Before I went to the hospital, while I was in hospital, and even now I’m out of hospital, many said to me “By His stripes you are healed brother!”
▪︎ I know they all meant well, so I didn’t react on it. But was their saying correct?
▪︎ And I know they all said that, because it was taught like that to them. But is this really what the Bible says?
Their words are coming from the last words in Isaiah 53:5.
Let us read what the Bible tells us in Isaiah 53:4-9
⁴Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
⁵But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
⁶All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
⁷He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
⁸By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
⁹His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
In these verses we read an account of the sufferings of Christ; also of the design of his sufferings. We read here how he suffered, and for what reason He suffered.
It was for our sins, and in our place, that our Lord Jesus suffered.
Jesus took the wrath of God on our sins upon Himself, and took the full punishment for our sins in our place.
This is a great miracle of love, because of this legal action,
▪︎ God saw Jesus as if he was the worst sinner,
• God treated His own Son as if he did all the sins we did.
▪︎ And God sees us as righteous.
• and God treats us as if we are fully righteous, when He sees His Son in us.
We all know, and the Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that we
²³all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
It is true…
▪︎ All sinners have their beloved sin,
▪︎ All sinners have their own evil way, of which they are fond.
And yes, our sins deserve all griefs and sorrows, even the most severe.
And it is only by God’s immeasurable grace that we are saved from death, which is the wages of sin.
It is only by God’s immeasurable grace, that we are healed from sin.
It is only by God’s immeasurable grace, that our sins were laid on Christ.
This atonement, all of it, was made for our sins.
And this is the only way of salvation.
▪︎ It is our sin that caused the thorns in Christ’s head,
▪︎ It is our sin that caused the whiplashes on Jesus back,
▪︎ It is our sin that caused the nails in his hands and feet,
▪︎ It is our sin that caused the spear in his side,
▪︎ And it is our sin that caused the Father to move away from Him, what made Jesus call out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus was delivered to death for our offences.
It is only by His sufferings, that we now have an open door to the Father.
It is only by His sufferings, that our corruptions were washed away.
We may well endure our lighter sufferings for a while, but let us all continue to love Him who has first loved us.
1 John 4:19
We love, because He first loved us.
Now let us look again at these verses.
⁴Surely our griefs [which we deserve because of our sins] He Himself bore,
And our sorrows [which we deserve because of our sins] He carried [away from us]; Yet we ourselves esteemed (considered) Him [to be] stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
⁵But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening [because of the wrath of God] for our well-being (salvation) fell upon Him,
and by His scourging we are healed (from sin).
This verse, and the previous, but also the following verses speak of the punishment for sin
⁶All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
⁷He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
⁸By oppression and judgment (the scourging or stripes, were a part of the punishment, coming from the judgment on our sins) He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
Jesus healed and saved us from death, which is the punishment we deserve for our sins.
If there ever was a reason to be thankful, this is it !
Internet: harryschoemaker.nl
Or directly to: devotionals.harryschoemaker.nl
P.S. : Are you interested to read more of these kind of messages?
Then follow me on Twitter: @schoemakerharry
or join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/349239882338068/
About Author
