Jesus was the expiation for sin

JESUS WAS THE EXPIATION FOR SIN
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Isaiah53:10 10
Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him
and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes
his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspringand
prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will
prosper in his hand.
Expiation By Spurgeon
“You shall make His soul an offering for sin.”
Isaiah 53:10
BOTH Jews and Gentiles knew pretty well what an offering for sin meant. The Gentiles
had been in the habit of offering sacrifices. The Jews, however, had by far the clearer idea
of it. And what was meant by a sin offering? Undoubtedly it was taken for granted by the
offerer that without shedding blood there was no remission of sin. Conscious of guilt and
anxious for pardon, he therefore brought a sacrifice, the blood of which should be poured
out at the foot of the altar. He was persuaded that without sacrifice there was no
satisfaction and without satisfaction there was no pardon.
Then the victim to be offered was, on all occasions, a spotless one. The most scrupulous
care was taken that it should be altogether without blemish–for this idea was always
connected with a sin offering–that it must be sinless in itself. And being without spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing, it was held to be a competent victim to take the offender’s place.
That done, the victim being selected, the offerer put his hand upon the sin offering–and
this, indeed, was the essence of the whole transaction–putting his hand on the victim he
confessedhis sin and a transference took place, in type at least, from the offender to the
victim. He did, as it were, put the sin from off his own shoulders on to those of the lamb, or
the bullock, or the male goat which was now about to be slaughtered.
And, to complete the sin offering, the priest draws his knife and kills the victim which must
be utterly consumed with fire. I say this was always the idea of a sin offering–that of a
perfect victim, without offense on its own account–taking the place of the offender, the
transference of the offender’s sin to the victim, and the expiation in the person of the victim
for the sin done.

Now, Jesus Christ has been made by God an offering for sin and O that tonight we may be
able to do in reality what the Jew did in metaphor! May we put our hand upon the head of
Christ Jesus and as we see Him offered up upon the Cross for guilty men, may we know
that our sins are transferred to Him and may we be able to cry, in the ecstasy of faith,
“Great God, I am clean! Through Jesus' blood I am clean!”
1. In trying, now, to expound the doctrine of Christ’s being an offering for sin, we will
begin by laying down one great axiom, which is, that SIN DESERVES AND
DEMANDS PUNISHMENT. Certain Divines have objected to this. You are aware, I
suppose, that there have been many theories of Atonement and every new or
different theory involves a new or different theory of sin. There are some who say
that there is no reason in sin itself why it should be punished, but that God punishes
offenses for the sake of society at large. This is what is called the governmental
theory–that it is necessary for the maintenance of good order that an offender
should be punished–but that there is nothing in sin itself which absolutely requires a
penalty.
Now we begin by opposing all this and asserting, and we believe we have God’s warrant of
it, that sin intrinsically and in itself demands and deserves the just anger of God and that
that anger should be displayed in the form of a punishment. To establish this, let me appeal
to the conscience–I will not say to the conscience of a man who has, by years of sin,
dwindled it down to the very lowest degree. But let me appeal to the conscience of an
awakened sinner, a sinner under the influence of the Holy Spirit. And are we ever in our
right senses, Brothers and Sisters, till the Holy Spirit really brings us into them?
May it not be said of each of us as it was of the prodigal–“He came to himself”? Are we not
beside ourselves till the Holy Spirit begins to enlighten us? Well, ask this man, who is now
really in the possessionof his true senses, whether he believes that sin deserves punishment
and his answer will be quick, sharp and decisive–“Deserve it,” says he, “yes, indeed. And
the wonder is that I have not suffered it. Why, Sir, it seems a marvel to me that I am out of
Hell and Wesley’s
‘Tell it unto sinners, tell,
I am, I am out of Hell.’ "
“Yes, Sir,” says such a sinner, “I feel that if God should strike me now, without hope or
offer of mercy, to the lowestHell, I should only have what I justly deserve. And I feel that if
I am not punished for my sins, or if there is not some plan found by which my sin can be
punished in another, I cannot understand how God can be Just at all! How shall He be the
Judge of all the earth if He suffers offenses to go unpunished?” There has been a dispute
whether men have any innate ideas, but surely this idea is in us as early as anything–that
virtue deserves reward and sin deserves punishment. I think I might venture to assert that
if you go to the most degraded race of men you would still find, at least, some traces of this–
shall I call it tradition–or is it not a part of the natural light which never was altogether
eclipsed in man?
Man may put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light for
darkness, but this follows him as a dog at the heels of its master–a sense that virtue should
be rewarded and that sin must be punished. You may stifle this voice, if you will, but
sometimes you will hear it and terribly and decisively will it speak in your ears to say to

you, “Yes, Man, God must punish you. The Judge of all the earth cannot suffer you to go
Scot free.”
Add to this another matter, namely, that God has absolutely declared His displeasure
against sin itself. There is a passage in Jeremiah, the forty-fourth chapter and the fourth
verse, where He calls it, “That abominable thing which I hate.” And then, in Deuteronomy,
the twenty-fifth chapter, at the sixteenth verse, He speaks of it as the thing which is an
abomination to Him. It must be the Character of God that He has a desire to do towards
His creatures that which is equitable. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” If
there is anything in them which deserves reward, rest assured He will not rob them of it.
And, on the other hand, He will do the right thing with those who have offended–if they
deserve punishment–it is according to the Nature and Character of a just and holy God
that punishment should be inflicted.
And we think there is nothing more clear in Scripture than the Truth that sin is in itself so
detestable to God that He must and will put forth all the vigor of His tremendous strength
to crush it and to make the offender feel that it is an evil and a bitter thing to offend against
the Most High. Beware, you who forget God in this matter, lest He tear you in pieces and
there be none to deliver you! Sin must be punished. The other idea that sin is only to be
punished for the sake of the community involves injustice. If I am to be damned for the
sake of other people, I object to it. No, Sir, if I am to be punished, Justice says, at any rate,
that it shall be for my own sins. But if I am to be eternally a castaway from God’s Presence
merely as a sort of trick of Government to maintain the dignity of His Law, I cannot
understand the justice of this.
If I am to be cast into Hell merely that I am to teach to others the tremendousness of the
Divine holiness, I shall say there is no justice in this. But if my sin intrinsically and of itself
deserves the wrath of God and I am sent to perdition as the result of this fact, I close my
lips and have nothing to say. I am speechless. Conscience binds my tongue. But if I am told
that I am only sent there as a part of a scheme of moral government, and that I am sent
into torment to impress others with a sense of right, I ask that someone else should have the
place of preacher to the people and that I may be one of those whose felicity it shall be to be
preached to–for I see no reason in justice why I should be selectedas the victim.
Really, when men run away from the simplicities of the Gospel in order to make Jehovah
more kind, it is strange how unjust and unkind they make Him! Sinner, God will never
destroy you merely to maintain His government, or for the good of others. If you are
destroyed, it shall be because you would not come to Him that you might have life! Because
you would rebel against Him! Because sin from stern necessity did, as it were, compel the
attribute of Divine Justice to kindle into vengeance and to drive you from His Presence
forever. Sin must be punished.
The reverse of this doctrine–that sin demands punishment–may be used to prove it, for it is
highly immoral, dangerous, and opens the floodgates of licentiousness to teach that sin can
go unpunished. O Sirs, it is contrary to fact. Look! O, if your eyes could see, tonight, the
terrible justice of God which is being executednow–if these ears could but hear it–if you
could be appalled for a moment with–
“The sullen groans and hollow moans,
And shrieks of tortured ghosts,”

you would soon perceive that God is punishing sin! And if sin deserves not to be punished,
what is Hell but injustice on a monstrous scale? What is it but an infinite outrage against
everything which is honest and right, if these creatures are punished for anything short of
their own deeds? Go and preach this in Hell and you will have quenched the fire which is
forever to burn and the worm of conscience will die.
Tell them in Hell that they are not punished for sin and you have taken away the very sting
of their punishment! And then come to earth and go, like Jonah went–though with another
message than Jonah carried–through the highways and the broadways, the streets and
thoroughfares of this exceeding great city and proclaim that sin is not to be punished for its
own intrinsic desert and baseness! But if you expect your prophecy to be believed, enlarge
the number of your jails and seek for fresh fields for transportation in the interests of
society, for if any doctrine can breed villains this will. Say that sin is not to be punished and
you have unhinged government–you have plucked up the very gate of our common
prosperity. You will have been another Samson to another Gaza and we shall soon have to
rue the day.
But, Sirs, I need not stop to prove it. It is written clearly upon the consciousness of each
man and upon the conscience of every one of us, that sin must be punished. Here are you
and I tonight brought into this dilemma. We have sinned. We all, like sheep, have gone
astray and we must be punished for it. It is impossible, absolutely, that sin can be forgiven
without a sacrifice! God must be just if Heaven falls. If earth should pass away and every
creature should be lost, the justice of God must stand–it cannot by any possibility be
suffered to be impugned. Let this, then, be fully established in our minds.
You need not to be told, as for the first time, that God in His infinite mercy has deviseda
way by which Justice can be satisfied and yet Mercy can be triumphant. Jesus Christ, the
Only-Begotten of the Father, took upon Himself the form of man and offered unto Divine
Justice that which was accepted as an equivalent for the punishment due to all His people.
II. Now, the second matter that I wish to bring under your notice is this, THAT THE
PROVISION AND ACCEPTANCE OF A SUBSTITUTE FOR SINNERS IS AN ACT OF
DIVINE GRACE. It is no act of Grace for a person to accept a pecuniary debt on my
behalf of another person. If I owe a man twenty pounds, it is no matter to him, whatever,
who shall pay the twenty pounds so long as it is duly paid. You know that you could legally
and at once demand a receipt and a release from anyone who is your creditor so long as his
debt is discharged, though it is discharged by another and not by you.
It is so in pecuniary matters, but it is not so in penal matters. If a man is condemned to be
imprisoned, there is no law, there is no justice, which can compel the lawgiver to accept a
substitute for him. If the sovereign should permit another to suffer in his place it must be
the sovereign’s own act and deed. He must use his own discretion as to whether he will
accept the substitute or not, and if he does so, it is an act of charity. In God’s case, if He
had said in the Infinite Sovereignty of His absolute will, “I will have no substitute, but each
man shall suffer for himself. He who sins shall die,” none could have murmured.
It was Grace and only Grace which led the Divine mind to say, “I will accept a Substitute.
There shall be a vicarious suffering and My vengeance shall be content and My mercy shall
be gratified.” Now, dear Friends, this Grace of God is yet further magnified, not only in the
allowance of the principle of substitution, but in the providing of such a Substitute as
Christ–on Christ’s part that He should give up Himself, the Prince of Life, to die. The King

