the Old Testament with regard to the person of Jesus Christ. People often ask: Was Christ revealed in the Old Testament? Actually He was revealed in many ways — through the Levitical offerings, the furniture of the Tabernacle, the modus operandi of the priesthood. He was revealed through direct conversation and, above all, He was revealed through prophecy. And here we have a prophecy written 600 years before the cross and yet this is one of the most detailed passages on the cross that has ever existed.

For example, verse 9 demonstrates something that only happened twice in the history of the human race: “And he [God the Father] made [assigned — Christ] his grave with the wicked,” and that means that there were two thieves who died on each side of Him, “and with the rich in his death.” Jesus Christ should have been placed in an obscure grave because He was identified with criminals. But instead He went to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea after His death. But here is the unusual thing: 600 years before it happened Isaiah wrote, “and with the rich in his deaths [plural].” This word is not in the singular, it has been mistranslated. The translators didn’t know what to do with it. Now only twice in the history of the human race has a living person died twice. The first person who suffered deaths [plural] was Adam. Adam was alive and then one day he sinned, Genesis 3:6, and the moment he sinned he died spiritually. We know that he died spiritually because Genesis 2:17 tells us that the wages of sin is death; he was told he would die. Then, much later, Adam died physically. Cf Romans 5:12.

Then Jesus Christ came into the world and He went to the cross. Jesus Christ, like Adam, was the only person who ever came into the world who wasn’t already spiritually dead. And when He hung upon the cross He died, first of all, spiritually. When He said: It is finished, and said Father into thy hands I commit my spirit, He died physically. Jesus Christ died spiritually at twelve noon on the cross; He died physically at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. He died twice.

When the Jew reads this one phrase, “in his deaths", he is terribly upset. They do not understand it, until they find Christ as saviour and then it is quite clear. Only once in all of prophecy is there such a phrase: deaths. This passage is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53 is quoted twice in the New Testament: Luke 22:35-37; Acts 8:30-35. Every verse in Isaiah 53 talks about Christ and the subject of the chapter is the cross.

Outline of the chapter

Verse 1, Introduction.

Verses 2-4, The first advent and the cross.

Verses 5-6, Man’s condition and the cross.

Verses 7-8, Our Lord’s trials and the cross.

Verse 9, Our Lord’s burial and the cross.

Verse 10, Our Lord’s resurrection and the cross.

Verse 11, The doctrine of salvation and the cross.

Verse 12, Our Lord’s glorification and the cross.

Isaiah 53 was prophecy concerning Christ and it was a means of revealing Christ in the Old Testament. It is also the greatest single doctrinal document on the cross and the details of the cross in the scriptures. Thirdly, Isaiah 53 will be spoken or sung or both at the second advent of Christ by the born again of Israel. Note Zechariah 12:10-14, the families that remain at the second advent will be the Jews who will be there when Christ returns who are born again. And when they mourn they will sing Isaiah 53.

Verse 1, introduction. Two questions are found in verse one. “Who hath believed our report [our message, our gospel]?” and “to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” The first question deals with man’s side of salvation; the second question deals with the divine side of salvation.

“Who” is an interrogative pronoun and it speaks of members of the human race. Who in the human race will believe our gospel?”; “hath believed” is in the hiphil stem, which is causative. So it should be, “Who has been caused to believe our report [the gospel]?” This is the news that the world needs. Someone has to tell the human race; that is where we come in and why we are here. Therefore, the divine side of salvation is revelation; the human side is believe.

The arm of the Lord is a title for the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is made up of two words: “arm” and “Lord.” The word “arm” refers to the humanity of Christ and the word “Lord” [Jehovah] refers to the deity of Christ.

