The Suffering Servant
The Suffering Servant: What His Suffering Means What follows is a study on Isaiah 53, the Suffering Servant chapter--a chapter believed to be a summary of what God and Messiah (God's servant) would accomplish for his people. The significance of this chapter can't be underestimated. It's a favorite for those who believe in the Penal Substitutionary Atonement model (PSA). However, there are other ways to understand the Suffering Servant chapter. For those who aren't familiar, the PSA theory basically asserts that we are dead and without hope, but that God, in order to divert his wrath from "us," sent his own son to "bear his wrath because of our sins." The language of Isaiah's 53rd chapter does seem to suggest this, and I've believed this mainstream understanding of the death of Christ for the majority of my almost-decades long walk. But, there are other ways of understanding and interpreting this chapter which I think are a better portrait of