Restoration, Part 1

Isaiah 53: 21-31

Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Today we’re delving into Isaiah 53:4 – a verse that intimately addresses the human condition of grief and sorrow. Those tuning in might be grappling with significant loss, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen to join us as we explore a Scripture that reveals Jesus Christ’s profound connection to our struggles.

In this continuation of our series on Isaiah 53, we find a powerful message: Jesus has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. These aren’t just poetic words; they are the essence of the hope and healing offered through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. The big picture painted by Isaiah is that of a future where all grief and sorrow are ultimately removed.

Yet, the journey through Isaiah 53 doesn’t just comfort us in our pain—it addresses the universal challenge of unbelief. It confronts the distractions and desires that lead us away from faith and calls us to recognize Jesus as the one prophesied about, the one who brings good news and offers salvation.

With a promise of a great restoration, substitution, and imputation, Isaiah lays out the thorough work of Christ on the cross, dealing with sin in all its forms. Whether physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, judicially, or spiritually, Jesus entered into every aspect of human suffering.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Now, griefs and sorrows, very obviously, are the effects of sin. And Isaiah begins here because he wants to paint the big picture of what Jesus would accomplish at the cross. Through His death and resurrection, one day, all grief and all sorrow will be taken away. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. And Colin, today we’re continuing our series on Isaiah 53 and we come to verse 4. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. I am so glad that we’re able to look at this verse that speaks about the reality of human grief and sorrow. There’ll be folks listening to us right now who are right in the middle of grief that arises from a significant loss in life. And if that’s where you are right now, I’m so glad that you’re listening to Open the Bible and that you’re listening on a day where we’re opening up a verse of Scripture that speaks about how Jesus Christ knows our griefs and our sorrows. We’re going to look today at the grief and the sorrow that Jesus Christ endured. And as you see something of what He experienced and what He entered into, my prayer is that you’re going to see that He’s the one who’s able to help you in your grief and in your sorrow. So may God pour His peace and His comfort into your grieving and sorrowing heart as we open the Bible today at Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 4. Now this whole chapter is really a wonderful invitation to look at the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is, what He has accomplished, and what He is able to do for each and every one of us who believe in Him. And we know that this chapter is all about Jesus because in the New Testament, in the book of Acts, there’s a story about a very distinguished man who was reading this book, this very chapter, Isaiah 53, as he was traveling in the desert in his chariot. And God sent a believer by the name of Philip to help this man. And the man asked Philip, now who is the prophet writing about? He’s reading this chapter and he wants to know who it’s about. And the scripture tells us that beginning with this chapter, that’s Isaiah chapter 53, Philip explained the good news about Jesus. Good news. You know, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest good news for every person on the planet. And yet around the world, in every culture, and this has been true in every generation since the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the good news has been met overwhelmingly by unbelief. And that’s where Isaiah begins in this chapter. Who has believed what He has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? So the first thing that we need saving from is actually our own unbelief. That’s where this remarkable chapter begins. And we saw earlier what lies behind unbelief. We’re distracted by the wrong considerations. We’re drawn by the wrong priorities. We’re driven by the wrong desires. And we saw that unbelief is a decision. And it’s actually a decision in which the mind and the heart and the will are all actively engaged. The mind makes a calculation. The heart gives direction and the will decides. And Isaiah tells us that the result of all this is overwhelming belief around the world. Verse three, he was despised and we esteemed him not. There’s the world’s verdict on Jesus. Now we take it up today in verse four and I have to tell you that I come to the verses that are before us in these coming weeks with a sense of awe and a sense of trepidation. These are some of the best known and best loved words in all of the Bible. They take us to the heart of the greatest good news this world has ever heard. They give us the clearest statement of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. They show us what he’s able to do for us today. And they point to the glorious future that lies ahead of everyone who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, for all eternity, we’re going to be lost in wonder, love and praise over what is described in these verses. So let me try and give to you a quick overview of what we’ll be looking at over these next weeks. In verse four, where we begin today, we learn that Jesus bore the effects of sin. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Now, griefs and sorrows, very obviously, are the effects of sin. And Isaiah begins here because he wants to paint the big picture of what Jesus would accomplish at the cross. Through his death and resurrection, one day all grief and all sorrow will be taken away. And so this verse really describes and points to a great restoration. Then in verse five, we’re going to see that Jesus bore the punishment of sin. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. So Jesus will bring about a great restoration, and the way in which he’s going to do this is through substitution. Jesus stood in our place. That’s the heart of this verse. