As we come to Isaiah 53, I have to say that the beginning of the passage is really in Isaiah 52:13. So when I make reference, in general, to a study of Isaiah 53, I’m actually including Isaiah 52:13 through Isaiah 53:12. I could only wish that when the scholars labeled chapter 53, they’d actually started it at verse 13, because verse 13 sets up what is detailed in the fifty-third chapter.

If you’ve been a Christian for any time at all, you’re very familiar with this section of Holy Scripture, and you should be. It has been called by some scholars in the past, “The Fifth Gospel.” The Fifth Gospel, to be added to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It was Augustine who said way back in the fifth century, “It is not a prophecy, it is a gospel.” It was Polycarp, the student and friend of the apostle John, who called this section of Scripture, “The Golden Passional of the Old Testament.”

Martin Luther himself said, “Every Christian ought to be able to repeat it by heart.” It is very likely that you already know most of it if you have been a student of Scripture for any length of time.

A couple of German scholars writing in 1866 said, “It looks as if it had been written beneath the cross of Golgotha.” They further said, “Many an Israelite has had it melt the crust of his heart.” The same German scholars went on to say this: “This chapter is the most central, the deepest and the loftiest thing that Old Testament prophecy, outstripping itself, has ever achieved.”

You’re going to find in this section of Holy Scripture the root of Christian thinking. You’re going to find here phraseology that has entered and remained in Christian speech and conversation. You’re going to find in this section of Scripture the text that has been used by more gospel preachers and writers through history than any other portion of the Old Testament. In fact, Isaiah 53 is the heart of Hebrew writing. It is the messianic, prophetic Scripture that stands above all others in the Old Testament.

Now, the luster of this prophetic gem is intensified by its setting. Isaiah is divided into two sections, chapters 1 through 39 and chapters 40 through 66. It is a long, very detailed, and magnificent Old Testament book. It was written about 680 B.C., nearly 700 years before Christ.

The first half of the book speaks of coming judgment and captivity — 39 chapters where God speaks through the prophet Isaiah, speaking of judgment on Israel that was to come immediately. And it did come. It came less than a hundred years after it was written, in the beginning of the Babylonian captivity.

The captivity of the southern kingdom is the target of the first 39 chapters. And beyond that, there are warnings about divine judgment on sinners of all ages and all time, and even indications of a final, terminal, eschatological day of great judgment. Listen to Isaiah 39:6-7:

“Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have treasured up to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,” says Yahweh.

“And some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

This is a specific prophecy about the Babylonian captivity, which began in 603, about 80 years after Isaiah wrote about it. He prophesied that it would happen, and it did happen. So the first section can be verified as divinely authored, because history proved its fulfillment to the letter.

That brings you to the second section. Twenty-seven chapters remain, chapters 40 through 66. The theme of the second section is grace and salvation. These 27 chapters, starting in chapter 40, are the most sublime and rich portion of Old Testament prophecy. It really is a single prophecy — one glorious vision, one majestic revelation of salvation through the coming Messiah. It is sublime. It is sweeping. It is comprehensive. It encompasses not only the deliverance of Israel from Babylon, not only the deliverance of sinners from sin, but the deliverance of the nations from the curse into the kingdom of the Messiah.

Most interestingly, the second half begins where the New Testament begins. In chapter 40 we read:

Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.

“Speak to the heart of Jerusalem;
And call out to her, that her warfare has been fulfilled,
That her iniquity has been removed,
That she has received from the hand of Yahweh
Double for all her sins.”

A voice is calling,
“Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:1-3)

That’s the turn in the book of Isaiah from the pronouncement of judgment in the first half to comfort in the back half, because of grace and salvation. And, of course, it was John the Baptist who was the fulfillment of that prophecy beginning in verse 3. He was the forerunner of the Messiah. He was the voice crying in the wilderness.

So, that’s where the New Testament begins, with John the Baptist. And that’s where the back half of Isaiah begins. And so this “gospel” section of Isaiah begins where the actual New Testament gospel begins.

Now, this section of Isaiah ends where the New Testament ends, as well. Look at these verses from the final chapters of the book:

For behold, I am creating a new heavens and a new earth;
And the former things will not be remembered or come upon the heart. (Isaiah 65:17)

“For just as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I make will endure before Me,” declares Yahweh,
“So your seed and your name will endure.” (Isaiah 66:22)

Guess where the New Testament ends? It ends in Revelation 21-22, with the new heavens and the new earth.

So this section of Isaiah begins where the New Testament begins, with the arrival of John the Baptist. It ends where the New Testament ends, with the new heaven and the new earth. And thus we see the magnificent way in which this incredible prophecy parallels the New Testament. And all of it is written 700 years before the Messiah comes to begin to fulfill it.

Now, who is going to bring this grace and salvation? Who is going to be the one to provide this deliverance? The answer is “the servant of the Lord.” That is how He is designated. He is the one who will bring salvation. He is the one who will bring comfort. He is the one who will bring the forgiveness of sins. He becomes, then, the theme of this final section of the book of Isaiah.

You can find more insights into Isaiah 53 in Dr. MacArthur’s book “The Gospel According to God: Rediscovering the Most Remarkable Chapter in the Old Testament.” For a limited time, the book is available for 25% off from The Master’s University’s bookstore, here. 

This post is based on a sermon Dr. MacArthur preached in 2012, titled “The Astonishing Servant of Jehovah.” In addition to serving as the pastor of Grace Community Church and the voice of Grace to You, Dr. MacArthur is the chancellor of The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, Calif. You can learn more about TMU at masters.edu.