of Glory to be despised and rejected of men! The Lord of angels to be a Servant of servants,
and the Ancient of Days to become an Infant of a span long.
Think of the distance–
“From the highest Throne in Glory,
To the Cross of deepest woe,”
and consider the unexampled love which shines in Christ’s gift of Himself! But the Father
gives the Son. “God so loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” To give your wealth is
something, if you make yourself poor–but to give your child is something more. When the
patriot mother tears her son from her bosom and cries, “Go, my first-born, to your
country’s wars. Go and fight until your country’s flag is safe and the hearths and homes of
your native land are secure,” there is something in it, for she can look forward to the
bloody spectacle of her son’s mangled body and yet love her country more than her own
child! Here is heroism, indeed.
But God spared not His own Son, His Only-Begotten Son, but freely delivered Him up for
us all. “God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us.” I implore you, do not look upon the Sacrifice of Christ as an act of mere vengeance
on the Father’s part! Neverimagine, oh, never indulge the idea that Jesus died to make the
Father complacent towards us! Oh, no, dear Friends, Jesus' death is the effect of
overwhelming and infinite love on the Father’s part. And every blow which wounds, every
infliction which occasions sorrow, and every pang which rends His heart, speaks of the
Father’s love as much as the joy–the everlasting triumph which now surrounds His head.
Let us add, however, to this, that although Jesus Christ’s dying as a Substitute does give to
Him lawful right to all promised privileges and does make Him, as the Covenant Head of
His people, a claimant of the Divine Mercy, yet it does not render any of the gifts which we
receive from God, any the less gifts from God. Christ has died, but still, everything that we
receive comes to us entirely as a gratuitous outflow of God’s great heart of love.
Neverthink you have any claim to anything because Christ purchased it. If you use the
word claim at all, let it always be in so humble and modified a sense that you understand
that you are still receiving not of debt, but of Grace. Look upon the whole transaction of a
Substitute and of Christ becoming the Second Adam as being a matter of pure, rich, free,
Sovereign Grace and never indulge the atrocious thought, I pray you, that there was
Justice and Justice only, here. Let us, rather, magnify the love and pity of God in that He
did devise and accomplish the great plan of salvation by an atoning Sacrifice.
III. But now, to go a step further and with as much brevity as possible. The Lord
established the principle of Substitution, having provided a Substitute and having through
Him bestowed upon us gratuitously innumerable mercies. Let us observe THAT JESUS IS
THE MOST FITTING PERSON TO BE A SUBSTITUTE, AND THAT HIS WORK IS
THE MOST FITTING WORK TO BE A SATISFACTION. Let every sinner here, who
desires something stable to fix his faith upon, listen to these simple Truths of God which I
am trying to put as plainly as possible.
You do understand me, I trust, that God must punish sin. That He must punish you for sin
unless someone else will suffer in your place. That Jesus Christ is the Person who did suffer
in the place of all those who everhave believed on Him, who do believe in Him, or ever

shall believe in Him–making for those who believe on Him a complete Atonement by His
Substitution in their place.
Now we say that Christ was the best Person to be a Substitute, for just consider what sort
of a mediator was needed. Most absolutely he must be one who had no debt of his own. If
Christ had been at all under the Law naturally. If it had been His duty to do what it is our
duty to do, it is plain He could only have lived for Himself. And if He had any sin of His
own, He could only have died for Himself, seeing His obligations to do and to suffer would
have been His just due to the righteousness and the vengeance of God.
But on Christ’s part there was no natural necessity for obedience, much less for obedience
unto death. Who shall venture to say that the Divine Lord amidst the glories of Heaven
owed to His Father anything? Who shall say it was due to the Divine Father that Christ
should be nailed to the accursed tree, to suffer, bleed and die–and then be cast into the
grave? None can dare to say such a thing! He is Himself perfectly free, and therefore can
He undertake for others. One man who is drawn for the militia cannot be a substitute for
another person so drawn, because he owes for himself his own personal service.
I must, if I would escape and would procure a substitute, find a man who is not drawn, and
who is, therefore exempt. Such is Jesus Christ. He is perfectly exempt from service and
therefore can volunteer to undertake it for our sake. He is the right Person. There was
needed, also, one of the same nature with us. Such is Jesus Christ. For this purpose He
became Man, of the substance of His mother, very Man, such a man as any of us. Handle
Him and see if He is not flesh and bones. Look at Him and mark if He is not Man in soul as
well as in body. He hungers! He thirsts! He fears! He weeps! He rejoices! He loves! He dies!
Made in all points and like unto us, being a Man and standing exactly in a man’s place,
becoming a real Adam, as true an Adam as was the first Adam, standing quite in the first
Adam’s place, He is a fit Person to become a Substitute for us. But please observe, (see if
you cannot throw your grappling hooks upon this), the dignity of His Sacred Person made
Him the most proper Person for a Substitute. A mere man could at most only be a
substitute for one other man. Crush him as you will and make him feel in his life every
pang which flesh is heir to, but he can only suffer what one man would have suffered. He
could not, I will venture to say, eventhen have suffered an equivalent for that eternal
misery which the ungodly deserve.
And if he were a mere man, he must suffer precisely the same. A difference may be made in
the penalty, when there is a difference in the person, but if the person is the same, the
penalty must be precisely and exactly the same in degree and in quality. But the dignity of
the Son of God, the dignity of His Nature, changes the whole matter. A God bowing His
head and suffering and dying in the Person of manhood puts such a singular efficacy into
every groan and every pang, that it needs not that His pangs should be eternal, or that He
should die a second death. Remember that in pecuniary matters you must give a quid pro
quo–but that in matters of penal justice no such thing is demanded. The dignity of the
Person adds a special force to the Substitution and thus one bleeding Savior can make
Atonement for millions of sinful men and women. The Captain of our salvation can bring
multitudes unto Glory!
It needs one other condition to be fulfilled. The person so free from personal service and so
truly in our nature and yet so exalted in person, should also be accepted and ordained of

God. Our text gives this a full solution in that it says, “He shall make His soul an offering
for sin.” Christ did not make Himself a sin offering without a warrant from the Most
High–God made Him so. “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” It was the
sovereign decree of Heavenwhich constituted Christ the great Substitute for His people. No
man takes this office upon himself. Even the Son of God stoops not to this burden uncalled.
He was chosen as the Covenant Head in election. He was ordained in the Divine decree to
stand for His people. God the Father cannot refuse the Sacrifice which He has Himself
appointed. “My son,” said good old Abraham, “God shall provide Himself a lamb for a
burnt offering.” He has done so in the Savior. And what God provides, God must, and will
accept. I wish tonight that I had power to deal with this doctrine as I would. Poor
trembling Sinner, look up a moment! Do you see Him there–Him whom God has set forth?
Do you see Him in proper flesh and blood fastened to that tree?
See how the cruel iron drags through His tender hands! Mark how the rough nails are
making the blood flow profusely from His feet! See how fever parches His tongue and dries
His whole body like a potsherd! Do you hear the cry of His spirit which is suffering more
than His body suffers–“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” This is none other
than God’s Only-Begotten Son! This is He who made the worlds! This is the express image
of His Father’s Person, the brightness of Jehovah’s Glory! What do you think, Man? Is
there not enough there to satisfy God?
Truly it has satisfied God–is there not enough there to satisfy you? Cannot your conscience
rest on that? If God’s appointed Christ could suffer in your place, is it not enough? What
more can Justice ask? Will you now trust Christ with your soul? Come now, Sir! Will you
now fall flat at the foot of the Cross and rest your soul’s eternal destiny in the pierced
hands of Jesus of Nazareth? If you will, then God has made Him to be a sin offering for
you! But if you will not, beware, lest He whom you would not have to be your Savior should
become your Judge and say, “Depart you cursed one, into everlasting fire in Hell!”
IV. We come now to our fourth remark–THAT CHRIST’S WORK AND THE EFFECTS
OF THAT WORK ARE NOW COMPLETE. Christ becomes a Substitute for us. We have
seenhow fit and proper a Person He was to be such. We hinted that from the dignity of His
Person the pains He suffered were a good and sufficient equivalent for our own suffering
on account of sin.
But now the joyous Truth of God comes up that Christ’s work is finished! Christ has made
an Atonement so complete that He never need suffer again! No more drops of blood, no
more pangs of heart, no more bitterness and darkness with exceeding heaviness even unto
death are needed–
“It is done, the great transaction’s done.”
The death-knell of the penalty rings in the dying words of the Savior, “It is finished.” Do
you ask for a proof of this? Remember that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. If He
had not completed His work of penalty-suffering He would have been left in the tomb till
now. Our preaching would have been in vain and your faith would have been in vain–you
and I would have been yet in your sins.
But Jesus rose! God’s sheriff’s officer let Him out of “durance vile” because the account
had been discharged and God’s great Court of King’s Bench sent down the decree to let the
Captive go free. More than that! Christ has ascended up on high. Do you think He would

have returned there with unatoned sin red upon His garments? Do you suppose He would
have ascended to the rest and to the reward of an accomplished work? What? Sit at His
Father’s right hand to be crowned for doing nothing? And rest until His adversaries are
made His footstool when He has not performed His Father’s will? Absurd! Impossible!
His ascension in stately pomp, amidst the acclamations of angels, to the enjoyment of His
Father’s continued smile is the sure proof that the work is complete. Complete it is, dear
Brothers and Sisters, not only in itself, but, as I said, in its effects. That is to say, that there
is now complete pardon for every soul which believes in Christ! You need not do anything
to make the Atonement of Christ sufficient to pardon you! It wants no eking out. It is not as
if Christ had put so much into the scale and it was quivering in the balance–your sins, for
all their gravity, utterly ceasedtheir pressure through the tremendous weight of His
Atonement.
He has outweighed the penalty and given double for all your sins. Pardon, full and free, is
now presented in the name of Jesus, proclaimed to every creature under Heaven, for sins
past, for sins present and for sins to come! For blasphemies and murders, for drunkenness
and whoredom–for all manner of sin under Heaven. Jesus Christ has ascended up on high
and He is exalted that He may give repentance and remission of sin. You have no need of
shillings to pay the priests. Nor is baptismal water wanted to effect the pardon. There is no
willing, doing, being, or suffering of yours required to complete the task.
The blood has filled the fountain full–you have but to wash and be clean–and your sins
shall be gone forever. Justification, too, is finished. You know the difference. Pardon takes
away our filth, but then it leaves us naked. Justification put a royal robe upon us. Now no
rags of yours are wanted–not a stitch of yours is needed to perfect what Christ has done!
He whom God the Father has accepted as a Sin Offering has perfected forever those who
are set apart. You are complete in Christ. No tears of yours, no penance, no personal
mortifications–no, no good works of yours–are wanted to make yourself complete and
perfect. Take it as it is!
O, Sirs, may you have Grace to take it as it is freely presented to you in the Gospel. “He
that believes on Him is not condemned.” “There is, therefore, now, no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus.” Trust Christ! Implicitly trust Christ, and all that He did
shall cover you, while all that He suffered shall cleanse you. Remember, too, that
acceptance is finished. There are the Father’s arms, and here are you–a filthy sinner. I do
not know you, but it may be you have trod the pavements, or you have gone farther than
that and added drunkenness to shame. Perhaps you have gone to the lowest vice, perhaps
to robbery. Who knows what manner of person may step into this place?
But the great arms of the Eternal Father are ready to save you as you are because the great
work of Christ has effectedall that is wanted before God for the acceptance of the vilest
sinner. How is it that the Father can embrace the prodigal? Why, he is fresh from the swine
trough! Look at him! Look at his rags–how foul they are! We would not touch them with a
pair of tongs! Take them to the fire and burn the filth! Take him to the bath and wash him!
Those lips are not fit to kiss–those filthy lips cannot be permitted to touch that holy check
of the glorious Father!
Ah, but it is not so. While he was yet a great way off, his Father saw him–rags and poverty,
and sin and filth, and all–and He did not wait till his son was clean–but ran and fell upon

