Isaiah has told us about the silence of Christ, upon whom,

“The Lord hath laid the iniquity [the sin] of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

The prophet has also told us that,

“He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb [is silent], so he openeth not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

Dr. Edward J. Young said, “Having stressed the silent patience of Christ in His suffering, the prophet now gives a more detailed description of that suffering” (Edward J. Young, Ph.D., The Book of Isaiah, Eerdmans, 1972, volume 3, p. 351).

“He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken” 
      (Isaiah 53:8).

The verse divides naturally into three points describing (1) Christ’s suffering, (2) Christ’s generation, and (3) Christ’s vicarious atonement for our sins.

I. First, the text gives a description of Christ’s suffering.

“He was taken from prison and from judgment…for he was cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8).

Christ was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was taken by men sent by the chief priests. They brought Him before Caiaphas, the high priest, and before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court. He was condemned in this court by false witnesses. When Jesus said,

“Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven”
      (Matthew 26:64),

then the high priest said,

“What think ye? They [of the Sanhedrin] answered and said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted [beat] him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands” (Matthew 26:66-67).

“When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death” (Matthew 27:1).

But they had no legal authority under Roman law to do this, and so,

“they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the [Roman] governor” (Matthew 27:2).

Pilate questioned Jesus,

“and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified” (Matthew 27:26).

Thus, this part of our text was fulfilled,

“He was taken from prison and from judgment [before the high priest, and then before Pilate]…for he was cut off out of the land of the living [by His death on the Cross]” (Isaiah 53:8).

The imprisonment of Jesus by the Jews and by Pilate fulfilled the words, “He was taken from prison.” The trials before Caiaphas, and then before Pilate, fulfilled the phrase, “and from judgment.” He was taken from prison and from judgment out to a hill called Calvary, where He was crucified and died on the Cross, thus fulfilling the phrase, “He was cut off out of the land of the living.”

Dr. Gill said,

He was taken by distress and judgment; that is, his life was taken away in a violent manner, under a pretense of justice; whereas [really] the [worst] injustice was done him; a wrong charge was brought against him, false witnesses were [bribed to take a false oath, thus committing perjury against Him], and his life was taken away with wicked hands [as given] in Acts 8:32, [“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb [silent] before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth”]. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: he had not common justice done him (John Gill, D.D., An Exposition of the Old Testament, The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989 reprint, volume V, p. 314).

As our text says,

“He was taken from prison and from judgment…for he was cut off out of the land of the living…” (Isaiah 53:8).

II. Second, the text gives a description of Christ’s generation.

In the middle of the text is a clause which is somewhat difficult to explain,

“He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living…” (Isaiah 53:8).

“Who shall declare his generation?” Dr. Gill said that this phrase speaks “of the age [or generation in which He lived], and the men of it in which he lived, whose barbarity to him, and wickedness they were guilty of, were such as could not be declared [fully] by the mouth, or [fully] described by the pen of man” (Gill, ibid.). It makes us wince, and brings tears to our hearts, when we read of the cruelty and injustice they flung at the harmless Son of God! As Joseph Hart put it in his sorrowful hymn,

See how patient Jesus stands,
   Insulted in [this awful place]!
Sinners have bound the Almighty hands,
   And spit in their Creator’s face.

With thorns His temple gored and gashed,
   Send streams of blood to every part,
His back with knotted scourges lashed,
   But sharper scourges tear His heart.

Nailed naked to the accursed wood,
   Exposed to earth and heaven above,
A spectacle of wounds and blood,
   A prodigy of injured love!
(“His Passion” by Joseph Hart, 1712-1768;
      to the tune of “‘Tis Midnight, and on Olive’s Brow”),

And why, dear Saviour, tell me why
   Thou didst a bleeding sufferer lie?
What mighty motive could thee move?
   The motive’s plain – ‘twas all for love!

For love of whom? of sinners base,
   A hardened herd, a rebel race;
That mocked and trampled on Thy blood,
   And [reveled] in the wounds of God.
(“Gethsemane” by Joseph Hart, 1759;
      to the tune of “‘Tis Midnight, and on Olive’s Brow”).

“He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living…” (Isaiah 53:8).

John Trapp said, “Who can utter or describe his generation? i.e. the wickedness of the men of those times he lived in” (John Trapp, A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, Transki Publications, 1997 reprint, volume 3, p. 410). Dr. Gill brought out the same thought when he said, “who shall declare his generation” means, “the age, and the men of it, in which he lived, whose barbarity to him, and wickedness they were guilty of, were such as could not be declared by the mouth, or described by the pen of man” (Gill, ibid.).

It is difficult to explain, in human terms, why the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus crucified, and why the Roman soldiers, “smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him…and led him out to crucify him” (Mark 15:19-20). Jesus Himself said,

“But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause”
      (John 15:25).

This is a reference to Psalm 69:4, “They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head.” As John Trapp put it, “Who can utter or describe his generation?... the wickedness of the men of those times he lived in.”

“And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain” (Acts 13:28).

Dr. Young said, “The verb [declare] implies meditation or giving serious thought to something…They should have considered [the meaning of His death], but they did not” (Young, ibid., p. 352).

