(Isa. 53:4; Matt. 8:14–17; Heb. 4:15; refer in Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Bassett, to Alma 7:11–12)
When his body was taken from the cross and hastily placed in a borrowed tomb, he, the sinless Son of God, had already taken upon him not only the sins and temptations of every human soul who will repent, but all of our sickness and grief and pain of every kind. He suffered these afflictions as we suffer them, according to the flesh. He suffered them all. He did this to perfect his mercy and his ability to lift us above every earthly trial.
(Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, May 1988, 16–17.)
Interestingly, the word forgive does not appear in this chapter of Isaiah, though the Hebrew root nasa, from which the word forgive is usually translated, does appear twice, as “borne” in verse 4, and “bare” in verse 12… . Christ “bore” or carried our sins so that we do not have to carry their burden (John 1:29; see 1 Pet. 1:18–20). Or, as we say, “He has forgiven us,” meaning he “gave” the price “before.”
(Victor L. Ludlow, Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1982], 452.)
Certainly as he bore the sins and sadness, the heartbreak and hurt of every man, woman, and child from Adam to the end of the world, it is an understatement to say he was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” … Many thought that if there is suffering, there surely must be guilt. Indeed, there was plenty of guilt here—a whole world of it—but it fell upon the only utterly sinless and totally innocent man who had ever lived.
(Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1997], 91.)
When the unimaginable burden began to weigh upon Christ, it confirmed His long-held and intellectually clear understanding as to what He must now do… . In Gethsemane, the suffering Jesus began to be “sore amazed” (Mark 14:33), or, in the Greek, “awestruck” and “astonished.”
Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other worlds, “astonished”! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially. He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fulness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined! No wonder an angel appeared to strengthen him! (See Luke 22:43.)
The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement. (See Alma 7:11–12, Isa. 53:3–5, Matt. 8:17.) …
His suffering—as it were, enormity multiplied by infinity—evoked His later soul-cry on the cross, and it was a cry of forsakeness. (See Matt. 27:46.)
(Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, May 1985, 72–73.)