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This is not saying Jesus sympathetically feels our pain. He takes our sin and its full punishment, pays for it in full, and thus brings to an end the reign of sin in our lives, with all of its effects and all of its manifestations, all of its griefs and all of its sorrows. And one day we'll enter into the fullness of that.
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You're listening to Grace to youo. Welcome to the Bible Teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. The Gospel of Jesus Christ can be compared to a bottomless well. No matter how many times you draw from its life giving truth, you can't exhaust the supply. You'll never fully grasp everything there is to know about God's work of salvation. But that doesn't mean there aren't some essential gospel truths that you can and must understand. Today. John MacArthur looks at one of those essentials, namely repentance from a source you might not the Old Testament. John's current series is titled the Gospel According to God. To make sure you're clear on the importance of repentance in salvation, turn to Isaiah 53 as John begins today's lesson.
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We saw the startling servant in verses 13 to 15. At the end of chapter 52, we saw the scorned servant, verses 1 through 3. And now we come to the substituted servant. Looking continually at the servant of Jehovah. We now see him in his role as a substitute. And the transition comes in verse four with the first word. Surely or truly or verily, this is an exclamation. This is a sudden recognition of something unexpected, a dramatic change from the previous perception. This is a reversal. This is spinning on their heels, fast, surely, as if to say, whoa, stop in our tracks and turn and go the other way. Now we see our griefs. He himself bore our sorrows, he carried. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, chastened for our well being, scourged for our healing. That is the complete reversal of how they viewed the cross. He took our place, died in our stead, gave his life for us. Technically, we would call this vicarious penal substitution. Finally, as a nation, they're going to see it and believe it, and they're going to be saved in that hour. These three verses, by the way, verses 4, 5 and 6 are so connected that they're like concentric circles. They kind of weave around and around each other. And each of them mentions the wrongs and the provision of the servant to provide atonement for those wrongs. And they do Cycle around the same theme. But they are so profoundly rich. They understand how wrong they were. They had a wrong attitude, manifest in wrong behavior. Listen. Coming from their nature. Repentance grasps all three. True repentance takes the recognition that we think wrong, we act wrong, because we are profoundly corrupt in nature. Verse four is about their wrong attitudes. Verse five is about their wrong behavior. And verse six is about their wrong nature. They go all the way down deep. Our attitude was wrong, terribly wrong. We esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. That's wrong. We thought he was being punished for his own iniquity. Our behaviors were wrong, transgressions, iniquities. But mostly because our nature is wrong. Verse six is about nature. We're like sheep who've gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. You say, in what sense is that? Speaking of nature, Sheep do what sheep do. That's the analogy. They wander off into danger. That was us. Our nature was wrong, and we went our own way. So they have come to a place, this future generation of Jews that every sinner must come to, to be saved, in which you understand that you have to change your mind about Christ, how you think about Christ. You have to recognize the transgressions and iniquities that mark your behavior and the subsequent alienation from God and soul sickness that you possess. And then you must recognize that there's a problem deep down, profoundly embedded in your humanity. You're a sinner, and that's what you have here. The awakening is stunning. They get it. Our griefs. He himself bore. Our sorrows, he carried. We ourselves. We are the issue here. Our griefs. The word for griefs is sickness. It's diseases, infirmities, calamities. Pretty broad word. And here sins are viewed from the perspective of their effects. Sins are viewed from the perspective of what they produce, the conditions that come from sin. Life becomes full of sickness, disease, infirmity, calamity. These are the griefs. And it's a word that looks mostly at the objective, the outside, the agonies and struggles and. And issues that we deal with in life. Our griefs, he himself bore. The word bore means to lift up, pick up, and place on oneself. He picked up all of that that sin produced and put it on himself. And then they say it another way. Our sorrows, that's the word for pains that talks more about the subjective or the inward. 