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, he bore the punishment, the chastisement that was due to us. So Jesus bore the effects of sin, Jesus bore the punishment of sin, and then in verse six we see that Jesus bore sin itself. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now the word we’re going to learn when we come to verse six is the word imputation, which very simply means to credit or to charge a person with something that really does not belong to him or to her. So for example if someone imputes a bad motive to you, well that means that they are charging you with a motive that you did not have. They’re putting this on you, they’re counting this against you, even although the bad motive was not yours. Now putting these three remarkable verses of scripture together, we learn that Jesus purchased our restoration by substitution and imputation, and that is the heart of what Jesus accomplished at the cross. So there’s an overview of where we’re going over these next weeks. We’re going to look at this marvelous restoration, we’re going to see how it was accomplished through an amazing substitution, and we’re going to see that in that substitution there was an unfathomable imputation so that sin and all its effects were dealt with for us by God in Jesus Christ at the cross. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called Restoration. It’s a part of our series on Isaiah 53 which we’re calling The Gospel According to Isaiah, and if you miss any of our broadcasts you can always go back and listen online. It’s at openthebible.org.uk and you can download any of our previous messages there. You can also find Pastor Colin Smith’s messages as a podcast. Search on your favorite podcast site for Open the Bible UK and it’s the one with the purple logo. Back to the message now. Here’s Colin. Now we begin today then at verse 4 where we see that Jesus bore the effects of sin. Let’s focus in on these remarkable words. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Now again, griefs and sorrows are the effects of sin in this world. Think about it. If Adam had not sinned, no one would ever grieve a loss. If Eve had not sinned, no one would ever have shed a tear. But the reality is that Adam and Eve did sin and that changed the world for them and it has changed the world for us. Sin cannot live in God’s presence. So God drove our first parents out of the Garden of Eden, out of the paradise that they enjoyed, and once they were outside there was no way for them to get back in. Our first parents found themselves in a harsher world. Adam experienced frustration in his work. Eve experienced pain in childbirth. Both of them grieved the loss of their son in a horrible act of violence. So I want us to see first from this remarkable verse of scripture that speaks so clearly into our world today that our world is filled with sorrow. And the scripture speaks to this, speaks right to us today. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. And when Isaiah speaks about our griefs, our sorrows, he’s describing the realities of life in our world. Our griefs, our sorrows, well, they involve all of the pain and the disappointment of life. Alec Mateer, who has written so helpfully on the book of Isaiah, puts it this way, we wish for more than we are able to achieve so that the good life is always eluding us. You know that feeling that you hope to get to a place where everything’s just right and you never get there? There’s always something that’s coming up and spoiling it, keeping you from it. Now, the word that’s translated here, griefs, can also be translated as infirmities. In other words, our griefs, our sorrows include sicknesses, illnesses of every kind. We’re talking here in the broadest possible terms of everything that blights our life in this world, all that puts the perfect life we all long for beyond our reach. Now, I want you to think with me for a moment about the griefs and the sorrows that we experience in this world, our griefs, our sorrows. What are we talking about? Well, some griefs and sorrows are physical and everyone who lives with pain and is experiencing pain right now, you know how miserable this is. Pain in the joints, arthritis, migraines, fibroid myalgia. If you live with any of these or many more, you know the grief and sorrow of physical pain. Everyone who lives with sickness knows the pain that it brings, a diagnosis of cancer, Parkinson’s disease, a heart condition, a stroke. And then on top of all of these things, there is the physical suffering that human beings impose on one another, the horrors of war in front of us every day, the atrocities of human cruelty and abuse, violence. And then on top of all the physical suffering in this world that brings grief and sorrow, there are many more griefs and sorrows that are in the mind that relate to mental conditions anyone who has gone through depression knows the grief and the sorrow that that can bring. And beyond the physical and the mental, there is the grief and sorrow that is emotional. Anyone who knows what it is to live with the power of fear and of anxiety, you know the grief and the sorrow that that brings. Anyone who lives with a deep sense of shame knows the same. And then of course there are some griefs, some losses that are just profoundly personal. Only you can know them. You lose a loved one, a husband, a wife, a treasured friend taken from you. There is a vast hole in your life that no one else can possibly fill. And then there are griefs and sorrows that are social. We live in this world of lies, deception, hatred, broken relationships, broken trust. If someone has lied to you, deceived you, you know the grief and sorrow that that brings. And then there are griefs and sorrows on top of all of these that are judicial. I mean to be the victim of a crime is hard enough. But if the crime is never brought to justice, then your pain is even greater. Here’s one person who is wronged and he can’t get justice. And here’s another person who is wrongly accused and she can’t get justice either. The world cries out, how long do we have to wait before we get justice? And then of course there are some griefs and sorrows that are spiritual. And if you know what it is to lose hope, you will know the grief that that brings. If you have ever felt that God himself