Whenever you see an arm moving, it is working. The movement speaks of power and of work, so the word “arm” refers to the humanity of Christ, specifically with the cross in mind. The word “Lord” [Jehovah] is a title for deity and Christ is called the arm of Jehovah. Whenever we find the word “arm” in the Old Testament it always refers to the work of Christ on the cross. It is every interesting to compare words. Finger work is always easier than arm work and in the Psalms 19:1 — “ … the earth showeth his handiwork.” The word “handiwork” is really the work of his hands or the work of his fingers. And Psalm 19:1 tells us that when Christ, the Creator, created the universe He simply used His fingers. It was easy, but when it came to providing salvation He had to use His arm. In other words, there was much more work involved in providing salvation than there was in creation.

This also tells us something else: the arm of the Lord tells us that Christ is the unique person of the universe. Since the virgin birth, right down to the present and forever, Jesus Christ will always be unique. He is different from God. Jesus Christ is God and He is coequal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit but He is different from them in that He is true humanity. He is different from humanity in that He is God.

“to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” The word “reveal” is in the niphel stem — passive declarative — which means “to whom does the arm of the Lord receive revealing?” Revelation is something we receive, passive voice. The human race receives this revelation; no one in the human race ever earned it or deserved it.

Verses 2-4, the first advent and the cross.

Verse 2 — “He [Christ] shall grow up” — deity can’t grow up. So immediately we know we are talking about the humanity of Christ — “before him [God the Father who is the author of the plan] as a tender plant.” Oriental imagery often use plants to depict various types of people. Whenever a VIP or a king was mentioned he was always pictured as a great tree. A rich man was called a great tree. Jesus Christ was not a tree but a little plant, a tender plant. And little tender plants were used for ordinary people. In other words, He came the ordinary way. They expected the Messiah to arrive as a full-grown tree. They expected Christ to come in majesty the first time; that is the way He is coming the second time. And so, instead of coming the first time in majesty He came as a child in His mother’s arms.

“and as a root out of dry ground.” The dry ground is religious Israel. He is the root in the dry ground. What does that mean? Israel had become religious and therefore they had lost their mission, they had lost their purpose. They were set aside and punished for it. They expected to see a full-grown tree here, they didn’t know that Jesus Christ was the root. The root means that Christ is the founder of the Jewish race. Christ called Abraham personally out of Ur of the Chaldees; He personally delivered the Jews at the time of the Exodus, not Moses. Jesus Christ preserved and kept the Jewish race so that they might fulfil their mission of witnessing for Christ, and so on. He was the root of the Jewish race and now the root is a plant. The founder of the Jewish race is now a plant; He has to become a plant — true humanity — in order to go to the cross. But at the second advent He is not only the root of the tree but Christ is called the Branch of the tree. He, as David’s greater Son, will reign forever as the Branch. Now Israel is dry ground. Religion dries up a race.

Remember that Satan is the father of religion and Israel is not fruitful ground. Fruitful ground means that they would be producing and leading souls to Christ but dry ground means that they had become religious. And remember it was the religious crowd that sent Christ to the cross. It was the dry ground crowd. In other words, dry ground means that there is no production; nothing is growing. So Christ is the Root, and as the Root He is both the Son of David and the Root of David.

“he hath no form nor comeliness” — this explains the tender plant. “Form” means literally no striking beauty nor ostentation. He wasn’t dressed up like a king. And because the Jews looked at life from the human viewpoint they didn’t see Messiah from the scriptures. Consequently they rejected Him. Now this doesn’t mean that Jesus was physically repulsive, it simply reveals the fact that Israel expected Him to come with all of the pomp and ostentation of a king and instead He came, first as a baby in a cradle and went through normal growth until He reached maturity.

“and when we shall see him” — “when” refers to the Jews of the first advent — “there is no beauty” — the word “beauty” is literally glamour. He was very strong and very attractive physically but He didn’t wear the robes of a king — “that we should desire him” — the word to desire means to treasure or to take pleasure in or to set up in a place of high authority. While the Jews rejected Him there were those, of course, who accepted Christ.