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. But 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, put it on himself, Carried it. Well, we know he carried it to the cross, and he bore the full punishment of God. The Lord was pleased to Crush him. Verse 10 says, he took the punishment for our sin and thus carried the full weight of sin and all its effects away. All through the Old Testament, there are warnings to the Jewish people and to all people for that matter, that to violate God's law will make you guilty. In fact, there's a little phrase, bear their guilt. Bear their guilt. And you find that little phrase throughout the book of Leviticus. You find it in Ezekiel, chapter four, that people who violate the law of God will bear their guilt and thus be punished. So here the servant, the Messiah, takes on the full burden of the sinner's guilt and takes on the full effects of. Of sin, places them all upon himself, and pays in full the penalty for those sins, and thus carries them away. You remember in Leviticus 16 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. Never. Jesus is the scapegoat. He picks up all our sin, pays the penalty in full. He's the sacrificial animal as well, and he's the scapegoat and carries them all away. This is not saying Jesus sympathetically feels our pain. It's not saying that. It is that he takes our sin and its full punishment, pays for it in full, and thus brings to an end the reign of sin in our lives, with all of its effects and all of its manifestations, all of its griefs and all of its sorrows. And one day we'll enter into the fullness of that, won't we? One day when we enter into heaven, 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. He takes our sin and removes it, having paid for it in full. Now, that's the prophecy of Isaiah about This one who will come. And you're going to see that same truth reiterated in the remaining sections of this great chapter, because it is the Cardinal Truth. Verse 8, for example. He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. The question then is, who is this person? Who is this person? Who is this person who gathers up sin and all its manifestations and all its effects, and pays in full the punishment that satisfies the judgment and the wrath of God, and then takes all of it and carries it away never to see it again? Who is this person who does that? Peter, no doubt having this passage in mind, tells us in 1 Peter 2, speaking of Christ, he says of Christ, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, and by his wounds you were healed. That's a direct allusion to Isaiah 53. It can be no one but Christ. No one but Jesus Christ can fulfill this. Israel will come to that knowledge, come to that awareness, weeping and wailing in repentance, having seen the truth about the servant Messiah, Yeshua Jesus, they will testify to the massive error that they have made. Generations have made it. For thousands of years they have made this error. And here they declare how wrong they were. It wasn't for his sin that he suffered, it was for their sin. And then comes this confession. Yet reaching back, we ourselves esteemed him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. And there's the confession that we thought God was punishing him for his own sins. We considered or reckoned him the stricken, smitten, afflicted by God for blasphemy. The word God is Elohim. And all those verbs connect with Elohim, stricken by God, smitten by God, afflicted by God. We thought God was punishing him for his sins. And the language here is very strong. The word stricken is to strike violently, a very violent word used in Exodus 11, one of the plagues. The word smitten means basically to beat someone even to death. And the word afflicted, a general word, to be humiliated, to be degraded, to be destroyed. So we thought that when he was being smashed and beaten and degraded and humiliated, that this was God doing it because he was a blasphemer. And by the way, that is still the Jewish assessment today. Jewish assessment is just that today, and they will someday in the future know that this is the Lamb of God, chosen by him to be the vicarious substitute bearing their sins. They get it. And so in verse five, they Will say he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, chastened for our well being, scourged for our healing. This is such marvelous language here, very graphic. The words pierced, crushed, chastened or punished, scourged. Very strong words. Let's talk about those for a moment. The prophet has no knowledge of the cross, doesn't know what's going to happen 700 years hence. The Spirit of God leads him to pick these words. And we could say that these are metaphoric words in some way, or these are sort of general words that saying pierced, crushed, punished, scourged. Simply trying to pick words that are graphic and dramatic and sort of repulsive to think about someone being treated this way and that they're intended to be somewhat general. And you would be right about that. There are Hebrew scholars that suggest that the word pierced, for example, is the strongest Hebrew expression for violent death. So that if you look at it in a general sense, you could say, well, whoever this is, he's going to have a violent death. And you would be right. And you could look at the word crushed. And that word can refer to anything from being trampled to death, literally trampled, crushed underfoot, such as Lamentations 3:34, all the way to being battered and bruised. That would be the lesser of, could be simply a broad word for somebody's life, being crushed out. But it can be anything, as I said, from being trampled to death to being severely bruised. And then the word chastisement, very interesting word. It is the only Hebrew word to express punishment. And punishment is a technical term, it's a legal term in