Matters of First Importance: The Work of the Servant in Isaiah 52:13–53:12

Fresh out of college in May 2004, I was worshipping in church on a Sunday when my pastor made the assertion, “The death of Christ and resurrection that followed is the central event of human history.” I remember pausing and thinking, “hmmm, those things are important. But the central events in human history? That seems like an overstatement.”

Twenty years, one marriage, four children, one seminary degree, and years of pastoral ministry later, I have come to see with ever-increasing clarity how true that statement is.

The cross and resurrection are the centerpiece of the life work and accomplishment of Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate. Jesus’s death and resurrection followed His perfect life, in which He completed the work God gave Him to do (John 17:4, Heb. 2:10, Heb. 5:8–9). The New Hampshire Confession sums up well the impact that Jesus’s person and work has for God’s people: “he is every way qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate, and an all-sufficient Savior.”

This month, Christ Over All is looking at sightings of the cross in the Old Testament, taking time to look at passages and theological themes that foreshadow Calvary. In 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, Paul spoke of the death and resurrection of Christ as matters of “first importance,” that Jesus carried out “in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Isaiah 52:13–53:12 is one such passage of Scripture, and my task is to feature this text’s revelation of the substitutionary atoning work of the servant of the Lord. I will do this through a look at the text’s epochal and canonical contexts, a review of the passage’s immediate context, the New Testament authors’ use and interpretation of it, and Jesus’s application of the passage to the institution and observance of the Lord’s Supper.

Buckle your seat belt: what follows is a glorious redemption road for God’s people!

Isaiah’s Epochal and Canonical Context

What did Isaiah 53 mean to the nearly exiled Jews to whom it was first written? Can its context then enhance our understanding of it now? Yes—abundantly so! We begin therefore by looking at key aspects of the epoch (or era) of redemptive history the text was written in and elements of the passage that carry forward central, recurring themes from earlier Scripture.

The Mosaic Law—which God gave at Mount Sinai (Exod. 20:1ff) following His deliverance of His people from Egypt—included blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Knowing the corruption of fallen humanity, God graciously built into this law/covenant the provision of blood sacrifices to cover sin. This atoning provision is seen most significantly in the institution of the Passover (Exodus 12) and the annual observance of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16).

The people of Israel would prove to need such atonement. Story after story in the Old Testament shows God’s people testing his patience and proving his faithfulness by their repeated sin and open disregard for him and his promises.

The Servant of Isaiah

Isaiah 1–39 records the consequence of Israel’s repeated, flagrant disobedience: exile from the Promised Land. Hope is not lost, however: Isaiah 40–55 speaks of a future return from exile for God’s people. This promised return would have two stages: one physical—release from captivity (Isa. 42:18–43:21) and the other spiritual—forgiveness of sins (Isa. 43:22–44:23).[1] This work of redemption is accomplished by and through a figure revealed as the servant of the Lord.

1. Peter Gentry, The Atonement in Isaiah’s Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13–53:12), The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, “The Atonement in Focus,” Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 2007, 21.

Servant Songs in Isaiah

Four passages in Isaiah in particular—known as the Servant Songs—provide details about the servant who would come to deliver God’s people:

• Isaiah 42:1–9 – The Holy Spirit empowers the servant (Isa. 42:1); the Lord will give Him as a covenant for the people (Isa. 42:6, see also 49:8).
• Isaiah 49:1–13 – The servant is Israel (Isa. 49:3); the servant will also save Israel, and not just people from ethnic Israel – through the servant God will extend salvation to the end of the earth (Isa. 49:6).
• Isaiah 50:4–9 – The servant is not rebellious, but obedient (Isa. 50:5), setting his “face like a flint” to do God’s will (Isa. 50:7).
• Isaiah 52:13–53:10 – The servant brings redemption to God’s people through his substitutionary sacrifice. This redemption has two primary aspects: 1) the forgiveness of sins—which includes the permanent removal of offenses—and the accounting of righteousness (Isa. 53:4–6, 11–12).

In Isaiah 52:13–53:12, Isaiah describes the physical and spiritual deliverance to come with the Hebrew word ga-al. In English, the word is translated redeem, meaning “to buy back.”[2] This passage centers on the redemptive work of the servant of the Lord, buying back God’s people from slavery to sin and death.