his neck and kissedhim, just as he was! How could he do that? Why, the parable does not
tell us for it did not run on with the subject to introduce the Atonement. But this explains
it–when God accepts a sinner, He is, in fact, only accepting Christ! He looks into the
sinner’s eyes and He sees His own dear Son’s image there and He takes the sinner in.
As we have heard of a good woman, who whenever a poor sailor came to her door, whoever
he might be, would always make him welcome because, she said, “I think I see my own
dear son who has been these many years away and I have never heard from him. But
whenever I see a sailor, I think of him and treat the stranger kindly for my son’s sake.” So,
my God–when He sees a sinner longing for pardon and desirous of being accepted–He
thinks He sees His Son in him and accepts him for His Son’s sake.
Do not imagine that we preach a Gospel in this place for respectable, godly people. No, we
preach a Gospel here for SINNERS. I heard the other day from one who told me that he
believed we were savedby being perfect–that when we committed sin we at once fall out of
God’s mercy. Well now, supposing that were true! It would not be worth making a large
splutter about. It would not be worth angels singing, “Glory to God in the highest,” about
it, I should think. Any fool might know that God would accept a perfect man. But this is the
thing of marvel for which Heaven and earth shall ring with the praises of the Mediator–
that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly! That Jesus Christ gave Himself for their sin–not for
their righteousness–not for their good deeds!
If He had looked to all eternity, He could not have seenanything in us worthy of so great a
suffering as that which He endured. But He did it for charity’s sake, for love’s sake. And
now, in His name–O that I could do it with His voice and with His love, and with His
fervor–I do beseechyou to lay hold upon Him! No matter who you may be, I will not
exclude you from the invitation. Have you piled your sins together till they seemto provoke
Heaven? Do your sins touch the clouds? Come, and welcome! God has provided a Sin
Offering for you!
Has man cast you out? Say, poor Woman, does the dreary river seemto invite you to the
fatal plunge? God has not cast you out! O you who feel in your own body the effect of your
sin till you are loathing yourself and wishing you had never been born–perhaps you say,
like John Bunyan, “O that I had been a frog, or a toad, or a snake, sooner than have been a
man, to have fallen into such sin and to have become so foul!” Have courage, Sinner! Have
courage! “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let
him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for He will
abundantly pardon.”
Do not doubt this message! God has sent it to you. Do not reject it! You will reject your
own life if you do. Turn at His rebuke! It is a loving voice which speaks to you and that
would speak, perhaps, better and more forcibly if it were not choked with love. I do
implore you, Sinner, come to Jesus! If you are damned it is not for want of invitation! If
you will perish, it is not for want of earnest pleading with you! I tell you, Man, there is
nothing of your own needed! All this is found in the Sin Offering–for you need not find it.
There is no merit of yours needed. There is merit enough in Christ!
Is it not the old proverb that you are not to take coals to Newcastle? Do not take anything
to Christ! Come as you are–just as you are. Tarry not till you go out of this House! The
Lord enable you to believe in Jesus NOW, to take Him NOW as a complete and finished

salvation for you–though you may be the most sunken and abandoned and hopeless of all
characters. Why did God provide a Sin Offering but for sinners? He could not have wanted
to provide it if there was no necessity. You have a great necessity!
You have, shall I say, compelled Him to it. Your sins have nailed Christ’s hands to the
Cross. Your sins have pierced His heart and His heart is not pierced in vain–nor are those
hands nailed there for nothing! Christ will have you, Sinner! Christ will have you! There
are some of God’s elect here and He will have you. You shall not stand against Him.
Almighty Love will have you! He has determined that you shall not do what you have
vowed. Your league with Hell is broken tonight and your covenant with death is
disannulled. The prey shall not be taken from the Mighty, the lawful captive shall be
delivered!
The Lord will yet fetch you up from the depths of the sea. Oh, what a debtor to Grace will
you be! Be a debtor to that Grace tonight! You who are over head and ears in debt, purge
yourself by a simple act of trusting in Jesus and you are saved! Pray, you who know how to
pray, that this message may be made effective in the hands of God. And you who have
never prayed before, God help you to pray now! May He now be found of them who sought
not for Him and He shall have the Glory, world without end. Amen. Amen!
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
A Soul-offering
Isaiah53:10
R. Tuck This prepares us to see that the realsacrifice for sin, which our
Redeemeroffered, was the full surrender of his will, his self, to God, which
found expression, for us to apprehend it, in his bodily sufferings on the cross
(see Hosea 9:14).
I. SIN IS A SOUL-THING. It is not an act; it is a man acting.
II. PENALTY IS A SOUL-THING. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
III. SALVATION IS A SOUL-THING. Christ bore the soul-penalty; Christ
brought life for dead souls. The infinite depth of Christ's suffering lay hidden
- in behind - in the Redeemer's soul, finding only once what seemeda suitable
utterance in human language, and that a cry of immeasurable distress, "My
God, my God, why hast thou forsakenme?" - R.T.

Biblical Illustrator
Yet it pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him.
Isaiah53:10, 11
"It pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him
J. Durham.The Lord's hand was supreme in the business —
1. In respectof His appointing Christ's sufferings. It was concludedin the
counselof God that He should, suffer.
2. In respectof the ordering and overruling of His sufferings. He, who governs
all the counsels, thoughts and actions of men, did, in a specialmanner, govern
and overrule the sufferings of the Mediator;though wickedmen were
following their own design, and were stirred and actedby the devil, who is
said to have put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ — yet God had the
ordering of all who should betray Him, what death He should die, how He
should be pierced, and yet not a bone of Him be broken.
3. In respectof His having had a hand actively in them (John 19:11;Matthew
27:46;Romans 8:32; Zechariah13:7).
(J. Durham.)
The goodpleasure of God in redemption
J. Durham.The goodpleasure of God. Which the prophet marks to show —
1. That all the goodthat comes by Christ to sinners is bred in the Lord's own
bosom.
2. The concurrence of all the Persons ofthe Trinity in promoting the work of
the redemption of sinners.
(J. Durham.)
The Divine complacencyin the sorrows ofChrist
A. Mursell.There are many expressions in Scripture, which, without
explanation, are repugnant to human instincts of justice, and shocking to our
intuitions of love. This is a case in point. He had done nothing overtly or
morally to deserve severity, "yetit pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him." It revolts
our first feeling of equity and compassion;and when the statement is applied
to Him of whom we are taught that God is love, we shrink at the sternness of
the words. Had it been said the Lord found it necessaryto put Him to grief, it
would, have been mysterious enough, and we should have found ourselves

asking "Why?" and catechizing our speculative ideals of Divine equity and of
moral necessity. But to read that it pleasedthe Lord to inflict this bruise and
to impose this grief is a riddle which seems as harsh as it is contradictory.
(A. Mursell.)
The unity of the Fatherand the Son in atonement
A. Mursell.All this confusionand injustice arises from sustaining too literally
in our minds the figure of duality which excludes the Father from
participation in the sacrifice, and the Son from the acquiescentwillinghood of
its executive. It is not the punishment of an innocent Sonby an angry Father
that we have to consider, but rather the co-operationof the entire Godhead in
the tragedyof sorrow out of which the redemption of mortality was born.
Under the figure of Fatherand Son, the Deity devoted the full strength and
tenderness of the Divine characterand resource to the salvationof our race.
And, in this respect, there was, and ever will be, a Divine complacencyin the
sorrow and suffering from which that redemption sprang.
(A. Mursell.)
Christ's complacencyin the Divine sorrows
A. Mursell.Our topic is the Divine complacencyin the sorrows ofChrist. It
will bear transposition;and we canspeak of Christ's complacencyin the
Divine sorrows.Here is a blending of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow, as
full of mystery as of love, but the key to whose mystery is carriedin the bosom
of its love. The sorrows ofChrist were endured in pursuance of the settled and
ancient purpose of God. Notof the purpose of a Father to afflict His Son, but
of the purpose of the Divine Creatorto redeem His universe. There was a
compactof pity and of power in the heart and arm of God as soonas man had
lapsed, that his lapse should be atonedand his fall restored. The Creatorwas
not to be baffled in His plan. His life was bound up in that of His Maker;and
because He lived man must live also. Notonly because He loved us, but
because He would not be defeated, did the mind of Deity set itself to untie the
knot which the serpent had encoiledaround the creature of God's image.
(A. Mursell.)
Divine love and Divine suffering
A. Mursell.1. The sorrows which atonementinvolved became a source of
complacencyto the Divine mind, inasmuch as the Lord foresaw their certain
issues.

2. Norcould this complacencyin sorrow fail to be augmented by the thought
of the universal interest those sorrows would awaken. Earth, for whose sake
they were endured, was the last to show that interest.
3. This complacencywas made complete because the sorrows it confronted
removed the barrier from the exercise ofinfinite beneficence and love. What
is more tantalizing to a soul aflame than love restrained?
(A. Mursell.)
The bruising of the Sonof God the pleasure of His Father
W. Taylor.I. WHOM DID JEHOVAH BRUISE?
II. HOW DID HE BRUISE HIM?
III. WHY DID HE TAKE PLEASURE IN BRUISING HIM?
1. That He might execute His pleasantdecrees.
2. That He might fulfil His pleasantpromises.
3. That He might redeemthe chosenobjects ofHis love.
4. That He might promote His Son to the highest honours.
5. That He might exalt His own glory to the uttermost.
(W. Taylor.)
The bruising of Jesus
J. Wylie, D.D.The Fatherwas "pleased" to bruise Emmanuel.
I. BECAUSE OF THE HOLY SUFFERER'S PERFECT SYMPATHYWITH
HIS PURPOSE, as being the vindication of the Divine holiness, "the
magnifying of the Divine law," and the upholding of the Divine government.
II. BECAUSE UNDER THIS "BRUISING" JESUS WAS MANIFESTING
THE DIVINE LOVE AND SYMPATHY FOR AND WITH US — perfect as it
was God's, and yet true brotherly, as it was man's.
III. BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DESIRED TO SEE IN US.
(J. Wylie, D.D.)
God's purpose in the awful tragedy of the Cross
Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.It is so utter a perversion of justice, so signal a triumph
of wrong over right, so final a disappearance into oblivion of the fairest life
that ever lived, that men might be tempted to say, God has forsakenHis own.
On the contrary. God's own will and pleasure have been in this tragedy. "Yet
it pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him." The line as it thus stands in our English
Version has a grim, repulsive sound. But the Hebrew word has no necessary

