NT Text: Romans 4:25
OT Source(s):
Source: Beale & Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007); Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment
Anchor Text: Isa 52:13-53:12 — The Suffering Servant
Significance: Paul's terse formula — "He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification" — echoes the LXX of Isaiah 53. The verb "delivered over" (paredothē) matches the LXX of Isaiah 53:12 ("the Lord delivered him up for our sins," paredothē dia tas hamartias hēmōn), and "for our trespasses" (dia ta paraptōmata hēmōn) reproduces the Servant Song's substitutionary "for our transgressions" (53:5, dia tas anomias hēmōn). Paul is likely citing a pre-Pauline confessional couplet already shaped by Isaiah 53, making the verse a witness that the earliest church read Jesus' death and resurrection through the Servant. The two lines distribute the Servant's work across cross and vindication: the "delivering up" answers Isaiah 53:5-12's substitutionary suffering, and "raised for our justification" answers 53:11 ("by His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many"). The telos is not a transactional ledger but the believer's standing before God: the same Servant who was handed over for our sins was vindicated so that his justification becomes ours, so that Christ crucified-and-risen is beheld as the ground of a peace with God that no moral effort could secure.