Verse 3 — beginning with this verse we have His rejection at the first advent. Many of the religious crowd rejected Him and yet when He went to the cross He died for their sins. “he was despised, and rejected of men” — “despised” is a niphel stem which means that He received the manifestation of their despising; He received insults, etc. Why did they reject Him?

a. He lived a perfect life — no sin. They couldn’t stand that.

b. He healed the sick, He helped the needy, He brought to life several who were dead, He cured those who had incurable diseases, He provided food from practically nothing — they couldn’t stand that. Religion always puts on a front of helping people but religion can’t help people. But Jesus Christ comes along and He can help people and He does help people. This showed religion up for what it was, a hollow mockery, and they couldn’t stand it. The strongest hatred comes from religion.

c. He not only fed those who were physically hungry but He fed those who were spiritually hungry, and He even violated their pet taboos to do so — He fed them on the Sabbath! So He didn’t recognise their holy days and they hated Him for it.

d. He gave eternal salvation without merit to those who trusted in Him. And religion is legalistic and cannot stand something without works. They cannot stand grace, they were in slavery to works and they couldn’t stand for something to be given away.

e. They hated Him because they were inspired by Satan to do so, because He made the issue clear. He said: I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. In other words, He told the truth. Religion is a lie and, therefore, cannot stand the truth.

Therefore, because he was despised and rejected He was also a man of sorrows. This means He personally was broken-hearted by their rejection. Why? Because when they rejected Him they rejected their only chance of salvation. And His sorrow was built upon the fact that Jesus Christ was God; He wanted everyone to be saved; He was coming to die for their sins and take their place.

“and acquainted with grief” — the word “acquainted” means to know. It is a qal participle which means He kept on knowing grief [affliction]. Jesus knew affliction; He knew being maligned, betrayed, deserted, denied, slapped, etc. He knew all of these things and yet He was perfect in His humanity. Therefore as no member of the human race Jesus Christ knew grief. We need to remember when we are experiencing times of grief that there is no heartache in life that Jesus Christ Himself did not endure while on this earth. And He not only knows our heartaches and how we feel but He has made provision for every affliction of life. There is no problem of life for which Jesus Christ does not have a solution. The more you know about doctrine, the more you know about God’s Word, the more you know about solutions. And for the person who gets to know doctrine real well he comes to the place where everything in life, no matter how difficult it may be, he can face it and have perfect peace and stability and power.

“and we hid as it were our faces from him” — the word to hide here is a hiphil which means we were caused to hide our faces. It means to cover your face. In other words, Jesus Christ is going by, on the way up to Calvary, and the people had to turn around, they couldn’t look. They had to cover their faces because He had been so badly beaten up and so terribly tortured in those six trials that He no longer looked human — Isaiah 52:14.

“he was despised” — in the sense of being condemned. This is a niphel stem which means He received this despising; “and we esteemed him not.” To esteem means to compute the facts, and in our Lord’s day the people who watched and covered their faces because the sight was so horrible, they did not compute or add up the facts. We did not add up the facts about Him; that is rejection.

Verse 4 — But in spite of that: “Surely therefore he hath borne our griefs.” The word for griefs is a noun which was originally used for a necklace, or some kind of a trinket. In the ancient world they many times wore a necklace or a trinket to keep away an evil spirit or something and so this word was used eventually for an affliction. People who were afraid of some pressure in life or some affliction would put on some kind of a necklace and so this word eventually came to mean affliction, or something of which you are afraid. And we could actually translate this, “he carried or took away our fears.” The basic fear of man is the future, death and beyond. And He has taken away the fear of death; He has destroyed it by dying for us, by taking our place, so that now death is merely going through a dark valley and into His presence for evermore.

“and carried our sorrows” — the word to carry is to carry a heavy burden. It was often used for porters in the ancient world carrying very heavy burdens. He carried the heavy burden of our sorrows — lit. our catastrophes, our calamities. This is, of course, the principle of the faith-rest technique.