meaning of pleasure or enjoyment. All it says is, God so willed it. His purpose
was in this tragedy.
(Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.)
Christ's sufferings; their cause, nature and fruitsThe prophet is still dealing
with the Jews scandals. Whilstyou look only to the outward meanness and
sufferings of Christ, you overlook the design of God in Him.
I. THE WILL OF GOD. "It pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him," etc., that is the
cause ofHis sufferings.
II. THE NATURE OF HIS SUFFERINGS. "WhenThou shall make His soul
an offering for sin."
III. THE FRUITS OF HIS SUFFERING.
( T. Manton, D.D.)
Christ's sufferings Divinely ordainedAll the sufferings of Jesus Christ were
laid on Him by the ordination and appointment of, God the Father. This
appears by Scripture, which asserts —
1. The choice of Christ's person, and the designationand deputation of Him to
the office of Mediator(Isaiah 42:1; John 6:27; Romans 3:25; 1 Peter1:20).
2. The bestowing the personof Christ upon us, so that He was made ours
(John 3:16).
3. The determining of all the sufferings of Christ; not a sorrow, but God had it
in His thoughts before all worlds (Acts 2:23; Luke 22:22; Acts 4:27, 28).
4. There are some expressions whichseemto imply as if there were more than
a bare knowledge and permissionin this greataffair, as if there were some
kind of action in Christ's sufferings. It will be worthy the inquiring, then,
what acts of God, what efficiencythere was from Him towards the sufferings
of Christ?(1) Thus far Godconcurred, by a withdrawing of His presence and
the sight of His favour.(2) By sustaining the wickedinstruments in their
natures, beings, and actings, whilst they were drawing out their spite and
violence againstChrist (Acts 17:28; John 19:11).(3)By serving His love and
glory by their wickedness, thatbruised and afflicted Christ.The reasons ofthis
point are —
1. Becauseallthings fall under His decrees and the care of His providence,
and therefore certainly this matter of Christ does.
2. Becausethis was the specialdesignand contrivance of Heaven to bring
forth Christ into the world; all other dispensations lookedthis way.

( T. Manton, D. D.)
God's eternal pleasure revealedin ChristThe plot of the Gospelwas long since
drawn in heaven, and lay hid in God's breast, till He was pleasedto copy out
His eternalthoughts, and give the world a draught of them.
( T. Manton, D. D.)
God working His own counselthrough human agencyHow is the creature to
blame, then, for smiting and bruising of Christ? Or if to blame, how is God
clear?
1. Forthe creatures'blame. They are faulty —(1) BecauseGods secret
thoughts and intents are not their rule. Hidden things belong to God; and it is
He that workethaccording to the counselof His own will.(2) They had other
ends, though God turned it for good. "With wickedhands ye have taken, and
crucified, and slain."(3)God's decrees did not compel them to evil; it implieth
things will be, though it doth not affect them.
2. Forthe justifying of God when He judgeth. His justice cannot be
impeached, because He infuseth no evil, enforcethto no evil, only ordaineth
what shall be. His goodnesscannotbe impeached for suffering things which
He can turn to such advantage for His own glory and the creature s good. God
s decrees are immanent in Himself, working nothing that is evil in the
creatures.
( T. Manton, D. D.)
When Thou shalt make His Soul an offering for sin.
Christ an offering .for sin
J. Durham.1. It is here supposedthat there is sin on the person, and that
wrath due for sin is to be removed.
2. That there is an inability in the person to remove the sin, and yet a necessity
to have it removed, or else he must suffer.
3. The intervening, or coming of something in the place of that person who is
guilty of sin, and liable to wrath.
4. The acceptance ofthat which interveneth by God, the party offended, and
so a covenant whereby the Lord hath condescendedto acceptthat offering.
(J. Durham.)
Christ a guilt-offering
Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.(R.V., marg.): — Hebrews asham (Leviticus 5:14;
Leviticus 6:7), to be carefully distinguished from the sin-offering (Hebrews

chattah, Leviticus 4:1; Leviticus 5:13). Sin is viewed as a sacrilege, aninvasion
of God s honour: the ashamis the satisfactionpaid for it, viz. the innocent life
of the Righteous Servant.
(Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The guilt-offering
Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.There is a historical passage which, though the term
"guilt-offering" is not used in it, admirably illustrates the idea. A famine in
David's time was revealedto be due to the murder of certainGibeonites by
the house of Saul. David askedthe Gibeonites what reparation he could make.
They said it was not a matter of damages. But both parties felt that before the
law of God could be satisfiedand the land relieved of its curse, some
atonement, some guilt-offering, must be made to the, Divine law. It was a wild
kind of satisfactionthat was paid. Seven men of Saul's house were hung up
before the Lord in Gibeon. But the instinct, though satisfiedin so murderous a
fashion, was a true and a grand instinct — the conscienceofa law above all
human laws and rights, to which homage must be paid before the sinner could
come into true relations with God, or the Divine curse be lifted off.
(Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.)
The Monarchself-surrender, a trespass-offering and a sin
C. Clemance, D.D.-offering:— What this suffering meant, the prophet
indicates in severalphrases which we will link together. "His soul shall make
a guilt-offering" (ver. 10). "He shall bear their iniquities "(ver. 11). "He bare
the sin of many" (ver. 12). These three expressions are derived from the
Mosaic ritual; the first, from the trespass-offering,the second, from the law
concerning the scapegoat, the third from the sin-offering. Inasmuch, however,
as the sending awayof the scapegoatwas a part of the ceremonialconnected
with the sin-offering on the great day of atonement, we may let the secondand
third expressions blend into one. And then we getthe thought that this
suffering Servant would at once fill up the varied meanings of the sin-offering
and of the guilt-offering.
(C. Clemance, D.D.)
In Messiah's offering
Delitzsch, C. Clemance, D. D.1. That there was a distinction betweenthe
significance ofthe trespass-offerings andthat of the sin-offerings is seenin the
fact that eachkind of offerings had its own specific ritual and setof laws
(Leviticus 11:25;Leviticus 7:1). But it is not so easyto point out wherein that
distinction lay. They had some points in common. Both recognizedsin in some

form or other. Though every sin might not be a trespass, yetevery trespass
was a sin, hence (at leastin one case)the trespass was to be atonedfor by a
sin-offering (Leviticus 5:6). Both of them were for sins of omissionand for sins
of commission. Both were for inadvertent and for knownsins. Both were for
sins againstconscience andagainstGod. Both were for some sins against
property. Both were for open and for secretsins. So that it is not surprising
that the two frequently seemto overlap. Still a careful study will help us to
draw out some distinctions betweenthem —(1) The sin-offering recognized
sinfulness as uncleanness commonto the race;the trespass-offering
recognizedsin in the specific acts of any personamong them (cf. Leviticus
5:17 with Leviticus 16:15, 16).(2)The sin-offering regardedall sin; the
trespass-offering onlysome sins (Leviticus 16:34;Leviticus 5:1, 14, 15).(3)The
sin-offering was for all the people, recognizing their oneness;the trespass-
offering was for distinctive cases, recognizing their individuality (Leviticus
16:21;Leviticus 5:1, 14, 17).(4)The sin-offering conveyedthe idea of
propitiation; the trespass-offering embodiedthat of satisfaction, as, overand
above its recognitionof injury done towards God or man, there were specific
injunctions concerning restitution, intimating a certainvalue as the standard
required (Leviticus 16:21, 22;Leviticus 5:18; Numbers 5:5-8).(5) The sin-
offering had its aspectGod-ward;the trespass-offering ratherlookedman-
ward (Leviticus 4:4-6; Leviticus 14:14).(6)The ritual of the sin-offering
symbolized pardon, "covering," the "bearing away" ofsin; that of the
trespass-offering symbolizedpurification or cleansing from sin (cf. Leviticus
16:16, 17;Leviticus 14:14).(7)The treatment of the sin-offering indicated far
deeper reproachthan the treatment of the trespass-offering (Leviticus 4:11,
12; Leviticus 7:6). As the sin that poisons all is far more serious than the
transgressions whichmark eachone, so, on the day of expiation, "the victim,
because it was (symbolically) laden with the uncleanness and guilt of the
whole people, and was consequently unclean, must be takenoutside the camp
and there burned"(Delitzsch).(8) The attitude of the sinner in the sin-offering
was that of believingly recognizing the sacrifice as his substitute God-ward;
but in the case of the trespass-offering he must also be ready with his
compensations man-ward (Leviticus 16:20-22;Leviticus 5:16; Leviticus 6:1-
7).(9) In the sin-offering the priest is always the representative of the offerer;
in the trespass-offering he is generallythe representative of God. "Thus the
trespass-offering was a restitution or compensationmade to God, in being
paid to the priest, a payment or penance which made amends for the wrong
done — a satisfactio in a disciplinary sense."

2. The prophet in the chapter before us declares that the trespass-offering and
the sin-offering will be fulfilled in this Servantof God; that His work for man,
towards God in reference to sin, will take into accountall the aspects ofsin,
will honour all the claims of God, and will meet all the need of man. And so, in
fact, we find it when we come to examine the representations of the work of
our Lord Jesus, as givenus in the New Testament.(1)Our Saviour as the sin-
offering, "sufferedwithout the gate" (Hebrews 13:11, 12).(2)He atones for
sin, and for sins (Hebrews 9:26; Galatians 1:4).(3)He "bears away" a world's
sin, yet "gave Himself for our sins" (John 1:29; Galatians 1:4).(4)The sins of
all are laid on Him, and yet the individual can say, "He gave Himself for me (1
John 2:2; Galatians 2:20).(5)He is the propitiation, and yet the ransom-price
(1 John 4:10; Matthew 20:28).(6)His sacrifice avails towards God, yet is
effective towards man (Hebrews 9:12-24;Hebrews 10:10).(7)By His work our
guilt is pardoned, our sin covered; through it our natures are cleansed
(Romans 4:7, 8; 1 Peter1:2).(8) As He is our propitiation, there is a
reconciliationto be accepted;as He is our ransom-price, our acceptanceof
Him is attended with repentance towards God, and restitution towards man
(Romans 5:8-11; Acts 26:20;Matthew 5:23, 24; Luke 19:7-10).(9)As our
mediating High Priest, He is our representative before God. He pleads His
blood before the throne; yet is He also the voice of God to us, through whom
our pardon is proclaimed (Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:25; Matthew 9:6). Thus
all the ground is coveredby the one great Sacrifice, andnothing is left
undone!
3. Let us learn, then — of the unity there is betweenthe law and the Gospel.
We have this prophecy standing sevenhundred years after the giving of the
one, seven hundred years before the announcement of the other: yet we find
the very phrases of the prophet are adopted from the Mosaic ritual, pointing
to its fulfilment in the Messiah;while the New Testamentteachings as to the
work of Christ are based on both ritual and prophecy, carrying them both on
to their fulness of meaning, and revealing their wealth of glory.(2) We may
well look on with profound reverence as the MostHigh brings out, in ritual,
prophecy, and Gospel, that truth which men are most ready to let slip — viz,
the exceeding sinfulness of sin!(3) In Gospel:prophecy, and ritual, there is, in
order to meet the world's need, not only a central Figure, but a centralfact. In
the ritual, the priest and the offering. In the prophecy, the Messiahand His
offering. In the Gospel, the Christ and His offering. Here is a threefold cord,
"not easilybroken."(4)Neverlet us forgetthe double aspectof the work of
Christ — large enough to coverall the ground; minute enough to point out me
and to save me!(5) We are not saved in sin but from it.(6) Let us not fail to