2. Gentry, The Atonement in Isaiah’s Fourth Servant Song, 21.

Immediate Context and New Testament Authors’ Use and Interpretation

Isaiah 52:13–53:12 is quoted seven times and alluded to another 34 times in the New Testament, across the gospels, Acts, letters and Revelation.[3] John Stott, quoting Joachim Jeremias, notes that “No other passage from the Old Testament, was as important to the church as Isaiah 53.”[4]

Peter Gentry provides the following helpful overview of the literary structure of Isaiah 52:13–53:12:[5]

5. Gentry, The Atonement in Isaiah’s Fourth Servant Song, 24.

• Stanza 1: Prologue (Isa. 52:13–15)
• Stanza 2: Pains in Life (Isa. 53:1–3) Description
• Stanza 3: For Us (Isa. 53:4–6) Interpretation/Central Explanation
• Stanza 4: Pains in Death (Isa. 53:7–9) Description
• Stanza 5: For Us (Isa. 53:10–12) Interpretation

The first stanza sets up the descriptions and interpretations that follow. Let’s look at some details of these sections and how the authors of the New Testament interpret them.

Prologue: substitutionary work for people of all nations (Isa. 52:13–15)

Isaiah 52:13 says the servant of the Lord “shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.” The gospel author John identifies the “lifting up” of the servant with the humiliation of Jesus on the cross (John 3:14), while Luke focuses on Christ’s exaltation (Acts 3:13). Isaiah 52:13 thus predicts Jesus’s death and resurrection.

As Paul engages in evangelistic work, he quotes Isaiah 52:15 to speak of the spread of the gospel to all nations, “Those who have never been told of Him will see, and those who have never heard will understand” (Rom. 15:21 and 1 Cor. 2:9). Jesus’s work on the cross opens the gospel offer to all nations: whosoever will may come (Rev. 22:17). Salvation is available to those who believe in Him (John 3:16).

Pains in Life (Isa. 53:1–3)

Paul quotes Isaiah 53:1 in Romans 10:16, noting that some will reject this gospel: “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”[6] In Isaiah 53:2–3, Isaiah calls the servant “a man of sorrows” who was “despised and rejected” by men, which Paul alludes to in his account of Christ’s incarnation in Phil. 2:5–11 (Phil. 2:7 specifically). This “man of sorrows” is beautifully described in the song of that name, written in 1875 by itinerant evangelist Philip Bliss:

6. Romans 10 teaches that the gospel of Christ will spread through verbal proclamation by His followers. Here and elsewhere in Scripture, we see that some will receive that gospel, while others will reject it (Luke 10:1–12, 1 Cor. 2:6–14, 2 Cor. 2:14–16). By implication, we are to share with all people indiscriminately, knowing that God will save some.

Man of Sorrows! What a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Isaiah 53:4–6, the center of this passage, provides one of the most clear and important descriptions in all of Scripture of this Savior’s atoning work.

For Us (Isa. 53:4–6)

Verse 4 says “Surely he [the servant] has born our griefs.” Peter alludes to this verse in 1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,” communicating the idea of substitution. Peter also quotes the beautiful conclusion of Isa. 53:5, “by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet. 2:24b). The healing in view here is first and foremost spiritual in nature as the context of Isaiah 53 makes clear—the servant is pierced for our transgressions (Isa. 53:5). Wounds being healed sometimes has physical healing in view as well (as I’ll consider below)

In 1 Peter 2:25, Peter alludes to the comparison of God’s people to the wandering sheep of Isa. 53:6, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” Though we are the ones who have gone astray through sin against a holy and benevolent God, Jesus is the one who bears the punishment for our sin – ultimately by the hand of that God (Isa. 53:6; cf. Acts 2:23, Acts 4:28).

Peter’s interpretation of Isaiah 53 accords with Jesus’s self-description as the Good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep (Cf. John 10:10–11). Indeed, the central accomplishment of the cross is penal substitutionary atonement from the wrath of God, making God both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26).

What about physical healing?

Matthew records Jesus casting out demons and healing the physically sick as a fulfillment of Isa. 53:4 “by his wounds you have been healed” (Matt. 8:17). The New Testament authors interpretation of “by his wounds you have been healed” in Matthew and 1 Peter helps shed light on the nature of the inbreaking of God’s kingdom.

Jesus’s work centered on the proclamation of the gospel and atoning sacrifice on the cross, satisfying His Father’s just wrath against sin and opening the way to restored relationship with Him (Matt. 16:21–23, John 17:22–23; Mark 1:15, 8:31–33; Luke 9:22, John 12:24, John 13:33). Along the way, Jesus did signs that lent credibility to His message and marked the inbreaking of His kingdom, such as casting out demons, healing the sick, even giving life to the dead (Matt. 4:23, Luke 7:22).

God will one day consummate this physical restoration of creation in the new heavens and new earth—where there will be no more tears, sickness, pain or even death (Isa. 65:19–25, Rev. 21:3–4)—a work He accomplishes in and through Jesus (Col 1:20)[7]

7. Pastorally, we must help people understand both that God grants spiritual healing to all who seek it in Jesus, and that He sometimes grants physical healing, while at other times He does not. Pastors are to pray for physical healing (Jas. 5:14–16), and call people to trust God with their physical state all the while knowing that because they are in Christ by faith nothing can separate them from God’s love (Rom. 8:31–39). And we live with the hope that eventually all God’s people will receive physical healing as well through bodily resurrection from the dead.

