“For Our Transgressions”

K. Douglas Bassett

(Isa. 53:5; refer in Latter-day Commentary on the New Testament, Pinegar–Bassett–Earl, 362–65.)

Verse 5 speaks concerning Christ’s atoning sacrifice. The expression “he was wounded for our transgressions” may better be translated from the Hebrew as “he was pierced for our transgressions.” Jesus Christ was pierced for the transgressions of all mankind while on the cross. The Psalmist prophesied: “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16). In April 1829, Joseph Smith received this revelation from the Lord: “Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet” (D&C 6:37).

(Donald W. Parry, Visualizing Isaiah [Provo, Utah: The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2001], 90.)

On the night Jesus was betrayed, He took three of the Twelve and went into the place called Gethsemane. There He suffered the pains of all men. He suffered as only God could suffer, bearing our griefs, carrying our sorrows, being wounded for our transgressions, voluntarily submitting Himself to the iniquity of us all, just as Isaiah prophesied… .
It was in Gethsemane that Jesus took on Himself the sins of the world, in Gethsemane that His pain was equivalent to the cumulative burden of all men, in Gethsemane that He descended below all things so that all could repent and come to Him. The mortal mind fails to fathom, the tongue cannot express, the pen of man cannot describe the breadth, the depth, the height of the suffering of our Lord—nor His infinite love for us.

(Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988], 14.)

Commentaries on Isaiah: In the Book or Mormon

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