catchthe keynote of the law and of the Gospel, viz. that nothing is right with a
sinful man till relations betweenhim and God are right.
(C. Clemance, D. D.)
ExpiationBoth Jews and Gentiles knew pretty well what an offering for sin
meant. The Gentiles had been in the habit of offering sacrifices.The Jews,
however, had by far the cleareridea of it.
I. SIN DESERVES AND DEMANDS PUNISHMENT.
II. THE PROVISION AND ACCEPTANCEOF A SUBSTITUTE FOR
SINNERS IS AN ACT OF GRACE.
III. JESUS IS THE MOST FITTING PERSONTO BE A SUBSTITUTE,
AND HIS WORK IS THE MOST FITTING WORKTO BE A
SATISFACTION.
IV. CHRIST'S WORK, AND THE EFFECTS OF THAT WORK ARE NOW
COMPLETE.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ's death and the law of God
Prof. G.A. Smith, D.D.ByHis death the Servant did homage to the law of God.
By dying to it He made men feelthat the supreme end of man was to own that
law and be in a right relation to it, and that the supreme service was to help
others to a right relation. As it is said a little farther down, "My Servant,
righteous Himself, wins righteousness formany, and makes their iniquities
His load.
(Prof. G.A. Smith, D.D.)
The guilt-offering
F. B. Meyer, B. A.It is strange but true, that the saddest, darkestday that ever
broke upon our world is destined to cure the sadness and dissipate the
darkness for evermore. It is to the passionof the Redeemerthat loving hearts
turn in their saddest, darkest, mostsin-conscious hours to find solace, light,
and help.. As though to obviate the possibility of mistaking its meaning, we
are reminded again, and yet again, that the death of the Divine Servant was
no ordinary episode;but distinguished from all other deaths, from all
martyrdoms and sacrifices,in its unique and lonely grandeur — the one
perfect and sufficient sacrifice and oblation for the sins of the whole world.
The prophet s thought will become apparent, if we notice — I THE
COMMON LOT OF MAN. It may be summed up in three words — suffering,
sin, death.

II. THE NOTABLE EXCEPTION OF THIS CHAPTER. The Divine Servant
presents a notable exceptionto the lot of man; not in His sufferings, for He
was "a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" nor in His death, for He
died many deaths in one (ver. 9, R.V., marg.); but in His perfect innocence
and goodness. He had done no violence, neither was any deceit m His mouth.
The Divine Servant has passedthrough every painful experience;has drunk
to its dregs every cup; has studied deeply every black-letteredvolume in the
library of pain. In His case,atleast, man's hastily-formed conclusions are
falsified. Generallywe pass from singular suffering to discoverits cause in
some hidden or remote transgression. In the case ofJesus Christ, however,
this explanation of His unique sufferings was altogetheratfault. Another
explanation must, therefore, be forthcoming to accountfor the sufferings of
the innocent Saviour. The explanation lay hid as a secretconcealedin a
hieroglyph, in the vast system of Levitical sacrifice which foreshadowedthe
"offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." So, under the Divine
guidance, men were led from the conclusions ofver. 4 to those of ver. 5. These
conclusions expressedhere as the verdict of the human conscience, after
scanning the facts in the light of history, are confirmed and clenchedby the
unanimous voice of the New Testament. This is the greatexceptionwhich has
casta new light on the mystery of pain and sorrow. It may be that there is
other suffering, which, in a lower sense and in a smaller measure, is also
redemptive, fulfilling Divine purposes in the lives of others;though no
sufferer is free from sin as Christ was, and none has ever been able to expiate
sin as He.
III. THE PERSONALAPPLICATION OF THESE TRUTHS. "Thoumust
make his soul a guilt-offering" (R.V., marg.) This term, "guilt-offering,"
occurs in the Book of Leviticus. If a man committed a trespass in the holy
things of the Lord, he was directed to selectand bring from his flock a ram
without blemish. This was his "guilt-offering" — the word used here. He was
to make a money restitution for his offence;but the atonement was made
through the ram (Leviticus 5:1-16). Similarly, if a man sinned againsthis
neighbor, either in oppressing him or withholding his dues, or neglecting to
restore property which had been entrusted to him, he was not only to make
restitution, but to bring his guilt-offering to the Lord — a ram without
blemish out of the flock — and the priest made an atonement before the Lord,
and he was forgiven concerning whatsoeverhe had done to be made guilty
thereby (Leviticus 6:1-7). Is there one of us who has not committed a trespass
and sinned in the holy things of the Lord? Is there one of us who has not failed
in his obligations to neighbour and friend? How certainly we need to present

the guilt-offering! There is no mention made of the necessityof summoning
priestly aid. This is the more remarkable, when we considerthe strict
Levitical system in which Israel was cradled. It would seemthat in the great
crisis of its need, the soul of man reverts to an earlier cult, and goes back
beyond the elaborate systemof the temple to the practice of the patriarchal
tent, where eachman actedas his own priest, and offered the guilt-offering
with his own hand. No third personis neededin thy transactions with God.
Jesus is Priest as well as Sacrifice.
(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The atonementand its results
H. Melvill, B.D.I. THE THING DONE. "Whenthou shalt make His soul an
offering for sin." "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." This
sentence, written by the finger of God on the page of Scripture, is also written
as a receivedtruth on every page of the history of heathenism. However we
may recoilfrom the fearful superstitions of Paganism, and weepover that sad
ignorance which can suppose God delighted even with human sacrifice, never
let it be forgottenthat in the bloodiestrites of idolatry there are the vestiges of
a truth which is the very sum and substance of Christianity. We can turn our
gaze to the evidence of what is called natural religion, accompanied, it may be,
and loadedwith what is abominable; and there we find monuments in every
age that God, at some time or another, hath broken the silences ofeternity,
and spokento His apostate creatures, andtaught them that unless there could
be found a sufficient sin-offering, the sinful must bear for ever the burden of
His displeasure. Thus from the first God gave notices of the plan of
redemption, and gradually prepared the way for that oblation which could
alone take awaysin. In the deep recesses ofChrist's undefiled spirit was paid
down the debt which man owedto God.
II. ITS CONSEQUENCES.
(H. Melvill, B.D.)
He shall see His seed
Notable effects following Christ's sufferings
J. Durham.1. "He shall see His seed." Menby the suffering of death are
incapacitatedto increase their offspring, but this is a quickening suffering and
death that hath a numerous offspring.
2. "He shall prolong His days," which seems to be anotherparadox; for men's
days are shortenedby their sufferings and death; but though He be dead and

buried yet He shall rise again and ascend, and sit down at the right hand of
the Fatherand live for ever, to make intercessionfor His people.
3. A third effect, which is the upshot of all, is, "the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in His hand." God hath designedHim for a work — the greatwork of
redemption — even the bringing of many sons to glory. He shall pull many
captives from the devil, and set many prisoners free; He shall, by His
sufferings, overcome the devil, death and the grave, and all enemies;shall
gather the sons of God togetherfrom the four corners of the earth.
(J. Durham.)
Christ seeing His seed
J. Durham.1. A relation implied betwixt Christ and believers. They are "His
seed," suchas in the next verse are said to be "justified" by Him.
2. A prophecy of the event that should follow Christ's sufferings. Our Lord
Jesus should not only have a seed, but a numerous seed.
3. Considering the words as a promise they hold out this — that though our
Lord Jesus suffer and die He shall not only have a seed, but shall "see His
seed." He shall outlive His sufferings and death and shall be delighted in
seeing them who shall get the goodof His sufferings.
(J. Durham.)
Believers Christ's seed
J. Durham.1. They have their being of Him.
2. In respectof the likeness that is betwixt Him and them.
3. In respectof the care that He hath of them.
4. In respectof the portion which they getfrom Him.
5. Becauseofthe manner of their coming to the possessionofthat, which
through Him they have a claim to. They have a claim to nothing, but by being
heirs to and with Him.
(J. Durham.)
Christ seeing His seed
Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.In "shallsee His seedand have long life," the figure of
a patriarch blessedwith longevity and numerous descendants (Genesis1:22,
etc.)is in the prophet s thoughts.
(Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.)
The Atonement indicates the dignity of man

James Duckworth.Mendo not launch lifeboats to pick up corks, andwe may
rest assuredthat in the atonement there is a just proportion betweenmeans
and ends.
(James Duckworth.)
Messiah
R. Muter, D. D.contemplating His spiritual offspring: —
I. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL BORN AND BROUGHT IN.
II. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL EDUCATED AND BROUGHT UP.
III. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL SUPPORTED AND BROUGHT
THROUGH.
IV. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL PERFECTED AND BROUGHT HOME.
(R. Muter, D. D.)
Christ's spiritual Offspring
R. Muter, D. D.I. MESSIAH'S GLORY IS INSEPARABLY CONNECTED
WITH THE HAPPINESS OF HIS OFFSPRING.
II. THE APPLICATION IS NOT LESS CERTAIN THAN THE PURCHASE
OF REDEMPTION.
III. A SEASONABLE AND POWERFULANTIDOTE AGAINST UNDUE
DEPRESSIONOR ALARM ABOUT THE LOW STATE OF RELIGION IN
THE CHURCH.
IV. IT IS OUR DUTY AND HONOUR TO CONCUR IN CARRYING THIS
SCRIPTURE INTO EFFECT.
(R. Muter, D. D.)
Seeing His seed
C. Clemance, D.D.(withJohn 17:2, and Ephesians 5:25-27):— "His Seed."
This clearly implies that the Messiahshouldbe the living Head of a new
spiritual race. As Adam was the head of the human family, and Abraham the
header the Hebrew people, so the Lord Jesus was to be the head of a spiritual
seed. The Psalmistin the secondPsalm, plainly a Messianic one, declares:
"Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance and the
uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession."Our Lord Jesus Himself
spoke of those who would be saved by Him as given to Him by the Father.
And apostles speak ofthe Church as composedof men gatheredto the Lord,
and belonging to Him. Preciselythis thought is expanded in Ephesians 5:25-
27.

