It is in Isaiah 53 that we finally learn why the Strong Arm of the Lord, His Messiah, must be humiliated and die - it is in the place of His people whom He will redeem!
Our crimes are laid on Jesus, and He is punished by God in our place on the cross.
By Christ's chastisement, He brought us peace! Not peace like the world gives, but peace with God. There is no condemnation left for our sin before God! Being justified by faith in Jesus' death for us, we have peace with God.
But Isaiah continues: "by His stripes we are healed." Some wrongly claim that Jesus' death guarantees physical healing for His people today, but Peter explains the true meaning. And yet, in a sense, in the end, Christ's reconciliation of His people to God will result, one day soon, in the removal of all pain and suffering and death, so that Christ's death does heal us all at the end.
The Spirit of Christ in Isaiah then tenderly describes the sins of His people when He likens us to "sheep who go astray and turn every one to his own way."
In this way, our true state is portrayed: we are rebellious, stubborn, and disobedient. And yet we are portrayed as sheep - His sheep, whom He will surely rescue!
Indeed, we will not obey - we cannot obey, because of the sin nature and the corruption of the fall. In that, we are like sheep - we will wander out of the pasture and into the brambles to investigate what looks appealing to us - only to fall into a ravine, or become lost, or be torn apart by wolves.
But all that disobedience, God laid on Jesus, and punished Him for it.
Note well that Christ does not flog us or beat us for going astray. No, He bore all the punishment for us! |
