Our God Has Scars: The Father Crushed The Son For Our Redemption (Isaiah 53)

I’m not at all sure where the phrase originated but it is profound. “Only the Christian God has scars.”. For many, many years it has been known that Christianity is unique in what it believes about God. In fact, the earliest Christians were ridiculed for their belief in God coming to Earth and dying. Early mocking of Christians is recorded in the pages of history with drawings of a donkey dying on a cross. The idea of God coming was absolutely ridiculous to them, but do you know what was more ridiculous? God dying. God coming to Earth is unique in history, but God dying takes unique to a whole other level.

Amanda had been telling me for a few days that Lydia was very concerned about Jesus dying. She actually said, “I don’t want Jesus to die!” while making a sad face on a couple of occasions. One night while Amanda was gone Lydia got into a good amount of trouble. After being disciplined on three different occasions within an hour we sat and had a talk. I said to her,

“Lydia, Mommy and Daddy love you very much. That’s why we do this. We do bad things by nature because we have some evil in our hearts. That’s why Jesus came and died. We do bad things and have bad hearts and so we deserve punishment. But God wanted to save us from that. So, He sent His Son to come and take that punishment for us. His Son was Jesus and that’s why He died. He died because we are bad and do bad things and Jesus saved us from that by dying for us. But Lydia, He’s not dead anymore. After three days He rose and is still alive.”

We then read three chapters from the children’s book called, “The Jesus Storybook Bible” concerning Jesus’ death and resurrection. She pored over the pictures while I read the story. During the story of the Crucifixion she looks at the picture of Jesus and talks about all of His scratches. And I keep telling her, He took those scratches for us. She sees them on her chest, arms, and face and I just keep saying to her that Jesus did that for us. He took the punishment for us.

After Jesus rose from the dead she relaxed enough to go to sleep. She may not grasp this truth now, but one day God willing she will understand that our God has scars.

We are rebels against God, having turned our backs on our Creator. We are not just people who’ve made the occasional mistake, we are people who have completely rebelled against our Creator. And we have earned for our self the justice, the fierce wrath of God. We need a rescue.

What we will find as we look at Isaiah 53 is that He has these scars because the Father crushed the Son for us. We will see that Jesus was crushed in our place, by God, for glory.

Jesus was crushed in our place, by God, for glory.

Jesus Was Crushed In Our Place (Isaiah 53:1-5)

Isaiah has already been discussing the coming of His Servant for a bit of time now, especially at the end of chapter 52. We understand that this person is going to come and do glorious things for Israel and “many nations”. We understand now that this person came over 2,000 years ago and His name is Jesus Christ.

Isaiah goes on to get incredibly detailed about the life of the one who could come written hundreds of years before Christ came.

“Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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.” – Isaiah 53:1-5 ESV

Let us begin to speak of all the ways that this discusses Jesus. The writer begins discussing the humble means by which this one to come would be born. Jesus Himself, we know, was born in rather humble means. He was born in a stable when no inn could be found for Him and He did not grow up wealthy. Isaiah says that He was like a “root out of dry ground”. Not only was His prosperity lacking but also was the land that He came from. Nazareth was not a highly devout portion of Jerusalem. As far as keeping God’s Law, we know that these people didn’t take it very seriously. We know that His parents did, making the incredibly long journeys to obey God’s Word. However, this was not usual for people of this area.

It’s easy to see why Jesus would be “despised and rejected by men”. It is easy to figure out why people would have little esteem for him. He just didn’t seem to be anything special. He came from humble means and a region that was rather unfaithful. So now it makes more sense when Philip tells Nathaniel about Jesus in John 1, Nathaniel’s response is “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). He seemed to be utterly astounded at the thought that anyone that came from there could be worth going to take a second look at. Jesus grew up in a place that was poor and poor spiritually. It’s no wonder Nathaniel thought this about him at first.

Isaiah also goes on to say that there was nothing in the way he looked that drew people to him either. He just didn’t look like a king. He didn’t look like someone that the people should be following. He seems by all accounts to have nothing going for him. People simply did not think he had a lot going for him throughout most of his life.

Sure there were times in Jesus’s life when the masses came out to hear him preach. Sometimes the crowds were quite large, probably in the 10,000 plus range. But for most of his time on Earth it was not that way. And then Isaiah zeroes in specifically on the suffering of Christ.

As Jesus suffered the people there considered him to be suffering under just condemnation. Isaiah said,

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Do you remember what you’ve heard about that faithful day when God passed away? Do you remember what people thought of him? He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey under a hail of praise but days later he was not liked. He was despised. The religious leaders of Jesus’s day accused him of claiming to be God. If it wasn’t true it was blasphemy and earned for Jesus death. The claim of the religious leaders was not untrue. He had on a number of occasions claimed to be God, but it was true. Yet, Jesus did not defend Himself. He remained silent as he was drug from court to court punched, kicked, spat upon, and mocked. He was despised. He was rejected. He was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. And if I saw someone treated that way I would not want to look upon him and I definitely would not envy him. But look at what Isaiah says next.

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” At the very time that those Pharisees were working up the crowd and getting them to cry out, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” louder and louder He was bearing our griefs and our sorrows. At the same time that Jesus was having the crown of thorns beat upon His head and the cat of nine tails tearing at his back, he was being viewed as having earned it for himself. But what was really going on was he was bearing our sin and our shame. When he was hanging there on that cross with nails buried into his wrists and feet, he was seen as having earned it for himself…as being “stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted”, while somewhat true it was for nothing that he had done. He was doing it for God’s people.