I. CHRIST'S SURRENDER OF HIMSELF WAS THE EXPRESSIONOF
HIS LOVE.
II. A LIVING CHURCH, THE CREATION OF HIS LOVE. Just as the
sculptor, before he begins to chip the marble into shape, sees with his mind's
eye the figure which is first conceivedby his genius and then fashionedby his
skill — so with our Divine Redeemer. He from eternity, before man was
created, beheld him coming into being, placed on His own footing, falling,
redeemed, saved. And, as the result of His atoning work, there rises up,
through His Spirit, the fufilment of His own ideal, a new creation, a living
Church, distinguished the marks of forgiveness, justification, renewaland
eternal life.
III. CLEANSING THE CHURCH, THE CONTINUOUS ACTION OF HIS
LOVE. "That He might sanctifyand cleanse it." Then He does not love the
Church because it is clean, but He first loves it that He may make it clean.
IV. PERFECTING THE CHURCH, THE FAR-OFF VISION OF HIS LOVE.
"A glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing."
V. PRESENTINGTHE CHURCH TO HIMSELF, THE REALIZATION OF
THE IDEAL OF HIS LOVE.
(C. Clemance, D.D.)
The posterity of ChristJesus is still alive, for to see anything is the act of a
living person. Do not be afraid that Christ's work will break down because He
is dead. He lives to carry it on.
I. THE DEATH OF CHRIST HAS PRODUCED APOSTERITY. We do not
read that the Lord Jesus has followers. Thatwould be true; but the text
prefers to say He has a seed.
1. All who truly follow Christ and are saved by Him have His life in them.
2. Believers in Christ are said to be His seedbecause they are like Him.
3. They prosecute the same ends, and expect to receive the same reward. We
are towards Christ His seed, and thus heirs to all that He has — heirs to His
business on earth, heirs to His estate in heaven. They speak of the seedroyal.
What shall I say of the seedof Christ? You may be a poor person, but you are
of the imperial house. You are ignorant and unlettered, it may be, and your
name will never shine on the roll of science, but He who is the Divine Wisdom
owns you as one of His seed. It may be that you are sick;by and by you will
die. But you are of His seed, who died, and rose, and is gone into glory. You
are of the seedof Him, "who only hath immortality." It follows if we are thus

of a seed, that we ought to be united, and love eachother more and more.
Christian people, you ought to have a clannish feeling l
II. THAT POSTERITYOF HIS REMAINS. If it had been possible to destroy
the Church of God on earth, it would have been destroyed long ago.
1. Only read the story of the persecutions under Nero, etc. As to our own
country, read the story of persecutions here.
2. There have been laborious attempts to destroy the Church of Christ by
error.
3. Worldliness has gone a long way to destroy the Church of God.
III. THIS POSTERITYIS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMMEDIATE EYE OF
CHRIST. "He shall see His seed." He sees them when they are first born
anew. WhereverHis seedmay wander, He still sees them. This look of Christ
is one of intense delight. He will see all His seedto the last. What a seedHe
will have to see in the morning. It will be a part of His heaven for Him to look
upon His redeemed.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
The enduring life of Christ after His sufferings
C. Clemance, D.D.(withHebrews 7:15, 16, 25). —
The enduring life of Christ after His sufferings: — In these passageswe have
given to us, first in Hebrew prophecy, and then in Christian teaching, the
doctrine of the enduring life of the Christ after His sufferings are over. The
Old Testamentprophet sees from afar the new life of the Messiah, in a blaze
of glory. The New Testamentprophet declares the life alreadybegun, and
indicates the purposes for which that life is being spent as well as the glory
with which it is crowned. The words quoted from the Epistle to the Hebrews
are a goalrather than a starting-point. They teach the following truths —
1. Jesus Christis now exalted: He is a Priestupon His throne.
2. In Him there is the powerof an indissoluble life.
3. Becauseofan indissoluble life, there is an intransmissible priesthood.
4. This life and this priesthoodare in action for the purpose of saving.
5. Since the life is indissoluble, and the priesthood intransmissible, there is an
infinitude of saving power.
(C. Clemance, D.D.)
The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand

The "pleasure ofJehovah
Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.is the Servant's religious mission (Isaiah42:1, 4, 6;
Isaiah49:6, 8).
(Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.)
The successofChrist in His work
G. Campbell.I. WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BYTHE PLEASURE
OF THE LORD, the work which is here said to prosper?
1. What is the work to which the declarationrefers? The term "pleasure of
the Lord," as here used, must he consideredas expressive of His gracious
design to save a number of the human race from sin and all its fatal
consequences;to render them perfectin holiness;and put them in full
possessionofhappiness in the heavenly state. It includes in it, therefore, what
has been termed the work of grace in the soul while here, and the full fruition
of glory hereafter. In this work there are two things to be considered —
(1)The purchase of redemption.
(2)Its application.
2. Why is this work called"the pleasure of the Lord"?
(1)It is the free and sovereignpurpose of His will.
(2)It is a purpose in the accomplishmentof which He takes greatdelight.
II. WHAT PART HAS THE REDEEMERIN THIS WORK? The
managementof it is wholly committed to His care. It is "in His hand."
1. Reconciling sinners unto God is a principal part of the work of salvation
committed to the care of the Redeemer.
2. It belongs to the Redeemer, as their Saviour, to preserve His people from
every thing that is evil in death.
3. The Redeemerhas it in charge to perfectthe salvationof His people, by
putting them in full possessionof glory, honour and immortality, in the
heavenly state.
III. WHAT ASSURANCE WE HAVE, THAT THIS WORK SHALL
PROSPERIN THE HAND OF THE REDEEMER,so as to be fully and
finally accomplished. The language ofthe text. What is here asserted is
supported by many other passagesofthe Word of God. Consider —
1. The characterof Him to whom the work is entrusted.
2. The merit of His obedience, and the perfection of His atonement.

3. The progress He has already in the work.
(G. Campbell.)
The salvationof sinners the pleasure of God
EssexRemembrancer.This willappear if we glance at the means which He has
graciouslyprovided for its accomplishment.
I. HE HAS GIVEN HIS ONLY-BEGOTTENSON.
II. HE HAS HAS GIVEN US HIS WORD.
III. HE HAS ESTABLISHED A GOSPELMINISTRY. The salvationof
sinners is the pleasure of the Lord, and this shall prosper in the hands of
Christ.
1. Omnipotence has promised it, as the reward of His obedience and death.
2. He is gone to carry it on before the throne of God.
3. He will descendto complete it when He shall come to judge the world in
righteousness. Have we entrusted our souls into His hands?
(EssexRemembrancer.)
Human redemption a pleasure to the Almighty
Homilist.I. HUMAN REDEMPTION IS A PLEASURE TO THE
ALMIGHTY, It is not a mere work of intellect, it is a. work of the heart. It is
"His goodpleasure." It is the highest qualification of His benevolence. It is
benevolence restoring the rebellious to order, the sinful to holiness, the
miserable to blessedness. Whatis most pleasing to a being always —
1. Engagesmostof his thoughts.
2. Enlists most of his energies.
II. HUMAN REDEMPTION IS ENTRUSTED TO CHRIST. It shall "prosper
in His hands." He has undertaken the work. Four things are necessaryto
qualify a being to succeedin any undertaking.
1. He should enter on it from a deep sympathy with it. We persevere most in
the work we most love.
2. He should foresee allme difficulties that are destined to occur. When
difficulties arise which we never anticipated, we often get baffled and
disheartened.
3. He should have powerequal to all the emergenciesofthe case.
4. He should have sufficient time for its accomplishment. Deathoften prevents
us from finishing our work. Christ has all these qualifications.

III. HUMAN REDEMPTIONIS DESTINED TO SUCCEED. It "shall
prosper." An argument for the certainty of its accomplishment.
1. Therefore do not be perplexed by the dispensations of Providence. The
result of all the outcome of the chaos will be glorious.
2. Therefore do not be discouragedin your Christian labours.
(Homilist.)
The Divine purpose fufilled
J. Parsons.I. GOD HAS FORMED APURPOSE OF MERCYTOWARD
MANKIND. This is intended by the expression"the pleasure of the Lord."
Notwithstanding the state to which mankind had been reduced by sin, a state
in which God, with justice, might have abandoned them to hopeless
punishment, that God has adopted towards them a far different mode of
procedure. In these mysterious depths of eternity there was a Divine
determination that a wayof recoveryshould be openedfor the guilty. This is
styled "the eternal purpose of grace," "the goodpleasure which the Father
had purposed in Himself," "the goodpleasure of His will," "the goodpleasure
of His goodness." The manifestationof this pleasure of the Lord beganon
earth as soonas the need of mercy existed. The new-economy, establishedat
an ever-memorable era, has explained what might be ambiguous, has
illuminated what might be dark, has supplied what might be deficient under
preceding dispensations, and it lays open before us in substance the whole
counselof the Eternal. We now discernthat the entire fabric of creation, and
the entire system of Providence, are subordinated to the stupendous
achievements of redemption, those achievements the attributes of the Divine
nature being united in harmony to conduct and to perform.
II. THE FULFILMENT OF THIS PURPOSE OF MERCYIS COMMITTED
TO THE LORD JESUS. "The pleasure of the Lord is in His hand," the hand
of the Messiah, the Son of God, committed to Him to be by Him accomplished.
That the Lord Jesus does sustainthis momentous trust is obvious from the
entire testimony of revelation. The Lord Jesus performs the purpose of His
mercy, we observe more particularly, by His own atonement for sin, and by
the communication of the Holy Spirit.
III. UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD JESUS, THE
PURPOSE OF MERCYSHALL BE PERFECTLYAND TRIUMPHANTLY
ACCOMPLISHED. "The pleasure ofthe Lord shall prosper in His hand."

1. The certainty of the accomplishment must appear from the mere existence
of a Divine purpose to that effect. The supreme majesty of the perfections of
God itself secures the fulfilment of whateverHe has designed.
2. The certainty rests upon the inherent excellencyofHis own characterand
work. The proper deity of the Lord Jesus Christ renders failure in His work
impossible.
3. We observe the Divine assurancessolemnlypledged to that effect. Besides
generaldeclarations to which we might easily appealthere are recorded
assurancesaddressedby the Father to the Sonin His mediatorial capacity
respecting the exaltation He was to receive as a specific recompense ofthe
shame and suffering which on behalf of men He had endured.
(J. Parsons.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(10)Yet it pleasedthe Lord . . .—
The sufferings of the Servant are referred not to chance or fate, or even the
wickednessofhis persecutors, but to the absolute “good-pleasure” ofthe
Father, manifesting itself in its fullest measure in the hour of apparent failure.
(Comp. Psalm 22:15.)
When thou shalt make . . .—Better, if his soul shall make a trespass offering,
he will see his seed;he will prolong his days . . . The sacrificialcharacterof the
death of the Servant is distinctly defined. It is a “trespass offering” (Leviticus
6:6; Leviticus 6:17; Leviticus 14:12), an expiation for the sins of the people.
The words declare that such a sacrifice was the condition of spiritual
parentage (Psalm22:30), of the immortality of influence, of eternallife with
God, of accomplishing the work which the Father had given him to do (John
17:4). The “trespassoffering” was, it must be remembered, distinct from the
“sin offering,” though both belongedto the same sacrificialgroup (Leviticus
5:15; Leviticus 7:1-7), the distinctive element in the former being that the man
who confessedhis guilt, voluntary or involuntary, paid his shekels, according
to the judgment of the priest, and offereda ram, the blood of which was
sprinkled upon the altar. It involved, that is, the idea not of an atonement
only, but of a satisfaction, according to the nature of the sin.
MacLaren's ExpositionsIsaiah
THE SUFFERING SERVANT-IV