some sense. And you could say, well, this definitely was a punishment, generally speaking, and you would be correct about that. And the word scourged could also be viewed in somewhat of a general sense. Scourging, meaning lashing someone, slashing someone, inflicting wounds on someone. They could be general words. And perhaps when Isaiah wrote that, that's what he thought. Well, this is. This is just picking all the worst possible descriptions of a horrific, horrendous death. But the truth of the matter is they're not just general terms, because every one of them specifically happened to Jesus. He was pierced five times, both feet, both hands, and his side. Psalm 22 is a Psalm that looks forward to the cross. Psalm 22 begins, My God, my God, why have youe forsaken me? The very words Jesus said on the cross. But in Psalm 22:16, the Psalmist writes, they pierced my hands and feet. Zechariah 12:10 Zechariah says they'll look on him whom they pierced. And they actually pierced Jesus on the cross. That actually happened in John 19. There are a couple of verses that are tied to this. Verse 34, John 19. One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. Verse 37 says, and another scripture is fulfilled, they shall look on him whom they pierced. Yes, he was pierced. How specific and a prophecy is that? What about the word crushed can refer, as I said, to anything from a sort of severe bruising to being trampled to death. Listen, we know what happened to Jesus. We know that he was slapped. We know that he was punched in the face. John 19:3. And we also know, according to Matthew, chapter 27, verse 30, that the Romans took sticks and beat him in the face with sticks. Sticks punching him in the face, slapping him in the face and beating his head and his face with sticks would raise bruises and welts. That would be within the framework of that word, crushed. What about the next one? Chastening. As I said, the Hebrew word for punishment. Was his execution a form of punishment? Absolutely it was. There was an indictment of him. You remember, the Jews called him together and brought in false witnesses to tell lies against him. The indictment went from place to place in the house of Annas and Caiaphas. They passed him over to Herod, they passed him back. Mock series of trials in which they tried to bring that indictment to an actual crime. And then they wanted an execution. So they put him before Pilate. And Pilate was intimidated and blackmailed into sentencing Jesus to death. And his execution was an official punishment, punishment by the government of Rome. It was a punishment, result of an indictment, a trial, a verdict, a sentence. A formal punishment was carried out. And what about the word scourging? Is that just a generic term? Well, According to Mark 15:15, it says he was scourged. We all know the story of that. And a heavy stick with leather thongs extending from it, embedded with bone and rock and glass lacerating his body over and over and over again. The Jews knew all that. They know it now. They know it today. They know about this man, Jesus, who was pierced and bruised and punished and scourged. They know that very well. It's in the record. But on the day of national salvation, they're going to look back and realize that God did not do that to him because it was God who crushed him. It was God. But God did not do that to him because of his own sins. But he did it to him because of their sins. That's the difference. They will confess. I love this. For our transgressions, for our iniquities, for our well being, for our healing. That's what's going to happen someday. They're going to confess that. In the meantime, folks, the only way you can ever be saved is to confess it now. Now I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 6. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, Paul borrows from the 49th chapter of Isaiah in the second verse. And in Isaiah 49 we read at the acceptable time. I listened to you on the day of salvation. I helped you. Isaiah said that a word from the Lord to the people. This is a day when I will listen. This is a day of salvation when I will help. And then Paul pulls it into the present and says, but now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Israel's national salvation. That's future at the end of a time called the Tribulation. But now, now is the day of salvation. Now is the acceptable time for you. Jew or Gentile. 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. In the end, there will be a revival in Israel. In the end, in that same period of time, there will be a massive revival, a massive expanse of the gospel. Angels in the heavens, according to the book of Revelation, will preach the gospel. Two witnesses who die and rise again will preach the gospel. 144,000 Jews will preach the gospel. 12,000 from every tribe. Israel will come to faith. But people will come to faith. From every tongue and tribe and people and nation. There will be a great gospel outpouring. People will be saved in the end. But between now and then, people continue to die and perish without remedy forever. And now is the acceptable time for you. Now is the day of salvation. This is available if you will receive the gift. Maybe this is that surely moment. We were wrong about him. 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 the sin and carried away all its effects forever. This is your day to put your trust in the Savior.
