Isaiah 53:1-12
‘He shall grow up…like a root out of dry ground…. He was despised and rejected by men…, and we did not esteem Him…. He bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows…. He was wounded for our transgressions…. The chastisement of our peace, was upon Him; and with His stripes, we are healed!… The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…. He was cut off, out of the land of the living…. He made His grave with the wicked…. It pleased the LORD to bruise Him…. When His soul was made an offering for sin, He would see His seed…. Therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the great!’ Isaiah 53:2-12.
Calvin comments: “‘He shall grow up…like a root out of dry ground’…. Christ will at first have no magnificence or outward display among men…. Christ’s power of springing up will not be derived from the sap of the earth as in trees, but contrary to the ordinary course of nature….
“‘He was despised and rejected by men’…. In order to know His glory, we must proceed from His death to His resurrection!… (‘He bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows’). Christ…carried our sicknesses…. We thought Him to be smitten, wounded by God, and afflicted…. He was wounded for our iniquities…. All offence is removed, when we know that by His death our sins have been
expiated and salvation has been obtained for us!…
“(‘With His stripes, we are healed!’) In us, nothing can be found but destruction and death. In Christ alone is life…. He alone brought medicine to us, and even procures…life by His death…. Our sins are a heavy load; but they are laid on Christ, by Whom we are freed from the load…. We were ruined, and…were hastening to Hell. Christ took upon Him the filthiness of our iniquities, in order to rescue us from everlasting destruction….
“The Prophet…declares that He was ‘taken away’…. ‘He was cut off’…. The death of Christ is the cause and source of our life…. (‘He made His grave with the wicked.’) God the Father delivered Christ into the hands of wicked men…. ‘Jehovah was pleased to bruise Him’…. In Christ there was no fault. Why, then, was the Lord pleased that He should suffer? Because He stood in our place, and in no other way than by His death could the justice of God be satisfied!…
“‘He shall see His seed!’…. Christ’s death…will be the cause of His having offspring!… Quickening the dead, He will procure a people…whom He will afterwards multiply…. ‘He shall prolong His days’…. Christ shall not be hindered by His death…from living eternally!…
”Therefore I will divide Him a portion (with the great)!’… The victory which Christ obtained by His death!…. Christ, as a valiant and illustrious general, triumphed!… A triumphal procession…after having obtained a signal victory!… And adorned with great pomp and splendour!”
Calvin also has some ten similar references to Isaiah 53 in his Institutes. And three in his Treatises, including the following: “God laid our iniquities upon Him, so that He might bear our sins in His Own body, nailing them to the tree.” And thereafter, God exalted His suffering Servant!