is hiding his face from you, you will know what a grief and a sorrow that is. Now think about this, the effects of grief and sorrow that come from the entrance of sin into the world, they go absolutely everywhere. Physical, mental, emotional, personal, social, judicial, spiritual, they blight our lives in all of these dimensions. And when the scripture speaks about our griefs, our sorrows, God is speaking to the painful realities of our life in this world. Friends, we don’t come to church to pretend that everything’s okay. It’s not. We don’t come here for some exercise in wishful thinking. We don’t come to hide from reality. We come to face reality and it’s right here in front of us as we open the scriptures together. If you know what it is to walk sorrow’s path, if your heart is heavy with inexpressible grief today, this verse is for you. God is speaking right into your sorrow and we’re opening the Bible to see what it is that he has to say. So our world is filled with sorrow. But here’s the second thing that I want us to see from this remarkable text that points to Jesus, that Jesus carried our sorrow. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Now Isaiah has already spoken about grief and sorrow in verse three. If you look at it there, he tells us that Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But now you see, having said that in verse three, he’s telling us why Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief here in verse four. The reason that Jesus was a man of sorrows is that he carried our sorrows. And the reason that he was acquainted with grief is that he bore our grief. In other words, Jesus took the weight of human grief and sorrow upon himself. And Isaiah uses two words to describe this. The first is the word borne. He has borne our griefs, which literally means he lifted them up. Other translations say he took up our griefs, as if he bent down in order to pick them up. This was an intentional act on the part of Jesus. He came into the world to do this. He chose to take our griefs upon himself. And then Isaiah tells us that he carried our sorrows. In other words, he took the whole weight of human sorrow on his own shoulders. Now, what does that actually mean? Well, it means that Jesus has entered into every dimension of grief and sorrow in human life. We identified seven dimensions. Jesus Christ has entered into each and every one of them. Think about the physical sufferings of Jesus. Do you suffer physical pain? Jesus has been there, prophesying what Jesus would actually experience. The psalmist in Psalm 22 says, all my bones are out of joint. Have you ever had one bone out of joint and felt the agony of that on the cross? Every bone in the body of Jesus pulled out of joint, not broken, but pulled out of joint. If you know what it is to suffer physical pain of any kind, the Lord Jesus Christ knows that grief, and he has carried that sorrow. We’ve just begun to see what it means for Jesus to carry our sorrow. Next time, we’re going to look at six more ways, and so I hope you’ll be able to join us for that. Remember, if you ever miss one of our broadcasts, you can always go online, catch up with any you’ve missed, or go back and listen again. That’s at openthebible.org.uk. Pastor Colin Smith’s messages are also available as a podcast. Go to your favourite podcast site, search for Open the Bible UK, find the purple logo, and subscribe to the podcast for regular updates. Also on our website and as a podcast, you can find Open the Bible Daily. This is a series of short, two to three minute reflections, read by Sue MacLeish and written by Pastor Colin Smith. There’s a new one available on the website every day, and if you subscribe to the podcast, you’ll receive an update every day as well. Open the Bible is supported by our listeners. That’s people just like you. And this month, if you’re able to begin a new donation to Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds or more, we’d love to thank you by sending you a copy of a book. It’s called Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer. Colin, give us a taste of what’s in this book. Well, it’s really all about what God does in bringing people to faith in himself and what he calls us to do, the responsibility that he’s given to us. And these two things work together. One way that I find quite helpful to think about this is if you think of a surgeon and he’s performing an operation, there are certain tools that are in his hand. The instruments become the means by which the surgery is performed. But it’s the hand of the surgeon himself that uses these instruments and actually gets the work done. And God uses us as instruments, our praying, our sharing the gospel. That’s a trust that he’s given to us. And we are instruments in the Redeemer’s hand. And that’s a very wonderful privilege. But the really good news is that we are in the Redeemer’s hand, that it’s the Lord who actually does the work and by his grace. On the one hand, we learn that we have a great privilege and we have a great work that God has called us to do. And on the other hand, we learn that we have tremendous hope because it is God who’s actually doing the work in and through us. This book’s a wonderful encouragement. I’ve gone back to it year after year and just found it to be refreshing as a reminder to me that I have great privilege in being trusted with the word of the gospel as every believer is. And yet it is God who uses the word of the gospel to save people. And he does it by his own power and by his marvellous grace. So this book is our gift to you if you’re able to begin a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds or more each month. It’s called Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God and it’s by J.I. Packer. You can find full details of this offer and you can give online as well at our website that’s openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and for Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll be able to join us again soon. Have you ever felt that no one can understand your suffering? If that describes you, make sure you join us next time on Open the Bible.

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Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

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