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You are listening to Grace to youo, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's lesson today is from his series called the Gospel according to God. Now, friend, even though today's topic, repentance is an essential aspect of Christian faith and practice, it's often misunderstood. And because of that, a few years back, I asked John to give a biblical definition of repentance, what it is and what it is not. And this is what he said.
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Yeah, I think anybody who takes it at face value in the Bible knows that it means turning from sin to God. That's the language of the apostles in the Book of Acts, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So I think traditionally, the word repentance has always meant a turning. Where it got confusing was, well, a few decades back when people didn't want the word repentance to relate to sin and they started talking about repentance, meaning changing your mind about who Jesus is.
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You remember that?
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Because I do. That's when I wrote the book the Gospel According to Jesus to attack that error. They were saying, leading Bible teachers were saying repentance is a human work, that that cannot be added to salvation. But the Bible itself says God grants repentance. It's not a human work, it's a divine work. The Holy Spirit has come to convict men of sin and righteousness and judgment, which leads to repentance. So when I wrote the book the Gospel According to Jesus and the sequel, the Gospel According to the Apostles, I was actually trying to attack the idea that repentance is nothing more than changing your mind about who Jesus is. And that's almost a direct quote from the people who are advocating that. It is not changing your mind about who Jesus is. You need to do that. But repentance is a turning, a turning from sin toward righteousness, from the kingdom of darkness toward the kingdom of light, from Satan toward Christ. So I think we have, I think, successfully made a case for biblical repentance. And I'm grateful to say, Phil, I think in recent years, in recent decades, that old understanding that basically eliminated the biblical definition of repentance has been removed. And I think there's a healthy new understanding that repentance means you're turning from sin. It's not something that the unregenerate person can do on his own. It is a work of God as much as any other element of salvation.
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Yeah, well, at least that idea is becoming more rare. There are people trying to resurrect that notion that repentance is nothing more than a chance.
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But I think where it was once a dominating idea because of schools that were propagating it, it's now as you
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said a little more rare.
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Well, some helpful clarification there from John MacArthur on the issue of repentance and Friend if you've benefited from John's lesson today on repentance, if you're growing from this series on the Gospel According to God, just know that we are able to broadcast John's verse by verse Bible teaching because of the support of listeners like you. If you would like to partner with us and help take Biblical truth to more people across the globe, make a donation when you get in touch today. Mail your gift to Grace to you, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. You can also make a one time donation or set up a convenient recurring donation when you call 855grace that number again, 855grace or visit our website gty.org thank you for your help in taking taking God's Word to people from all walks of life. And when you visit GTY.org, be sure to take advantage of the thousands of free Bible study resources you'll find there. You can read articles addressing hot button issues on the Grace to youo blog, catch up on radio broadcasts you may have missed, and download any of John's more than 3,600 sermons. They are all free of charge in MP3 and transcript. You can also review today's broadcast and share it with a friend. Just visit gty.org now for the entire Grace to youo staff. I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for joining us today and be back Tomorrow when John MacArthur shows you why Israel is a living testimony of why you can and should trust God. We're continuing John's study called the Gospel of the According to God with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to you.