In Psalm 34:20 David says, “He keeps all his bones; / Not one of them is broken.” This prophesied that when Christ was crucified, His legs would not be broken (John 19:33, 36). The day Christ was crucified was the day of preparation for the Passover, and the next day (beginning at six o’clock in the evening) was the Sabbath (v. 14; Luke 23:54). The Jews, not wanting the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath, asked Pilate that the legs of Jesus and the other two crucified with Him be broken to hasten their death (John 19:31). But when the soldiers came to Jesus, they saw that He had already died, so they did not break His legs (v. 33). Under God’s sovereignty not one of the Lord’s bones was broken. This fulfilled both the type of the lamb of the passover in Exodus 12:46 and the prophecy in Psalm 34:20. The death of Christ was not due to the soldiers breaking His legs. This indicates that even though Christ was crucified, He Himself was willing to die and give up His life. This fulfilled what Christ had said to the disciples concerning His life: “No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again” (John 10:18). He gave up His life in order to redeem sinners. Furthermore, in the Bible bone signifies life (cf. Gen. 2:21-22). The fact that Christ’s legs were not broken indicates that in Him is an unbreakable and indestructible eternal life.
Psalm 40:6-8 says, “You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; / You have prepared ears for Me; / You do not require burnt offering and sin offering. / Then I said, / Behold, I have come; / In the scroll of the book / It is written concerning Me. / I delight in doing Your will, O My God; / Indeed Your law is within My inward parts.” This is a prophecy concerning Christ’s doing God’s will by being the sacrifice that satisfies God and man. Hebrews 10:5-8 refers to the fulfillment of this prophecy. Verse 5 says, “Coming into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.’” All the offerings sacrificed according to the law are shadows of Christ. In the fullness of time Christ came to replace the animal sacrifices of the law by putting on flesh and blood. In His flesh He offered Himself to God once for all and put away sin (9:26). Hebrews 10:9-10 says that the will of God was to take away the first, the animal sacrifices of the old covenant, that the second, the sacrifice of Christ of the new testament, might be established. Christ is the real sin offering that has taken away sin. He sanctified us by offering His body once for all.
The Triune God determined in His divine plan in eternity past that the second of the Divine Trinity would be incarnated and die on the cross to accomplish His eternal redemption for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose (Eph. 1:7-9). Hence, before the foundation of the world, that is, in eternity past (1 Pet. 1:19-20), the second of the Divine Trinity was ordained to be the Lamb of God (John 1:29); and in the eyes of God He was slain as the Lamb of God from the foundation of the world, that is, from the creation of God’s creatures, who became fallen (Rev. 13:8). From the time of man’s fall, lambs, sheep, calves, and bulls were used as types for God’s chosen people (Gen. 3:21; 4:4; 8:20; 22:13; Exo. 12:3-8; Lev. 1:2), pointing to Him who was to come as the real Lamb foreordained by God. In the fullness of time the Triune God sent the second of the Divine Trinity, the Son of God, to come in incarnation to take a human body (Heb. 10:5) that He might be offered to God on the cross (9:14; 10:12) to do the will of the Triune God (v. 7), that is, to replace the sacrifices and offerings, which were types, with Himself in His humanity as the unique sacrifice and offering for the sanctification of God’s chosen people (vv. 9-10).
The prophecies in Isaiah concerning Christ’s death and burial are seen mainly in chapter 53. The emphasis of the prophecies in this chapter is that the Savior Christ died a vicarious death.
Isaiah 53:4-5 says, “Surely He has borne our sicknesses, / And carried our sorrows; /...But He was wounded because of our transgressions; / He was crushed because of our iniquities; / The chastening for our peace was upon Him, / And by His stripes we have been healed.” This prophecy says that in His vicarious death, Christ bore our sicknesses and carried our sorrows (Matt. 8:17). In this portion of the Scriptures, sicknesses and sorrows are mentioned with iniquities and transgressions. This means that man’s sicknesses and sorrows come from sin. Because man committed sins, sicknesses and sorrows were produced; thus, we need Christ’s redemption to solve the problems of our iniquities and transgressions. When Christ was on the cross being judged by God, who put all iniquities upon Him, He took away the sin of the world (John 1:29) and also bore our sicknesses and sorrows. The stripes He received also were a suffering that resulted in death. Because of the chastening that He suffered, we have peace; because of the stripes He received, which resulted in death, we have been healed from death that we might live in resurrection (1 Pet. 2:24b).