Isaiah53:10.
We have seena distinct progress of thought in the preceding verses. There
was first the outline of the sorrows andrejection of the Servant; second, the
profound explanation of these as being for us; third, the sufferings, death and
burial of the Servant.
We have followedHim to the grave. What more can there be to be said?
Whether the Servant of the Lord be an individual or a collective or an ideal,
surely all fitness of metaphor, all reality of fact would require that His work
should be representedas ending with His life, and that what might follow His
burial should be the influence of His memory, the continued operationof the
principles He had setagoing and so on, but nothing more.
Now observe that, howeverwe may explain the fact, this is the fact to be
explained, that there is a whole section, this closing one, devoted to the
celebrationof His work after His death and burial, and, still more
remarkable, that the prophecy says nothing about His activity on the world
till after death. In all the former portion there is not a syllable about His doing
anything, only about His suffering; and then when He is dead He begins to
work. That is the subjectof these lastthree verses, and it would be proper to
take them all for our considerationnow, but fur two reasons, one, because of
their greatfulness and importance, and one because, as youwill observe, the
two latter verses are a direct address of God’s concerning the Servant. The
prophetic words, spokenas in his own person, end with Isaiah 53:10, and,
catching up their representations, expanding, defining, glorifying them, comes
the solemnthunder of the voice of God. I now deal only with the prophet’s
vision of the work of the Servant of the Lord.
One other preliminary remark is that the work of the Servant after death is
describedin these verses with constantand very emphatic reference to His
previous sufferings. The closeness ofconnectionbetweenthese two is thus
thrown into greatprominence.
I. The mystery of God’s treatment of the sinless Servant.
The first clause is to be read in immediate connectionwith the preceding
verse. The Servant was of absolute sinlessness,and yet the Divine Hand
crushed and bruised Him. Certainly, if we think of the vehemence of

prophetic rebukes, and of the standing doctrine of the Old Testamentthat
Israelwas punished for its sin, we shall be slow to believe that this picture of
the Sinless One, smitten for the sins of others, canhave reference to the nation
in any of its parts, or to any one man. Howeverother poetry may lament over
innocent sufferers, the Old Testamentalways takes the ground: ‘Our
iniquities, like the wind, have carried us away.’But mark that here, however
understood, the prophet paints a figure so sinless that God’s bruising Him is
an outstanding wonderand riddle, only to be solvedby regarding these
bruises as the stripes by which our sins were healed, and by noting that ‘the
pleasure of the Lord’ is carried on through Him, after and through His death.
What conceivable applicationhave such representations exceptto Jesus? We
note, then, here:-
1. The solemn truth that His sufferings were divinely inflicted. That is a truth
complementary to the other views in the prophecy, according to which these
sufferings are variously regarded as either inflicted by men {‘By oppression
and judgment He was takenaway’} or drawn on Him by His own sacrificial
act {‘His soul shall make an offering for sin’}. It was the divine counselthat
used men as its instruments, though they were none the less guilty. The hands
that ‘crucified and slew’were no less ‘the hands of lawless men,’because it
was ‘the determinate counseland foreknowledgeofGod’ that ‘delivered Him
up.’
But a still deeper thought is in these words. Forwe canscarcelyavoid seeing
in them a glimpse into that dim regionof eclipse and agonyof soul from
which, as from a cave of darkness, issuedthat lastcry: ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabacthani?’The bruises inflicted by the God, who made to meet on Him the
iniquities of us all, were infinitely more severe than the weales ofthe soldiers’
rods, or the wounds of the nails that pierced His hands and feet.
2. The staggering mystery of His sinlessnessand sufferings.
The world has been full from of old of stories ofgoodness tortured and evil
exalted, which have drawn tears and softenedhearts, but which have also
bewildered men who would fain believe in a righteous Governor and loving
Father. But none of these have castso black a shadow of suspicionon the
government of the world by a goodGod as does the fate of Jesus, unless it is
read in the light of this prophecy. Standing at the cross, faith in God’s
goodness andprovidence can scarcelysurvive, unless it rises to be faith in the
atoning sacrifice ofHim who was wounded there for our transgressions.

II. The Servant’s work in His sufferings.
The margin of the RevisedVersion gives the best rendering-’His soulshall
make an offering for sin.’ The word employed for ‘offering’ means a trespass
offering, and carries us at once back to the sacrificialsystem. The trespass
offering was distinguished from other offerings. The central idea of it seems to
have been to represent sin or guilt as debt, and the sacrifice as making
compensation. We must keepin view the variety of ideas embodied in His
sacrifice, andhow all correspondto realities in our wants and spiritual
experience.
Now there are three points here:-
a. The representationthat Christ’s death is a sacrifice. Clearlyconnecting
with whole Mosaic system-andthat in the sense ofa trespass offering. Christ
seems to quote this verse in John 10:15, when He speaks oflaying down His
life, and when He declares that He came to ‘give His life a ransomfor many.’
At any rate here is the greatword, sacrifice, proclaimedfor the first time in
connectionwith Messiah. Here the prophet interprets the meaning of all the
types and shadows ofthe law.
That sacrificialsystembore witness to deep wants of men’s souls, and
prophesied of One in whom these were all met and satisfied.
b. His voluntary surrender.
He is sacrifice, but He is Priestalso. His soul makes the offering, and His soul
is the offering and offers itself in concurrence with the Divine Will. It is
difficult and necessaryto keepthat double aspectin view, and never to think
of Jesus as an unwilling Victim, nor of God as angry and needing to be
appeasedby blood.
c. The thought that the true meaning of His sufferings is only reachedwhen
we contemplate the effects that have flowed from them. The pleasure of the
Lord in bruising Him is a mystery until we see how pleasure of the Lord
prospers in the hand of the Crucified.
III. The work of the Servant after death.

Surely this paradox, so baldly stated, is meant to be an enigma to startle and
to rouse curiosity. This dead Servant is to see ofthe travail of His soul, and to
prolong His days. All the interpretations of this chapter which refuse to see
Jesus in it shiver on this rock. What a contrastthere is betweenplatitudes
about the spirit of the nation rising transformed from its grave of captivity
{which was only very partially the case}, and the historical fulfilment in Jesus
Christ! Here, at any rate, hundreds of years before His Resurrection, is a
word that seems to point to such a fact, and to me it appears that all fair
interpretation is on the side of the Messianic reference.
Note the singularity of specialpoints.
a. Having died, the Servant sees His offspring.
The sacrifice ofChrist is the greatpower which draws men to Him, and moves
to repentance, faith, love. His death was the communication of life. Nowhere
else in the world’s history is the teacher’s deaththe beginning of His gathering
of pupils, and not only has the dead Servant children, but He sees them. That
representationis expressive of the mutual intercourse, strange and deep,
whereby we feelthat He is truly with us, ‘Jesus Christ, whom having not seen
we love.’
b. Having died, the Servant prolongs His days.
He lives a continuous life, without an end, for ever. The best commentary is
the word which John heard, as he felt the hand of the Christ laid on his
prostrate form: ‘I became dead, and lo, I am alive for evermore.’
c. Having died, the Servantcarries into effectthe divine purposes.
‘Prosper’implies progressive advancement. Christ’s Sacrifice carriedout the
divine pleasure, and by His Sacrifice the divine pleasure is further carried out.
If Christ is the means of carrying out the divine purpose, considerwhat this
implies of divinity in His nature, of correspondence betweenHis will and the
divine.
But Jesus not only carries into effectthe divine purpose as a consequence ofa
past act, but by His present energythis dead man is a living power in the
world today. Is He not?

The sole explanation of the vitality of Christianity, and the sole reasonwhich
makes its messagea gospelto any soul, is Christ’s death for the world and
present life in the world.
BensonCommentaryHYPERLINK "/context/isaiah/53-10.htm"Isaiah53:10-
11. It pleasedthe Lord to bruise him — Although he was perfectly innocent, it
pleasedGod, for other just and wise reasons,to expose him to sufferings and
death. He hath put him to grief — His God and Fatherspared him not,
though he was his only and beloved Son, but delivered him up for us all, to
ignominy and torture, delivered him by his determinate counseland
foreknowledge, (Acts 2:23,) into the powerof those whose wickedhands he
knew would execute upon him every species ofcruelty and barbarity. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin — When thou, O God, shalt have
made thy Son a sacrifice, by giving him up to death for the atonement of
men’s sins. His soul is here put for his life, or for himself, or his whole human
nature, which was sacrificed, his soul being oppressedwith a sense ofthe
wrath of God due to our sins, his body crucified, and his soul and body
separatedby death. Or, the words, ‫ׁשפנ‬ ‫פאנ‬ ‫ׁשנ‬ ‫,םׁשפ‬ may be rendered, when,
or, if his soulshall make an offering for sin, or, a propitiatory sacrifice:
whereby it may be implied, that he did not lay down his life by compulsion,
but willingly. He shall see his seed — His death shall be glorious to himself
and highly beneficial to others, for he shall have a numerous seedof believers,
reconciledto God, and savedby his death. He shall prolong his days — He
shall be raised to immortal life, and live and reign with God for ever. The
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand — God’s gracious decree,for
the salvationof mankind, shall be effectually carried on by his ministry and
mediation. He shall see ofthe travail of his soul — He shall enjoy the
comfortable and blessedfruit of all his hard labours and grievous sufferings:
and shall be satisfied— He shall esteemhis own and his Father’s glory, and
the salvationof his people, an abundant recompense. Byhis knowledge — By
the knowledge of, or an acquaintance with himself, that knowledge whichis
accompaniedwith faith, love, and obedience to him; shall my righteous
servant justify many — Shall acquit them that believe in and obey him from
the guilt of all their sins, and save them from the dreadful consequences
thereof. Justification is here, as in most other places of the Scriptures, one or
two exceptedopposedto condemnation: and Christ is saidto justify sinners,
because he does it meritoriously, procuring justification for us by his sacrifice;
as God the Fatheris commonly said to justify authoritatively, because he
acceptedthe price paid by Christ for that blessing, and the pronouncing of the