How is it any different today? Millions of people have heard about the death of Jesus on the Cross without giving serious thought to it. “They should have considered, but they did not.” Who thinks deeply about Christ’s crucifixion? Do you? Do you spend time thinking about the death of Christ and what it means to you?

III. Third, the text describes the deeper meaning of Christ’s suffering.

Please stand and read Isaiah 53:8 aloud, paying careful attention to the last clause, “for the transgression of my people was he stricken.”

“He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken” (Isaiah 53:8).

You may be seated.

“For the transgression of my people was he stricken.” According to Dr. Merrill F. Unger, the ancient Jewish Talmud teaches that Jesus was punished for His own sin, for they thought of Him as a false prophet. Dr. Unger said,

In the Talmud, Jesus of Nazareth is relegated to hell alongside Titus [the Roman general who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.] and Balaam [an Old Testament false prophet. Christ, along with these wicked men] undergoing the severest and most degrading punishment [in Hell]. (Merrill F. Unger, Ph.D., Unger’s Commentary on the Old Testament, Moody Press, 1981, p. 1297).

But Dr. Unger went on to say,

What a wail of repentance will arise at Christ’s [second coming] when Israel realizes her terrible mistake and sin in maligning and crucifying her Deliverer and best friend (ibid.).

Then Unger made this statement: 

For seventeen centuries [the Messianic interpretation] was the only interpretation among Christians [and] Jewish authorities deliberately abandoned that view of the chapter because of its remarkable fulfillment in Christ (Unger, ibid., p. 1293).

Today many Jewish scholars say that the entire chapter refers to the suffering of the Jewish people, not to Christ. But this cannot be the true meaning of our text, for it plainly says, “For the transgression [the sin] of my people was he stricken” (Isaiah 53:8). Of this clause, “For the transgression of my people was he stricken,” Dr. Henry M. Morris said, “He died for ‘my people’ – that is, Israel – showing that [Christ] in this passage is not Israel, as many have alleged” (Henry M. Morris, Ph.D., The Defender’s Study Bible, Word Publishing, 1995, p. 767). Thus, the true meaning is not that the Jewish people were stricken, but rather that Christ was stricken in their place, for their sins, to pay the penalty for their sins.

But Dr. Unger, long a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, made it clear that there is a deeper application of that clause, “For the transgression of my people was he stricken.” Unger said,

My [covenant] people are Israel, the converted remnant at Christ’s second [coming] to whom the Lord speaks as His people, by the election of grace. But the prophecy embraces all who…accept [Christ’s] salvation and come under the New Covenant (Unger, ibid., p. 1299).

Dr. John Gill gives a similar interpretation, applying the words “For the transgression of my people was he stricken,” to the Jewish people and also to the elect Christians – showing that Christ was stricken both for the sins of Israel and for the sins of “his people” who are Christians (Gill, ibid., p. 314). I personally think that Unger and Gill bring out the true meaning of those words,

“For the transgression of my people was he stricken”
      (Isaiah 53:8).

And Dr. Young said,

It is God who speaks. The stroke [of punishment and death] fell not on behalf of all men but on behalf of my people. Again, when speaking of his death, Isaiah must give the reason for that death, namely its substitutionary, propitiatory character (Young, ibid., p. 352).

Christ was “stricken” on the Cross to pay for the sins of His people, whether they be Jews or Gentiles. His death is substitutionary, Christ dying to pay for our sins. It is propitiatory, turning away the anger of God from the sinner.

But there is a condition. For Christ to pay for your sins, you must come to Him by faith and be converted. The sin-payment of Christ on the Cross will not save anyone who fails to come to Jesus by faith in true conversion. It is only when you are converted that your sins are blotted out of God’s record by the Blood of Jesus.

You can know all the facts in this verse and still be lost. The demons have a full knowledge of these facts, but it does not save them. The Apostle James said, “the devils [demons] also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19). The demons have only “head knowledge” about Christ’s atoning death. You must go farther if you wish to be saved. You must experience an encounter with the risen Christ. You must be converted by an act of God’s grace, or you will go to Hell with your memorized thoughts about His crucifixion.

Listen to Dr. A. W. Tozer as he speaks against “decisionism,” and in favor of true conversion. Dr. Tozer said,

The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver (A. W. Tozer, D.D., The Best of A. W. Tozer, Baker Book House, 1979, page 14).

“The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless” – and, I might add that it is often Christless! “Decisionists” simply want you to say a quick prayer, be baptized, and get it over with. Often Christ’s death and resurrection are hardly mentioned. Sometimes they are left out completely! This is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that you must feel the guilt of your sin, and find that you have no way to escape from sin and its consequences other than by coming to Christ, laying yourself out helplessly before Him, and trusting Him with the innermost depths of your being. Then, and only then, will you know by experience what the prophet Isaiah meant when he said,

“For the transgression of my people was he stricken”
      (Isaiah 53:8).

When you get ahold of Jesus Christ by faith, His Blood cleanses all your sin and you are converted – but not before that happens to you. No, never before that happens! You must get ahold of Jesus Christ if you want to be converted!