Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 1. The verse opens with a confession of sin common to all the persons intended in the verse. 2. The confession is also special and particular. 3. This confession is very unreserved. There is not a single syllable by way of excuse; there is not a word to detract from the force of the confession. 4. It is, moreover, singularly thoughtful, for thoughtless persons do not use a metaphor so appropriate as the text: "All we like sheep have gone astray." I hear no dolorous wailings attending this confession of sin; for the next sentence makes it almost a song. "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." It is the most grievous sentence of the three; but it is the most charming and the most full of comfort. Strange is it that where misery was concentrated mercy reigned, and where sorrow reached her climax there it is that a weary soul finds sweetest rest. The Saviour bruised is the healing of bruised hearts. I. EXPOSITION. 1. It may be well to give the marginal translation of the text, "Jehovah hath made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all." The first thought that demands notice is the meeting of sin. Sin I may compare to the rays of some evil sun. Sin was scattered throughout this world as abundantly as light, and Christ is made to suffer the full effect of the baleful rays which stream from the sun of sin. God as it were holds up a burning-glass, and concentrates all the scattered rays in a focus upon Christ. Take the text in our own version, "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all;" put upon Him as a burden is laid upon a man's back all the burdens of all His people; put upon His head as the high priest of old laid upon the scapegoat all the sin of the beloved ones that he might bear them in his own person. The two translations are perfectly consistent; all sins are made to meet, and then having met together and been tied up in one crushing load the whole burden is laid upon Him. 2. The second thought is that sin was made to meet upon the suffering person of the innocent Substitute. 3. It has been asked, Was it just that sin should thus be laid upon Christ? We believe it was rightly so. (1) Because it was the act of Him who must do right. "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."(2) Remember, moreover, that Jesus Christ voluntarily took this sin upon Himself. (3) There was a relationship between our Lord and His people, which is too often forgotten, but which rendered it natural that He should bear the sin of His people. Why does the text speak of our sinning like sheep? I think it is because it would call to our recollection that Christ is our Shepherd. It is not that Christ took upon Himself the sins of strangers. Them always was a union of a most mysterious and intimate kind between those who sinned and the Christ who suffered. (4) This plan of salvation is precisely similar to the method of our ruin. The fall which made me a sinner was wholly accomplished long before I was born by the first Adam, and the salvation by which I am delivered was finished long before I saw the light by the second Adam on my behalf. 4. Lying upon Christ brought, upon Him all the consequences connected with it. God cannot look where there is sin with any pleasure, and though as far as Jesus is personally concerned, He is the Father's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased; yet when He saw sin laid upon His Son, He made that Son cry, "My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?' 5. Think of the result of all this. Sin meets on Christ and Christ is punished with sin, and what then? Sin is put away. 6. The "us" here intended. II. APPLICATION. There is a countless company whose sins the Lord Jesus bore; did He bear yours? Do you wish to have an answer? Let me read this verse to you and see if you can join in it. If there be in you a penitential confession which leads you to acknowledge that you have erred and strayed like a lost sheep; if there be in you a personal sense of sin which makes you feel that you have turned to your own way, and if now you can trust in Jesus, then a second question is not wanted; the Lord hath laid on Him your iniquity. III. CONTEMPLATION. I will give you four things to think of. 1. The astounding mass of sin that must have been laid on Christ. 2. The amazing love of Jesus which brought Him to do all this. 3. The matchless security which this plan of salvation offers. 4. What, then, are she claims of Jesus Christ upon you and me? ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. |
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