correction does not alter the fact of the smiting, but points to the fact

that the Lord was smitten for others:

'But He was wounded for Our transgressions,

He was bruised for Our iniquities;

the chastisement of Our peace was upon Him;

and with His stripes, We are healed' (Isa. 53:5).

Here is One taking the place of others, bearing the punishment due to

their sins, innocent and righteous in Himself, yet having the iniquity of

others laid upon Him.  This is substitution indeed.  If the word 'vicarious'

means acting or suffering for another, the sufferings and death of Christ

were essentially vicarious.

This suggestion of transfer, that of which we are conscious as we read

these words, is turned into certainty and a matter of revealed truth in the

next verse:

'All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his

own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him (or made to meet on Him) the

iniquity of us all' (Isa. 53:6).

These words 'made to meet' are found in verse 12, where they are

translated 'made intercession' or 'made a meeting' for transgressors.  What

wonders are here!  The blessed Lord Himself, a meeting-place for our sins in

judgment, and a meeting-place for ourselves in grace!  That the Lord's

sufferings were definitely substitutionary, we can see in the whole record of

this wonderful chapter:

'He was oppressed, and He was afflicted ... He was cut off out of the

land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken'

(Isa. 53:7,8).

By following the R.V. of verse 9, and translating 'although' in place

of 'because', we get a clearer statement.

'Although He had done no violence; neither was any deceit (found) in

His mouth.  Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him'.

Here the innocence of the sufferer is stressed.  He was wounded for our

transgressions.  This 'bruising' and 'putting to grief' constituted His

'offering for sin' (verse 10).  'His soul' that made an offering for sin, was

'poured out unto death' (verse 12).  Here is sin-bearing.  The fact that the

word means 'lift up' makes it possible for the word to mean the Saviour's

great Sacrifice, and the sinner's forgiveness.

The forgiveness of sins is too wonderful a theme to be fully dealt with

here.  All that we can point out is that this particular aspect reveals the

nature and the ground of forgiveness in the one idea, 'to lift up'.  My

Saviour 'lifted up' my sins, and carried them in His own body on the tree,

and as a result of that sin-bearing, my sins have been forgiven or 'lifted

up' from me.