The Divinely Ordained Exchange

It’s good to be with you again, as we continue to study together this wonderful theme of Identification, summed up in Jesus’ favorite title for Himself: “Son of Man.”

Yesterday we looked at the marvelous prophetic preview of the sufferings and death of Jesus contained in chapter 53 of the prophet Isaiah. We looked in the entire chapter in overview, picking out some of the many aspects that were exactly fulfilled in the experience of Jesus.

Today I want to focus in greater detail on just three verses, verses 4, 5, and 6, which are the very heart of the prophetic message.

I believe that no human mind can ever fully fathom all the mysteries of divine grace and wisdom that are contained in these three verses. So I’m going to read them again, rather slowly and carefully:

“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (NIV)

Again I want to emphasize the substitutionary character of the death of Jesus here portrayed. The emphasis is on “he” and then by contrast “us” and “our.” So he became our representative, the Son of Man, the humble one, the one who fully partook of humanity. And then as our representative, ben adam, the Son of Adam, bar anush, the Son of human frailty, there on the cross he took upon himself all our burdens, our guilt, our shame, our pain, our sickness, our sorrow, our grief. As I said already, the human mind, I believe, can never fully comprehend all that transpired and all that was accomplished by this substitutionary death of Jesus. But let us bear in mind that Isaiah begins this chapter by warning us against unbelief. Who can believe our message.” So let us deliberately denounce unbelief. Let us not reject the message because it’s difficult for little puny, finite minds to comprehend the infinite nature of God’s love, mercy and wisdom. Let us be willing to believe.

In the New Testament, one of the writers says, “Through faith we understand.” First comes faith, then comes understanding. I want to urge that upon you. Don’t grapple with this thing with your own little, natural, carnal mind and fail to receive to receive the message of God’s love and mercy.

Let’s look at the beautiful phrases there, “Surely he,” as I said yesterday but I want to emphasize again, the Hebrew wording is such that all the emphasis is placed on the “he”, ”Surely he.” In other words look away from yourself. There is not solution to your problems in yourself. Don’t dwell on your problem, don’t bend and bow beneath the burden of your guilt and all your problems. The solution is in looking away from yourself, looking away to him, the substitute, the sacrifice, the Son of Man. “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” A better more accurate translation for sorrows is pains. “He took our infirmities,” he carried our pain, “yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.” You see, unbelief only sees the outward facts of the death of Jesus, does not understand the inner meaning.

I remember once speaking to a Jewish man in the land of Israel, and I told that I believe Jesus is the Messiah. His comment was interesting, he was not opposed but he said I can’t believe that he was the Messiah because God would not have allowed him to suffer so terribly. It must have been a judgment upon by God. And immediately there came to me these words “we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted” but, Isaiah goes on “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities,” It wasn’t for his own sins, but it was for our sins. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.”

And then we come to that sixth verse which really is the absolute center of the message:

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (NIV)

That word iniquity is better translated in modern English rebellion. But it’s also used in the earlier passages of the Old Testament for the guilt offering, for guilt. So it is not just the rebellion for the human race, but also the punishment for that rebellion, and the remedy for that rebellion. All of that was laid upon Jesus. You see, the common basic guilt of the human race is rebellion. “We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us is turned to his own way.” It’s not that we’ve all committed certain specific sins like murder, adultery, or stealing. There may be many fine people by human standards who’ve never committed sins like that. But the one thing we’ve all done is we’ve all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid upon him the rebellion and all it’s evil consequences.

The Lord made it all meet together upon him, I want you to ponder that phrase. The Lord made it meet together, every act of sin, every feeling of guilt, every kind of shame and humiliation, and the physical consequences too, our pains, our infirmities. In the eternal will and counsel of God “it pleased the Lord,” it says, “to crush him.” That crushing burden came upon Jesus, our substitute, the Son of Man.

There’s a picture in the book of Lamentations which really speaks so vividly of this. I just want to read these words and when I read them I want you to think of Jesus. Lamentation, chapter 12 through 14:

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger? ‘From on high he sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long. [Everyone of those phrases is exactly true of Jesus there on the cross.] My sins have been bound into a yoke; by his hands they were woven together. They have come upon my neck and the Lord has sapped my strength. He has handed me over to those I cannot withstand.’” (NIV)

Every single detail applies to Jesus. The yoke of our sins was woven by the hand of the Lord, Almighty God and then laid on the neck of Jesus. And the Lord handed Jesus over to sinners, to evil men, to men he could not withstand and willingly He submitted to their hands and became the sin offering. The Lord laid to meet together upon him, the rebellion of us all and all it’s evil consequences.

Now let us ask ourselves what is our part of the exchange, our rebellion and all it’s evil consequences came upon Jesus. He became our substitute, the Son of Man, the last Adam. He took all the evil that was due to us that we might receive the good that was due to him, that’s the essence of the exchange.

How shall we sum, what phrase or word can we use to describe that which God has made available to us on the basis of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. If I were to pick one word, the word that I would pick in English would be peace. But peace does not fully represent what I’m trying to communicate. The Hebrew word for peace I’m sure many of you know is shalom, that’s the famous Hebrew greeting today, ”Shalom.” But shalom means much more in Hebrew than the word peace means in English. Peace is almost just the absence of war of conflict of strife. Many times we talk about peace when there is really very little real harmony between people. But shalom means completeness, fulfillment, perfection, the root thought is to complete or to perfect or to make full. So what is offered to us is completeness, wholeness, harmony, much more than just peace. It’s not just spiritual, it’s not just inward, it’s total wholeness, spirit, soul, and body. “By his wounds we are healed,” physical healing is offered to us through the physical suffering of Jesus. He bore our transgressions, he was punished for iniquities that we might have this inner peace. But the whole thing is summed into one word, peace, shalom, wholeness, completeness, harmony, reconciliation with God, reconciliation with our fellow believers, with all mankind, a deep settled inner peace of heart and mind, a condition of harmony that makes for the healthiness of the body. All that is included in that beautiful word, peace, shalom, which is offered to us.

Well our time is up for today. I’ll be back with you again tomorrow at this time. Tomorrow I’ll start to unfold for you all that is contained in this divine exchange that was accomplished through the death of Jesus.