{"id":6279,"date":"2015-03-28T02:47:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T02:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6279"},"modified":"2015-03-28T02:47:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-28T02:47:14","slug":"all-for-our-well-being-easter-series-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6279","title":{"rendered":"All for our well-being\u2014Easter Series Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,<\/em>\u00a0He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.<\/em>\u00a0Isaiah 53:5<\/p>\n

According to the prophet Isaiah, the suffering Servant bore our sicknesses as well as our griefs; He carried our pains at the same time He carried our sorrows (see Isaiah 53:4).<\/p>\n

But here Isaiah, prophesying more than seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, described the torturous death of the Servant, complete with piercing\u2014indicative of crucifixion. Interestingly enough, crucifixion was not used by the Jewish people as a form of execution; it was considered by them to be \u201cone of the most horrible, cursed forms of death (Deuteronomy 21:23)\u201d (see\u00a0http:\/\/christianity.about.com\/od\/goodfriday\/a\/crucifixionhist.htm<\/a>). In fact, the cross was rarely used as a means of capital offense until the time of Alexander the Great, four hundred years after Isaiah\u2019s prophecy (ibid).<\/p>\n

But He was pierced through for our transgressions\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The suffering Servant bore our diseases and griefs\u00a0and carried our sorrows and pains; but He was\u00a0pierced through<\/em>\u00a0for our transgressions. When those nails penetrated the Messiah\u2019s hands and feet,\u00a0fastening Him to the cross of His execution, it was due to\u00a0our<\/em>\u00a0transgressions and rebellion. Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth (see Revelation 13:8b), and crucifixion was the manner by which God had foreordained this redemptive act to take place on our behalf.<\/p>\n

He was crushed for our iniquities\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Just as He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. Whereas \u201ctransgressions\u201d implies outward, willful wrongdoing, \u201ciniquities\u201d refers to the inward condition of \u201cperversity, depravity, iniquity, guilt or punishment of iniquity\u201d (see\u00a0http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/Lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5771&t=KJV<\/a>\u00a0) which is the condition into which all people are born. The piercing was\u00a0external<\/em>\u00a0for our\u00a0outward<\/em>\u00a0acts of rebellion; He was crushed\u00a0within<\/em>\u00a0under the weight of man\u2019s\u00a0inborn<\/em>\u00a0sinful condition as He bore it on the cross.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u00a0the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Each of us deserves to bear the consequences for our own sin and rebellion, but God provided a way for that punishment to fall upon Someone else\u2014His Son. In exchange for our chastisement, He offers\u00a0us<\/em>\u00a0well-being\u2014the total package that includes completeness, soundness, welfare, and peace (see\u00a0http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/Lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7965&t=KJV<\/a>).<\/p>\n

How many times has God been accused of being unfair? The exchange that occurred at the cross of Calvary\u2014your punishment and sin for completeness, soundness, well-being, and peace\u2014is\u00a0absolutely<\/em>\u00a0unfair\u2014with all the benefits heaped up on\u00a0your<\/em>\u00a0side of the deal. In fact, when you were dead in sin and rebellion, the Bible says God made you alive in Christ, having forgiven all of your transgressions (see Colossians 2:13). The certificate of the debt that you owed\u2014consisting of angry decrees against you\u2014He canceled that out. He nailed the pile of\u00a0compounded offenses\u00a0credited\u00a0to your account\u00a0to the cross, writing across them with the blood of His Son, \u201cPAID FOR IN FULL\u201d (see Colossians 2:14).<\/p>\n

\u2026\u00a0and by His scourging we are healed.<\/em><\/p>\n

As if all of that was not enough, the God who is\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0than enough added this clause: “by His scourging we are healed.<\/em>”\u00a0He had borne our sicknesses and carried our pains, had been pierced through for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, but not\u00a0one moment<\/em>\u00a0of His passion for us that dark Friday was wasted. Early after His arrest, He was scourged\u2014beaten with a cruel Roman flagrum. (For an explicit description of this form of punishment, see\u00a0http:\/\/truthmagazine.com\/archives\/volume44\/v440106010.htm<\/a>\u00a0[David McClister, Truth Magazine<\/em>, 2000].<\/p>\n

This brutal flagellation was for our healing. Every vicious\u00a0tear into the flesh of the Lord made life-giving virtue available to you and me\u2014by His scourging we are healed.<\/p>\n

This is the Man who beckons you:\u00a0Follow Me<\/em>. This is the One to whom you can run and be safe. This is\u00a0Jesus\u2014the Way, the Truth, and the Life.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0Jesus. He died for you so that you could live through Him.<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

…and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.<\/em>\u00a01 Peter 2:24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,\u00a0He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.\u00a0Isaiah 53:5 According to the prophet Isaiah, the suffering Servant bore our sicknesses as well as our griefs; He carried our pains at the same time He carried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-suffering-servant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6282,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279\/revisions\/6282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}