The reason that Christ can carry our problems and our burdens today is very simple. In phase one Christ carried our sins, and that is the greatest load that Christ ever had to carry. Christ became a servant; Christ became a porter to carry our sins when He died on the cross. In fact the only burden that He ever carried that caused Him to scream was our sins. Now in phase two, in time, He can also carry our problems — 1 Peter 5:7. Every time we move through life and have a problem He is waiting there to carry that problem for us. That is why Psalm 55:22 says: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

“yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” The words “we did esteem” here tells of the believers. Notice in verse three: “we esteemed him not” — we didn’t add up the facts. That is the statement of the unbelievers. Now the believers: “we did esteem him” — we added up the facts. The qal perfect means to consider the facts and to respond with faith. Here are the facts considered: stricken, smitten, and afflicted, three words here to describe the cross.

“stricken” is a qal participle and it means that Christ was struck down with our sins. He stood up in our place and was struck down — the doctrine of reconciliation.

“smitten” is a hophal participle, He was caused to be smitten. God the Father also struck Him; He poured our sins upon Him as a judgment.

“afflicted” — which means to be struck with a voice and to be made to labour. Someone throws their voice at you, like: Heave those bales, etc. In other words, the word “afflicted” means to be made to labour, to be made to work. And Christ worked for us so that we will never have to work for salvation.

The work of Christ on the cross versus human works is the issue. And when it comes to salvation Christ said: “It is finished.” And then we have, on the other hand, the good works of the human race. Every time a person accepts Christ as saviour he depends upon the work of Christ smitten and stricken for us. And when he rejects the cross then he depends on his own works and his own works condemn him. The point is: Christ was struck for us; He was struck by our sins. God the Father struck Him down at the cross and for those who accept Christ they will never be struck by God’s judgment. But for the person who rejects Christ then their own works will be used to strike them at the last judgment.

Man’s condition and the cross —

The last part of verse four hits like a tremendous blow, the way it hit our Lord. Why could He be afflicted? Why could He take the greatest shock in history? Because He became true humanity. His deity could have nothing to do with sin. Christ became man because of man’s terrible condition. Man was in such bad shape that someone had to go to the cross and provide salvation for them. So in verses 5 and 6 we have man’s condition.

Verse 5 — “But [Christ] he was wounded for our transgressions” — “was wounded,” pual stem, intensive passive voice. In the pual stem it means to receive a wound, and the verb actually means to be pierced. It is a reminder of Psalm 22:16 — “They have pierced my hands and my feet”; and Zechariah 12:10 — “They shall look upon him whom they have pierced.” So there is piercing here.

“for our transgressions” — transgression is a violation of law: law which is established, law which is known. For example, a transgression is a violation of the ten commandments, established law. But we are sinners for more reasons than transgression.

“he was bruised” — and the word “bruised” means to be crushed, again the pual stem. He received intensive crushing “for our iniquities” .

What about the word “crushed” ?Cf Psalm 22:16 — “I am a worm” .There are seven different Hebrew words for worm and the one used in Psalm 22:16 is the rare type, the type which was collected, put into a vat, and then a stone was taken and these worms were crushed and the blood from these worms was used to make the beautiful crimson dye for the robes of kings. So, you see, Christ was crushed for our load of sin that we might wear the robe of the king [Christ] forever. The word “bruised” or “crushed” is also used in Genesis 3:15 which is the first place in the Bible where we have the gospel.

We have two words here: transgression and iniquity. First of all we are sinners because of transgression, and then we are sinners because of iniquity. Transgression means violation of God’s law [as in the ten commandments]; iniquity means failure to measure up to God’s essence — e.g. plus R. We are sinners because we have violated God’s law but even if we kept all of the ten commandments of our lives we are still sinners. We are sinners because we are not as good as God is — Romans 3:23, the glory of God is the sum total of divine essence. And one of the most important things in salvation is to get +R to the human race. The only way it can be done is for a person to receive Christ, and when they accept Christ as saviour +R is imputed to them — doctrine of imputation followed by doctrine of justification.