sentence ofabsolution is referred to him in the gospeldispensation. Forhe
shall bear their iniquities — Forhe shall satisfythe justice and law of God for
them, by bearing the punishment due to their sins; and therefore, on the
principles of reasonand justice, they must be acquitted, otherwise the same
debt would be twice required and paid.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary53:10-12Come, and see how Christ
loved us! We could not put him in our stead, but he put himself. Thus he took
awaythe sin of the world, by taking it on himself. He made himself subject to
death, which to us is the wagesofsin. Observe the graces andglories of his
state of exaltation. Christ will not commit the care of his family to any other.
God's purposes shall take effect. And whatever is undertaken according to
God's pleasure shall prosper. He shall see it accomplishedin the conversion
and salvationof sinners. There are many whom Christ justifies, even as many
as he gave his life a ransom for. By faith we are justified; thus God is most
glorified, free grace mostadvanced, self most abased, and our happiness
secured. We must know him, and believe in him, as one that bore our sins, and
savedus from sinking under the load, by taking it upon himself. Sin and
Satan, death and hell, the world and the flesh, are the strong foes he has
vanquished. What God designedfor the Redeemer he shall certainly possess.
When he led captivity captive, he receivedgifts for men, that he might give
gifts to men. While we survey the sufferings of the Son of God, let us
remember our long catalogue oftransgressions, andconsiderhim as suffering
under the load of our guilt. Here is laid a firm foundation for the trembling
sinner to resthis soul upon. We are the purchase of his blood, and the
monuments of his grace;for this he continually pleads and prevails,
destroying the works of the devil.
Barnes'Notes on the BibleYet it pleasedthe Lord to bruise him - In this verse,
the prediction respecting the final glory and triumph of the Messiah
commences. The designof the whole prophecy is to state, that in consequence
of his greatsufferings, he would be exalted to the highesthonor (see the notes
at Isaiah 52:13). The sense ofthis verse is, 'he was subjectedto these
sufferings, not on accountof any sins of his, but because, under the
circumstances ofthe case,his sufferings would be pleasing to Yahweh. He saw
they were necessary, and he was willing that he should be subjectedto them.
He has laid upon him heavy sufferings. And when he has brought a sin-
offering, he shall see a numerous posterity, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper through him.' The Lord was 'pleased'with his sufferings, not because
he has delight in the sufferings of innocence;not because the sufferer was in

any sense guilty or ill-deserving; and not because he was at any time
displeasedor dissatisfiedwith what the Mediator did, or taught. But it was:
1. Becausethe Messiahhad voluntarily submitted himself to those sorrows
which were necessaryto show the evil of sin; and in view of the greatobject to
be gained, the eternal redemption of his people, he was pleasedthat he would
subject himself to so greatsorrows to save them. He was pleasedwith the end
in view, and with all that was necessaryin order that the end might be
secured.
2. Becausethese sufferings would tend to illustrate the divine perfections, and
show the justice and mercy of God. The gift of a Saviour, such as he was,
evinced boundless benevolence;his sufferings in behalf of the guilty showed
the holiness of his nature and law; and all demonstratedthat he was at the
same time disposedto save, and yet resolvedthat no one should be saved by
dishonoring his law, or without expiation for the evil which had been done by
sin.
3. Becausethese sorrowswouldresult in the pardon and recoveryof an
innumerable multitude of lost sinners, and in their eternal happiness and
salvation. The whole work was one of benevolence, and Yahweh was pleased
with it as a work of pure and disinterestedlove.
To bruise him - (See the notes at Isaiah 53:5). The word here is the infinitive
of Piel. 'To bruise him, or his being bruised, was pleasing to Yahweh;' that is,
it was acceptable to him that he should be crushed by his many sorrows. It
does not of necessityimply that there was any positive and direct agencyon
the part of Yahweh in bruising him, but only that the factof his being thus
crushed and bruised was acceptableto him.
He hath put him to grief - This word, 'hath grieved him,' is the same which in
another form occurs in Isaiah53:4. It means that it was by the agency, and in
accordancewith the design of Yahweh, that he was subjectedto these great
sorrows.
When thou shalt make his soul - Margin, 'His soul shall make.'According to
the translationin the text, the speakeris the prophet, and it contains an
address to Yahweh, and Yahweh is himself introduced as speaking in Isaiah
53:11. According to the margin, Yahweh himself speaks,and the idea is, that
his soulshould make an offering for sin. The Hebrew will bear either. Jerome
renders it, 'If he shall lay down his life for sin.' The Septuagint renders it in
the plural, 'If you shall give (an offering) for sin, your soul shall see a long-
lived posterity.' Lowth renders it, 'If his soul shall make a propitiatory
sacrifice.'Rosenmullerrenders it, 'If his soul, that is, he himself, shall place

his soulas an expiation for sin.' Noyes renders it, 'But since he gave himself a
sacrifice for sin.' It seems to me that the margin is the correctrendering, and
that it is to be regardedas in the third person. Thus the whole passage willbe
connected, and it will be regardedas the assurance ofYahweh himself, that
when his life should be made a sacrifice for sin, he would see a greatmultitude
who should be savedas the result of his sufferings and death.
His soul - The word rendered here 'soul' (‫םׁשפ‬ nephesh) means properly
breath, spirit, the life, the vital principle Genesis 1:20-30;Genesis 9:4;
Leviticus 17:11; Deuteronomy12:23. It sometimes denotes the rational soul,
regardedas the seatof affections and emotions of various kinds Genesis 34:3;
Psalm86:4; Isaiah15:4; Isaiah 42:1; Sol1:7; Sol 3:1-4. It is here equivalent to
himself - when he himself is made a sin-offering, or sacrifice for sin.
An offering for sin - (‫ׁשפנ‬ 'âshâm). This word properly means, blame, guilt
which one contracts by transgression Genesis 26:10;Jeremiah51:5; also a
sacrifice for guilt; a sin-offering; an expiatory sacrifice. It is often rendered
'trespass-offering' Leviticus 5:19; Leviticus 7:5; Leviticus 14:21;Leviticus
19:21;1 Samuel 6:3, 1 Samuel6:8, 1 Samuel6:17). It is rendered 'guiltiness'
Genesis 26:10;'sin' Proverbs 14:9; 'trespass' Numbers 5:8. The idea here is,
clearly, that he would be made an offering, or a sacrifice forsin; that by which
guilt would be expiated and an atonement made. In accordancewith this, Paul
says 2 Corinthians 5:21, that God 'made him to be sin for us' (ἁμαρτίαν
hamartian), that is, a sin-offering; and he is called ἱλασμὸς hilasmos and
ἱλαστήριονhilastērion, a propitiatory sacrifice forsins Romans 3:25; 1 John
2:2; 1 John 4:10. The idea is, that he was himself innocent, and that he gave
up his soul or life in order to make an expiation for sin - as the innocent
animal in sacrifice was offeredto God as an acknowledgmentof guilt. There
could be no more explicit declarationthat he who is referred to here, did not
die as a martyr merely, but that his death had the high purpose of making
expiation for the sins of people. Assuredly this is not language whichcan be
used of any martyr. In what sense couldit be saidof Ignatius or Cranmer that
their souls or lives were made an offering (‫ׁשפנ‬ 'âshâm or ἱλασμὸς hilasmos)
for sin? Such language is never applied to martyrs in the Bible; such language
is never applied to them in the common discoursesofpeople.
He shall see his seed- His posterity; his descendants. The language here is
takenfrom that which was regardedas the highest blessing among the
Hebrews. With them length of days and a numerous posterity were regarded
as the highest favors, and usually as the clearestproofs of the divine love.
'Children's children are the crown of old men' Proverbs 17:6. See Psalm
127:5;Psalm 128:6 : 'Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace

upon Israel.'So one of the highest blessings which could be promised to
Abraham was that he would be made the father of many nations Genesis 12:2;
Genesis 17:5-6. In accordance withthis, the Messiahis promised that he shall
see a numerous spiritual posterity. A similar declarationoccurs in Psalm
22:30, which is usually applied to the Messiah. 'A seedshall serve him; it shall
be accountedto the Lord for a generation.'The natural relationbetween
father and son is often transferred to spiritual subjects. Thus the name father
is often given to the prophets, or to teachers, andthe name sons to disciples or
learners. In accordancewith this, the idea is here, that the Messiahwould
sustain this relation, and that there would be multitudes who would sustainto
him the relation of spiritual children. There may be emphasis on the word
'see'- he shall see his posterity, for it was regardedas a blessing not only to
have posterity, but to be permitted to live and see them. Hence, the joy of the
agedJacobin being permitted to see the children of Joseph Genesis 48:11 :
'And Israelsaid unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face;and lo, God
hath showedme also thy seed.
He shall prolong his days - His life shall be long. This also is language which is
takenfrom 'the view entertained among the Hebrews that long life was a
blessing, and was a proof of the divine favor. Thus, in 1 Kings 3:14, Godsays
to Solomon, 'if thou wilt walk in my ways, and keepmy statutes and my
commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days'
(see Deuteronomy25:15; Psalm21:4; Psalm 91:16;Proverbs 3:2). The
meaning here is, that the Messiah, though he should be put to death, would yet
see greatmultitudes who should be his spiritual children. Though he should
die, yet he would live again, and his days should be lengthened out. It is
fulfilled in the reign of the Redeemeron earth and in his eternal existence and
glory in heaven.
And the pleasure of the Lord - That is, that which shall please Yahweh;the
work which he desire and appoints.
Shall prosper - (See the notes at Isaiah52:13, where the same word occurs).
In his hand - Under his government and direction. Religionwill be promoted
and extended through him. The reward of all his sufferings in making an
offering for sin would be, that multitudes would be convertedand saved; that
his reign would be permanent, and that the work which Yahweh designedand
desired would prosper under his administration.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary10. Transition from His
humiliation to His exaltation.

pleasedthe Lord—the secretof His sufferings. They were voluntarily borne
by Messiah, in order that thereby He might "do Jehovah's will" (Joh6:38;
Heb 10:7, 9), as to man's redemption; so at the end of the verse, "the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in His hand."
bruise—(see Isa 53:5); Ge 3:15, was hereby fulfilled, though the Hebrew word
for "bruise," there, is not the one used here. The word "Himself," in
Matthew, implies a personalbearing on Himself of our maladies, spiritual and
physical, which included as a consequenceHis ministration to our bodily
ailments: these latter are the reverse side of sin; His bearing on Him our
spiritual malady involved with it His bearing sympathetically, and healing, the
outward: which is its fruits and its type. Hengstenberg rightly objects to
Magee'stranslation, "takenaway," insteadof"borne," that the parallelism to
"carried" would be destroyed. Besides, the Hebrew word elsewhere, when
connectedwith sin, means to bear it and its punishment (Eze 18:20). Matthew,
elsewhere,also sets forth His vicarious atonement(Mt 20:28).
when thou, &c.—rather, as Margin, "when His soul (that is, He) shall have
made an offering," &c. In the English Versionthe change of person is harsh:
from Jehovah, addressedin the secondperson(Isa 53:10), to Jehovah
speaking in the first person in Isa 53:11. The Margin rightly makes the
prophet in the name of JehovahHimself to speak in this verse.
offering for sin—(Ro 3:25; 1Jo 2:2; 4:10).
his seed—His spiritual posterity shall be numerous (Ps 22:30); nay, more,
though He must die, He shall see them. A numerous posterity was accounteda
high blessing among the Hebrews; still more so, for one to live to see them (Ge
48:11;Ps 128:6).
prolong … days—also esteemeda specialblessing among the Jews (Ps 91:16).
Messiahshall, after death, rise again to an endless life (Ho 6:2; Ro 6:9).
prosper—(Isa 52:13, Margin).
Matthew Poole's CommentaryYetit pleasedthe Lord to bruise him; but
although he was perfectly innocent, it pleasedGod for other just and wise
reasons to punish him.
He hath put him to grief; God was the principal Cause of all his sorrows and
sufferings, although men’s sins were the deserving cause.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin; when thou, O God, shalt
make, or have made, thy Son a sacrifice, by giving him up to death for the
atonement of men’s sins. His

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