We are not guaranteed physical healing in this life—though God does sometimes choose to work in that way. We are, however, guaranteed such healing in the life to come, when God will unite our souls with our physical bodies in a glorified and perfected state (Rom. 8:23, 30; 1 Cor. 15:42–44).

In Isa. 53:7–9, we learn more about the perfection and innocence of the servant of the Lord who takes the punishment God’s people deserve.

Pains in Death (53:7–9)

The servant is taken away “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter” (Isa. 53:7) and killed for the transgression of God’s people (Isa. 53:8). When John the Baptist lays eyes on Jesus, he alludes to this passage, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Revelation 5 also alludes to Isaiah 53, describing a lamb who had been slain to ransom a people for God by His blood (Rev. 5:6, 9). This servant, this lamb, is innocent of any transgression—as 1 John 3:5 attests, “in him there is no sin” (citing that phrase in Isaiah 53:9).

The point is clear: the type of the spotless Passover lamb (Exodus 12) is fulfilled by the antitype of Jesus Christ, the sinless Lamb of God (1 Pet. 3:18). All through the Old Testament, God covers His people’s sin through repeated blood sacrifices (Gen. 3:21; Lev. 4:3–4, 13–17, 22–26; 16:11, 15–16). The author of Hebrews explains that Jesus enables the forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22) through a one-time blood sacrifice (Heb. 9:26, 10:12) that accomplishes eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12).

Charles Wesley sums up well the accomplishment of the Lamb of God:

The Lord in the day
Of his anger did lay
Our sins on the Lamb, and he bore them away;
He died to atone
For sins not his own,
The Father hath punished for us his dear Son.

In Isa. 53:10–12, we see that the undeserved punishment of the servant results in undeserved righteousness for God’s people.

For Us (53:10–12)

Mark alludes to Isa. 53:10–11 in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Cf. Matt. 20:28). The ransom Jesus paid goes to satisfy the record of debt sinners have before God (Col. 2:13–14).

Isa. 53:11 says the impact of the death of the servant, the righteous one, is that it will “make many to be accounted righteous.” Paul picks this up in Romans 5:15 and 5:19, noting that while guilt and a corrupt nature were transmitted to all people through the first Adam, the free gift of righteousness is transmitted to all who believe in Jesus, this second and better Adam.

Paul also alludes to the servant “making many to be accounted righteous” in Romans 4:25 when he speaks of Jesus being “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” This justifying work gives us peace with God through Jesus (Rom. 5:1). While we were still sinners, God sent the servant for His people (Rom. 5:8) offering salvation and life to those who deserve the exact opposite.

Finally, we will look at Jesus’s allusion to Isaiah 53 in His institution of the Lord’s Supper and the meaning this gives to this precious and powerful ordinance.

Remembering and Proclaiming the Lord’s Death Until He Comes

When Jesus commands His disciples to take and eat of his flesh and drink of his blood through the sign of the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:19), He alludes to Isaiah 53:12, where Isaiah says the servant poured out his soul to death making intercession for transgressors. Jesus taught this as He sat down to observe the Passover with His disciples, knowing that He was the fulfillment of that annual remembrance (Luke 22:7–15). Jesus commands His disciples to observe the Supper until He returns and invites all of God’s people to the future marriage supper of the lamb (Rev. 19:9).

Every time believers in a local church eat the bread and drink the cup of communion (1 Cor. 11:24–26), we remember and proclaim that the promised servant of Isaiah 52:14, whose appearance would be marred beyond human semblance, has come.

We proclaim that though we have sin, this man of sorrows has taken our place and borne our griefs (Isa. 53:3–4). We remember that He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities (Isa. 53:5). We proclaim that He bore the shame we deserve, so that we who deserve to endure just punishment for our sin, may instead receive the gift of righteousness (Isa. 53:11–12) and through it, eternal life.

In the Supper, we remember and proclaim the central event of human history, the cross of Christ. As we observe the Supper, the physical expression of a spiritual reality, and proclaim these glorious truths, the Holy Spirit applies them to our hearts and strengthens our faith.

Conclusion

It is no wonder that Isaiah 52:13–53:12 occupies such a cherished place in the life of the church. In this central text about the cross of Christ, the Lord promises a remedy for the biggest problem every person faces: separation from Him because of willful disobedience.

God’s remedy is a person; Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate. The antitype of the spotless Passover lamb (Exodus 12), Jesus’s substitutionary sacrifice enables forgiveness of sins, something the blood of goats and lambs could never accomplish.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost, a work that centers on His atoning sacrifice. That work is done; it is finished. Therefore, we can say with Paul, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54b–55). Indeed, these are matters of first importance.