“the chastisement” — the word means punishment. When we have transgression and iniquity we should be punished. God is absolute righteousness therefore He cannot have fellowship with us in status quo sin. God is also justice and justice must punish transgression; justice must punish iniquity. We should be punished. But if someone is punished as our substitute. Literally, “the punishment which brought our peace” [peace is the doctrine of reconciliation] the barrier between man and God is removed. That mean’s Christ, our Substitute, made peace between man and God. Peace means that there is no barrier, man is reconciled to God by the death of Christ. Man can now have fellowship with God forever. The punishment which brought us peace [the punishment is the cross] “was upon him” — Romans 5:1. Literally. “The punishment upon him brought us peace.”

“and with his stripes we are healed” — every word here is wrongly translated. There is no healing in the atonement and the word isn’t “stripes” at all. It is singular in the Hebrew and the word is “bruise.” Why? Because Jesus Christ was one massive bruise when He hung upon the cross. The reason He was so badly beaten up is because everyone wanted Him to die but no one wanted Him to die the way He had to die, which was for our sins — Satan didn’t want Him to get to the cross.

“by his bruise” — 1 Peter 2:24, when Peter saw Christ he saw a bruise hanging on the cross.

“we are healed” is not we are healed. Three things about the verb “we are healed.” It does not mean to be healed although it has been used that way. The word literally means to sow something together. The reason it was sometimes used in a secondary sense for healing is because in the ancient world they just took anything and stitched an open wound together. If the person recovered they said he was healed. The way that he recovered: they sowed the wound up.

So here we are. There is a great gap between man and God and Christ, by His work on the cross, pulls the gap together. So the word means to sow up or to draw together. In other words, man and God are drawn together. Next, the niphel stem — simple declarative, passive voice. The tense is perfect, and perfect means completed action. But this was written 600 years before the action was completed but in the mind of God it has already happened. Therefore it is in the perfect tense because not only has it happened in the mind of God but this is prophecy which is certain of fulfilment.

Verse 6 — “All we” — universality of sin. Every member of the human race is a sinner because he was born a sinner. Long before we commit a personal act of sin we are sinners. We are sinners because we are born with an old sin nature. Illustration: “like sheep have gone astray [wandered]” — sheep wander just don’t have sense enough to know any better. In other words, we are just like a flock of sheep; man goes everywhere but in the right direction, never in the direction of God. And until salvation was planned there was no way to bring the sheep back, and the only way to bring man back to God after Adam’s fall is the work of Christ on the cross. “we have turned every man to his own way” — free will, human volition. By our human volition we go in every direction except toward God. We never turn on the direction of God apart from the gospel. So what brings us back?

“and the Lord [Jehovah — God the Father] hath laid” .Hath laid is in the hiphil stem, causative active, and it means to cause to fall on. God the Father hath caused to fall on him, perfect tense again. In the mind of God it had already happened even though this was written 600 years before the event. That is how people could believe in Christ, starting with Adam.

“the iniquity of us all” — this verse starts with “all” and ends with “all.” What does that mean? Someone had to take it for us. That someone is Jesus Christ. Please notice he doesn’t say the transgression of us all because transgression is a limited form of sin, a violation of known law. But there are millions of sins in addition to that so he says “the iniquity of us all.” God the Father took all of these sins and caused them to fall on Christ on the cross.

Verse 7 — “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet opened not his mouth.” The two verbs “oppressed” and “afflicted” apply to the trials of our Lord. Both are niphel stem, which is a passive stem. The first word, “he was oppressed” means to be harassed or abused; the second word, “he was afflicted” means to receive affliction instead of justice. When He should have received justice He received affliction. And in spite of the fact that for many different reasons the six trials through which He went were all mistrials — wrong, unfair, unjust — He did not complain at any point, “he opened not his mouth.” The piel stem [intensive stem] is used for “he opened not his mouth,” indicating that injustice after injustice was committed in the courtroom and yet He did not complain or respond as people often respond to injustice by loud complaints. This silence is very interesting in view of the fact that when Jesus Christ returns to the earth He kills people with His mouth — Revelation 19:13-15.

