2014-04-17 - Bruised for Our Transgressions

Isa 53:5 (AMP) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.

This is an oft quoted verse as Easter approaches. These words are written hundreds of years before being fulfilled. They echo the words from the book of Genesis where the serpent is promised that his head would be crushed while the heal of the promised Messiah would be bruised. They hint at the coming of the Christ child as Messiah took on our humanity. Tonight we focus on that bruising in the events leading up to the cross.

Jesus was to be arrested in the garden. When the Lord asked those who came who they sought, knowing the answer already, He displayed a glimpse of His power in humbling the crowd. He spoke His name, I AM. Those who had come to arrest Jesus stumbled backward. There should have been little doubt Who was in control. He went willingly with them for our sakes.

Before the Sanhedrin every one of the answers Jesus gave was truthful, yet those who should have recognized Messiah were blind guides. He was punched and convicted in a trial that broke the Law in several ways. Jesus allowed all these things without protest for our sakes.

Pilate tried multiple times to let Jesus go free. Finally, caving in to political pressure he handed Jesus over to be beaten and crucified. The beating at the hands of the Roman guard was so severe that His face was almost unrecognizable. A crown of two inch thorns was jammed into His scalp as the Lord of Creation was mocked by His creation. The forty lashes given with whip with multiple lashes with bone and glass tied into them that removed flesh and muscle with each stroke and could cause massive blood loss was not often survived by the recipient. Jesus survived and walked to the cross, for us.

Finally the Creator was nailed to a cross by His creation while His mother Mary and a few of His friends watched helplessly as the final few items foretold were accomplished. The Father turned his back on the Son because of the sin the Son had taken on Himself. I'm not sure the loneliness of that moment will ever be understood. When everything else had been completed He said, "I thirst." Jesus cleared His throat with cheap wine and loudly declared - It is finished! Then He willingly released His spirit to the Father and died. The Son, the second person in the Trinity tasted death so that the price for our sins would be paid by His blood as the perfect sacrifice.

Consider today the price that was willingly paid for our needful sakes to repay a debt we could never pay. He paid for those who beat and mocked Him, for the men who hammered in the nails into His hands and feet and drove the spear into His side, for the Sanhedrin, for Pilate, for the crowd that called for His death, for His mother Mary and step-father Joseph, and disciples including those who ran an hid and Peter who denied Him, for all of fallen mankind - including ourselves.

Selah.

Grace & Peace,
Mike

jmhoskins@gmail.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org
http://www.redcross.org

All verses are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) unless otherwise noted.