Isaiah 53:6

[passingpilgrim]

Hi everyone,

Can someone help me with this passage? I am studying Isaiah 53 and see in verse 6 where it reads the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Is this verse speaking of mankind in general or did the Lord just lay on Christ the iniquity of the elect?

I ask because I see in verse 12 where it reads "he (Christ) bore the sin of many", implying not all, but some.

Is that the same implication for verse 6?

thanks...

 

[rbcbob]

Is this verse speaking of mankind in general or did the Lord just lay on Christ the iniquity of the elect?

The us, the we, and the our in the passage are those who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. They are the blessed recipients of the substitutionary atonement of Christ who died in the place of His people.

 

[Peairtach]

Isaiah is speaking on behalf of "Jerusalem" or "Zion" or "the Holy City" (see Isaiah 52; all these are expressions more or less poetical or literal for God's people) - i.e. the People of God, Israel - but ideally, so he's talking about the "Invisible Church" and the true "Israel of God", the elect.

Zion - "the Citadel"(?) - is a hill in Jerusalem which became identified with the Temple and the royal palace of the King (the Lord's Anointed), and in the Bible comes to represent Jerusalem, God's Land and God's people.

In the New Covenant period, the place where the priestly and kingly (and prophetic) functions come together is in Christ Who is in Heaven. The Church being united to Christ is Zion, Jerusalem and the Holy City, and the Israel of God (Gal 6:16). God's people have expanded to include Jews and Gentiles with the same spiritual privileges - the wall of partition that divided between Jews and Gentile God-fearers is abolished - and God's land now includes all nations and continents as well as Israel-Palestine.

Blue Letter Bible - Dictionaries