The six trials of Christ

1. The trial before Annas — John 18:12-24. This was an illegal trial because Annas was not the high priest. However, he was the lord high executioner of all of south Palestine. He was the father-in-law of the high priest and he was the head of the gangster syndicate which existed at that time operating in the Negev and Jerusalem. Therefore everything had to be cleared with Annas; Jesus stood before Annas first.

2. The trial before Caiaphas — Matthew 26: 57-68. This trial had many injustices such as the judges trying to get an indictment, which is never done. The judges listen to the evidence and make a decision. But in this trial the judges ran around trying to collect evidence. Under Jewish law they had to have two people who would agree in order to draw an indictment and they found it virtually impossible to get two people to agree on anything in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. They spat upon Him; they beat Him up; the trial was held at night. All of this was illegal, it was held on a holy day, which was also illegal, and they tried to get Him to condemn Himself, which was illegal in Jewish jurisprudence.

3. The trial before the assembled Sanhedrin the next morning — Luke 22:66-71. In this trial they tried to make it legal. The trial the night before was not legal so they held one in the daytime to try and make it legal, and this was as illegal as the first.

4. The trial before Pontius Pilate — Luke 23:1-7. Pilate was the only open-minded judge whom Jesus faced, and he declared the innocence of our Lord on four different occasions during two trials.

5. The trial before Herod — Luke 23:8-12. It was an attempt on the part of Pilate to dodge his responsibility. Herod was in town and someone told him that Jesus was from Galilee and therefore He was under Herod’s jurisdiction. So Pilate sent Him over to Herod. Herod tried to make Him do magic tricks and when He refused he abused Him and sent Him back.

6. The trial before Pontius Pilate — John 18:29-19:16. Again the trial was illegal in every way and the judge himself declared Jesus innocent. One thing was added — the scourging, and so on.

Here, long before it happened — 600 years — we have details concerning the trials. It is not unusual for a person to be the victim of injustice during legal procedure but this was unusual in that He did not open His mouth, He did not say a word.

“he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter” — “he is brought” is a hophal stem, causative passive — He was caused to be led. He didn’t go Himself, others caused Him to go the cross. This emphasises the human side of the cross, others caused Him to go.

Then we have the first of two illustrations in this verse: “as a lamb to the slaughter.” Here is the correlation between Jesus Christ led to the cross and the constant habitual offering of animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, Christ is the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

“and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth” — again, Jesus Christ was railroaded to the cross and yet He did not complain. While He was being led to the cross He did not complain, although He had more right to complain than any person who has ever lived. Jesus Christ was willing to go to the cross just as a sheep is willing to be sheared — no resistance. He did not fight back because He was thinking of us.

Verse 8 — the legal procedure. “He was taken from prison” — the Hebrew word is not prison. The Hebrew says: “He was seized by government.” He was “seized,” a pual stem [intensive passive] which means to be taken into custody. When He was finally seized it was a very vicious thing. They manhandled Him. The word “from prison” is literally “by dominion, by custody.” There were two governments involved, the Jews and the Romans. So we can correct the translation: “He was seized by governmental authority” — “and from judgment,” literally, “and by legal procedure.” In other words, the Roman government was established to keep the peace and they were taking the Prince of peace into custody. Legal procedure is a reference to the trials. They tried to get rid of Him legally.

“who shall declare his generation?” — also erroneously translated. The Hebrew says: “of his generation who shall protest?” Who will protest the thing that He did? The answer historically is Peter on the Day of Pentecost. The word “protest” is piel, and the protest will be intensive, the piel means with power — Acts 1:8. And in our Lord’s generation every bit of witnessing, every bit of declaring Christ, was the protest.

