What is the fifth gospel?

from the old testament

• Isaiah 52:13–53:12 is the third of four servant passages in Isaiah. In this passage, the Servant is described as God’s Savior sent to the Jews. It is called the fifth Gospel because it summarizes Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. It was written in the past tense, 750 years before Jesus, and is intended to be read as a future Jewish retrospective look at Jesus, the promised Messiah they had rejected.
• The passage opens with the servant’s humiliation and exaltation: “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind” (Isaiah 52:13–14; cf. Philippians 2:6–9).
• Unlike how one might expect of a savior, the Servant was not attractive: “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2).
• Because of His ugliness, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3; cf. John 1:11).
• They did not merely ignore their Savior; they heaped false accusations upon Him to put Him to death (Isaiah 53:8; cf. Matthew 26:59–61). Like a sheep led to the slaughter, the Servant did not resist. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7; cf. Matthew 27:12–14).
• What they are expressing in this Gospel is the realization that their evil of putting Him to death was the means of salvation. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4–6; cf. 1 Peter 2:24).
• Indeed, the servant’s death was at the command of God: “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10a; cf. Acts 2:23).
• However, the Servant did not stay dead. “When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10b–11a; cf. Acts 2:24). Core to understanding this passage is the connection between the Servant’s sacrificial death and the sacrificial system God gave the Jews to atone for their sin (Leviticus 17:11). The Servant is God’s sacrificial lamb. Unlike the animal sacrifices, the Servant fully satisfies God’s wrath and so resurrects.
• His death and subsequent resurrection bring salvation by crediting His righteousness to sinners. “By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11b; cf. Romans 5:19).
• The passage ends, summarizing the Servant’s work. He was counted as sinful to bear sin’s penalty: “he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12b).

from the new testament

• The connection between Jesus and the Isaiah 53 Servant is not based solely on deductive reasoning. The link is explicitly made in a couple of New Testament passages. Philip was led to an Ethiopian eunuch who had obtained a portion of the Old Testament scriptures. Confused, he asked Philip to explain. The passage he was reading was “Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth” (Acts 8:32–33; cf. Isaiah 53:7–8). We read, “beginning with this Scripture [Philip] told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).
• While teaching the church about suffering, Peter also applied the Isaiah 53 passage to Jesus as the example of suffering. Paraphrasing Isaiah 53, He said, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:22–25; cf. Isaiah 53:4–7, 9).

implications for today

Long before Jesus came, He was already coming. Indeed, even before God created us, He planned to send His Son to die for sin (1 Peter 1:20). Because it was God’s eternal plan, it is no surprise that He could reveal it in Isaiah 53 and speak as if it had already happened. Because, in God’s mind, it was a done deal.

Before Israel rejected her Messiah, Isaiah 53 was a passage of hope for them of a coming Savior. However, even after rejecting Jesus, God still plans to save Israel (Romans 11:26). Isaiah 53 previews its future statement when they realize that He came a long time ago.

This is why Isaiah 53 sits among the collection of Gospels. It’s the good news that God sent His Servant to die so that we might live. When He did, that Servant, who had been eternally divine (John 1:1) and known to us as Jesus (Matthew 1:21), added on human nature (Philippians 2:6–7) to be like us in every way, but without sin (Hebrews 4:15). The Father then placed our sin on Him, treating Him as if He was the one who had sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the cross, He then poured out His wrath on Him in place of the sinners who deserved it. Therefore, all who repent of their sin (Acts 17:30) and believe in Jesus as the only way of escape from God’s wrath (John 14:6) will be saved (Romans 10:9–10).

Believers, ever since Isaiah 53, have looked back and marveled that God crushed Him in their place. If you have not yet believed, we implore you to do so now and join us in praising God’s marvelous grace.