Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our peace fell upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

The word for “griefs” means sickness. It’s diseases, infirmities, calamities — it’s a pretty broad word. Here, sins are viewed from the perspective of their effects. Life becomes full of sickness, disease, infirmity, and calamity. These are the griefs.

Our griefs He Himself bore. The word “bore” means to lift up and place on oneself. He picked up all of what sin produced and put it on Himself.

And then they say it another way, referring to “our sorrows.” Griefs is a word that refers to the outward effects of sin, and sorrows is a word that refers mostly to the inward effect of sin.

Sin is viewed here not as a moral entity, which the word “sin” would convey, but rather from the distress and horrors and issues of life that flow out of sin. He picked up sin, with all that it produces, and carried it. He took the punishment for our sin and carried the full weight of it and all its effects away.

All through the Old Testament there are warnings that to violate God’s law will make you guilty. In fact, there’s a little phrase to describe it: “Bear their guilt.” You find that little phrase throughout the book of Leviticus. You find it in Ezekiel 4, that people who violate the law of God will bear their guilt and thus be punished.

In Leviticus 16 it says that when atonement was made, one animal was killed and one animal was kept alive. And the priests would lay their hands on that one animal, the scapegoat, as if to place all the sins of the people on the scapegoat. And he would be sent out into the wilderness, never to return again.

Jesus is the scapegoat. He picks up all our sin and pays the penalty in full. He’s the sacrificial animal, and He’s also the scapegoat that carries them all away.

This is not just saying that Jesus sympathetically feels our pain. It is saying that He takes our sin and its punishment, pays for it in full, and thus brings to an end the reign of sin in our lives, with all of its effects, manifestations, griefs, and sorrows.

One day, we’ll enter into the fullness of that. One day, when we enter into heaven, there will be no more sin and no more effects. We should have suffered for our sins, but He did. He took away from us all that belonged to us, all that we should have felt by way of judgment — pain, devastation, even eternal punishment — and put it on Himself. And thus He shifted the load completely away from us.

You’re going to see that same truth reiterated in the remaining sections of this great chapter, because it is the cardinal truth.

Peter, no doubt having this passage in mind, describes Christ as He “who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness; by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:24-25).

That’s a direct allusion to Isaiah 53. No one but Jesus Christ can fulfill this. Israel will come to that knowledge, weeping and wailing in repentance, having seen the truth about the Messiah. And they will testify to the massive error that they have made.

They will, some day in the future, know that this is the Lamb of God chosen by Him to be the vicarious substitute bearing their sins.

In the meantime, the only way you can ever be saved is to confess this now.

The sad reality is that between the death of Christ and the salvation of Israel in the future, generation after generation of unbelieving Jews have gone into eternal punishment for which there is no remedy. And generation after generation and nation after nation of Gentile unbelievers have gone into eternal punishment for which there is no remedy.

But now is the day of salvation for anyone who will receive the gift. It was for us that He died. He took our griefs, our sorrows, our sickness, our calamities, our disasters, and our sin, paid for all of it, and carried away all of its effects forever. Put your trust in the Savior.

You can find more insights into Isaiah 53 in Dr. MacArthur’s book “The Gospel According to God: Rediscovering the Most Remarkable Chapter in the Old Testament.” For a limited time, the book is available for 25% off from The Master’s University’s bookstore, here.

This post is based on a sermon Dr. MacArthur preached in 2012, titled “The Substituted Servant, Part 1.” In addition to serving as the pastor of Grace Community Church and the voice of Grace to You, Dr. MacArthur is the chancellor of The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, Calif. You can learn more about TMU at masters.edu.