As the crowd roared thinking justice was being done, Jesus was taking the just punishment of others upon himself in the greatest act of grace that this world has ever known. As he was beaten nearly to death with a device that was tearing his flesh, it was for our healing and nothing that he had done. As he had nails piercing his hands and feet, it was for our healing and nothing that he had done. We are healed by those piercings and we are healed by those stripes of a disease that is much more deadly than cancer with a 100% mortality rate. Sin. And it is through his stripes and piercings that we are healed.

I can’t help but think of the nails being hammered into Jesus’s wrists as I read this verse. He was pierced for my sin and I see an arm there with the nail being driven in. These nails would support his weight as he hung there suffocating. And the nail in his feet are there as well. It would be these nails that he would put pressure on every time he took a breath. He was pierced for my sin.

I can’t help but think about the lashings being taken when I read this verse. When I read, “by his stripes you are healed”, I see him there being whipped nearly to death. I see him tied to a post with much of the flesh in his back exposed and probably even around to his chest. I see blood poured out upon the ground with these wounds exposed and I hear Isaiah’s words ring in my head. It’s by his wounds that I am healed.

This is the chastisement that Isaiah says brings us peace with God: Christ dying in my place. This is God’s rescue plan. This is how he will bring us to him, Christ dies in our place.

And though this crushing act of grace seemed to be being carried out by the Roman Pontiff, the Roman Soldiers, and egged on by the Pharisees and Jewish Citizens it was actually God that was in the driver’s seat.

Jesus Was Crushed By God (Isaiah 53:6-10)

As Isaiah moves to verse 6 we start to see something quite peculiar. This person coming to save God’s people is crushed by God for the salvation of his people.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” – Isaiah 53:6-10 ESV

He begins by stating that we have “gone astray”. We have sinned. We have rebelled against God. God created us. He gave us life and breath and everything that we have in our lives. And how did we respond? We responded in rebellion against him. We did not, nor do we now keep his laws as we ought. We do not love him and worship him as we ought and have earned for ourselves his wrath and justice. And it was upon Jesus that all of our iniquity was “laid on”.

We are sinners in rebellion against God and it is laid upon him. It is the great transaction. My sin and my shame are laid upon Jesus. He takes it upon himself and dies in my place. God’s wrath and justice are laid upon him instead of me. He is my substitute. But notice who makes the exchange. It is God. It is God laying our sin upon Jesus. Jesus is there paying for my sin instead of me.

Jesus was most definitely oppressed and afflicted. But notice his reaction. He did not open his mouth. Like a sheep before its shearers is quite so was Jesus. He willingly took this upon himself. He knew what was coming. He had spent the previous night pleading with God for this not to happen. He had spent the previous night pleading with God knowing that this was going to be horrific. He plead with God so much that he sweat drops of blood, but there was no other way. And so, Jesus willingly went to the cross with no objection whatsoever. He was taken as a lamb is taken to slaughter.

Under the cries of “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Jesus was taken away. He had already been unjustly arrested, beaten, spat upon, and without a word of objection at any court Jesus would go to the cross. This was his path to death for the transgression, or sin, of God’s people. There was no wickedness whatsoever found in Christ, yet he made his grave with the wicked hung between two thieves. And he was buried in the tomb of a rich man in his death. Written 100’s of years before Christ such marvelous details, but also such agony and anguish displayed by Christ in his death as he was cut off from the land of the living.

Isaiah, as clearly as can possibly be stated, points out who it was that was doing the crushing. Jesus was drug to court, to another court, back to the original court, reluctantly sentenced to die a gruesome execution at the hands of the Romans by the coercion of the Jews, yet it is none of these people that is given the ultimate credit for this happening.

“Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;”

This is Earth shattering. My soul gets still every time I read this phrase. I am brought into a moment of clarity while seeing and understanding everything more clearly. “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him”. Who was it that crushed Jesus? Was it Pontius Pilate? Was it Roman soldiers who beat Jesus, flogged him, mocked him, and nailed him to the cross? Was it the Hebrew people demanding his crucifixion? Even though all were involved none are the ultimate person responsible. God is ultimately the one responsible. “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him.” But what was the purpose?

The purpose it says, is that he is made an offering for guilt. Again, we earned the wrath and the justice of God and Jesus paid the punishment. Jesus was crushed in our place by God.

Jesus Was Crushed For Righteousness (Isaiah 53:11-12)

So far the whole passage has been heavy. The message is glorious but the message is also more than I can bear. The agony and anguish of Jesus has been on full display all the way through. Yet Jesus purchased a glory in his suffering that is beyond comprehension.

“Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors”

My Prayer For Us

It is my prayer that we become a group that understands this well. This is the good news. Christ has come and has died in my place. God placed the punishment for my sin upon him and accomplished for me a most glorious salvation. We have to live in this and dwell in it always. My prayer is that we would be a group of people that will live in this truth.

When we don’t feel loved we can comfort ourselves in this. How do I know that Christ loves me if I am a believer. Because Christ died for me. This is love, glorious love. When we don’t feel like God cares for us we can look to the cross. When suffering doesn’t make sense we can look to the cross and see that Christ suffered to eventually make an end of suffering. I pray that we will live in the hope of Christ.

If you are reading this and are not a believer then my last words here are for you. Trust in Christ. He is mighty to save and has accomplished salvation for you. Turn from ruling your own life and trust in Him.

R. Dwain Minor