“For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of my people was he stricken.” “He was cut off” is a niphel stem and it means that He received death. The niphel stem refers to His spiritual death, not His physical death — “cut off” means to die but the niphel stem means spiritual death, not physical death. The niphel stem is always passive. Therefore it cannot refer to something He did Himself. Jesus Christ, when He died physically, did it Himself — “Father into thy hands I commit my spirit — and He dismissed His spirit.” Therefore if it was referring to the physical death of our Lord it would have to be qal stem, which is active voice.

“because of the transgression of my people” — in other words, He died for their sins — “he was stricken” — or literally, “the stroke of judgment fell upon him” — referring to His first death on the cross, spiritual death, when He bore our sins and took our place and satisfied all of the righteous and just claims that God the Father had against the human race.

Verse 9 — our Lord’s burial and the cross. “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his deaths; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”

“And he [God the Father] made [assigned]” .In His death Christ was assigned to two different categories: first of all the wicked and, secondly the rich. The wicked referred to the two thieves who were crucified on each side of Him; two criminals justly condemned, justly paying their debt to society — capital punishment. 600 years before it happened Christ was identified with two thieves — Luke 23:39-43.

“with the rich in his death” — this is a reference to our Lord’s burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea — Matthew 27:57; John 19:38. It was the Jewish custom to bury blasphemers in a very obscure manner. If this had happened to Jesus it would have been very hard to validate the resurrection historically. And so instead of being taken out with the two thieves when the time came to remove these three from the cross our Lord, instead of being taken out to an unknown grave, was placed in a very prominent tomb nearby. Joseph of Arimathaea went to Pontius Pilate and persuaded Pilate to allow him to take the body. And along with Nicodemus they prepared the body for burial and then put the body of our Lord into the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, a tomb which was very prominent. Joseph was a very wealthy man and had a very prominent place for his own burial. The tomb of Jesus had to be prominent because of the resurrection. An obscure grave would be used as a means of discrediting the resurrection.

“in his deaths” — plural. When Adam partook of the tree he died immediately, spiritual death. And death spiritual meant that when Jesus Christ came walking in the garden that day Adam had to hide, not because he could hide from omniscience or omnipresence but because he was incapable of carrying on a conversation or having fellowship with Jesus Christ. He was completely cut off from God. And then many years later Adam finally died physically. Death is separation from God, spiritual death. Spiritual death is not physical death. And when it says “the wages of sin", the wages of sin is not physical death. Physical death is the result of spiritual death. So when Adam died he died immediately spiritually. The indication of his death: he could not have fellowship with our Lord. And if Our Lord had not spoken to Adam he would still be hiding. That’s grace. God the Son broke the silence.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross He died spiritually. And He died spiritually at the time of the fourth cry: Eloi, Eloi lama Sabachthani — My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? The first “My God” referring to the Father; second “My God” referring to the Holy Spirit. They forsook Him because the Father had poured our sins upon Him. That is His first death. He was deserted by the Father and by the Holy Spirit who could not have fellowship with the One who was made sin and He paid right then and there for us.

Then after He had paid for our sins [twelve noon when darkness covered Golgotha], three hours later, He said: “It is finished” — John 19:30. And when He said, It is finished, salvation was accomplished right then and there. The perfect tense actually means, It has been finished in the past with the result that it stands finished forever. And then He said: “Father into thy hands I commit my spirit” .And then He died physically — because His work was completed. He dismissed His own spirit of His own volition.

Jesus Christ died twice so that we would only have to die once. And we who are born once must be born twice so that we don’t die twice. The second death has no claim on us because we are born again.

We have a reference to the fact that He was qualified to do this — “because he had done no violence [no overt sin]” — literally, He had done no wrong — “neither was any deceit in his mouth [no inner sin]” .He was sinless and, therefore, qualified to bear our sins on the cross.

There are three ways in which Christ was qualified to bear our sins. There are three different kinds of sin. First of all there is the old sin nature, inherent sin; secondly, imputed sin, the sin of Adam imputed to the human race; thirdly, there is personal sin. Jesus Christ, through the virgin birth, did not have a sin nature [the sin nature is passed down through the man]. The imputation of Adam’s sin comes down through the man — again, the virgin birth kept Jesus Christ from having the sin of Adam imputed to Him. The issue for thirty three years was His personal life and He lived personally without sin and therefore was qualified to go to the cross.

Verse 10 — the resurrection and the cross. “Yet it pleased the Lord [Jehovah the Father] to bruise him [Christ].” To bruise is a piel infinitive which means to crush or to break in pieces. It goes back to Genesis 3:15 and the cross — ["he shall bruise his heel"]. “he hath put him to grief” — Literally, “he has caused Him suffering,” the pain of bearing our sins; “when thou [the Father] shalt make his soul an offering for sin” — the Father shall designate His soul as a sin offering, literally.

The principle of the sin offering is found in Leviticus chapters five and six. In Lev. 5:16 the first principle of the sin offering is that God is the gainer. Secondly, man is the gainer. The whole point is gain, profit. God gains from the death of Christ on the cross. God the Father sent one Son into the world and as a result of sending Him He now has many sons — Hebrews 2:9-14.

Leviticus 6:5 explains the other principle of the sin offering — man is the gainer. Man gains more by redemption and regeneration than he had before the fall. Man in the fall lost innocence and a garden in one spot. Man is now higher than the angels, he is in union with Christ and he will live with God forever under circumstances which are far superior to what Adam had in the garden in status quo innocence. So man is the gainer; he has gained more than Adam lost by sin.

“he shall see his seed” — reference to His physical bodily resurrection — “he shall prolong his days” — to prolong is a hiphil stem which means He shall cause His days to be extended, and this again is resurrection — “and the pleasure of the Lord [Jehovah, God the Father] shall prosper in his hands” — the word “pleasure” means plan. The plan of the Father will prosper in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, the hands that were nailed to the tree — “They have pierced my hands and my feet” — Psalm 22:16.

Verse 11 — the doctrine of salvation and the cross. “He shall see the travail of his soul” — the subject of this verb is God the Father who takes note of the death of the Lord Jesus bearing our sins on the cross. He shall see the extreme suffering of His [Christ’s] soul when Christ was bearing our sins — “and shall be satisfied” — doctrine of propitiation. God the Father is satisfied with the death of God the Son; this is the only work with which God the Father is satisfied, the only work whereby He saves — Romans 3:23ff.

“by his knowledge” — literally, “by knowledge of him [Christ]”; “my righteous servant [Christ] shall justify the many.” In other words, when man knows the facts of the gospel and responds by faith he is justified. Christ justifies those who believe in Him; “the many” refers specifically to Israel — “for he shall bear their iniquities” .

Verse 12 — our Lord’s glorification and the cross. “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great” — completely mistranslated. It should be: “Therefore I will give the many to him [Christ] for a portion” — the many are those who have responded to the gospel — “and he shall divide the spoil with the strong” — the strong are those who have power, the believers, and the word “spoil” is booty and it refers to reward. In other words, believers will be rewarded. The “strong” are those who possess eternal life and the righteousness of God; “because he poured out his soul unto death,” the doctrine of expiation. It refers to the spiritual death, not physical death; “he was numbered with the transgressors,” doctrine of redemption, He took the place of the transgressors; “yet he bare the sin of many,” doctrine of atonement; “and made intercession for the transgressors,” only it doesn’t say “intercession.” Literally, “and made peace for the transgressors,” doctrine of reconciliation. Christ removed the barrier between man and God — Ephesians 2:16.