{"id":6283,"date":"2015-03-29T03:36:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-29T03:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6283"},"modified":"2015-04-04T14:32:41","modified_gmt":"2015-04-04T14:32:41","slug":"gone-astray-easter-series-part-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6283","title":{"rendered":"Gone astray\u2014Easter Series Part 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

All 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.<\/em> Isaiah 53:6<\/p>\n

In the middle of this chapter about the suffering Servant and His agonizing passion on our behalf, focus shifts momentarily to you and me. And it\u2019s not flattering.<\/p>\n

All of us like sheep have gone astray\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

This statement sums up the whole lump of humanity: Every last one of us is exactly like a sheep that has wandered off on its own. It doesn\u2019t matter if you are educated, brilliant, a prodigy, street smart, wise beyond your years, or just a smart cookie\u2014every single one of us is like a grazing sheep, oblivious to the dangers we\u2019re munching our way toward. Not one member<\/em> of our race is excluded\u2014concerning the things of God (the way things really<\/em> are), all <\/em>of us come into this life as dense as\u2026well\u2026a planet full of bleating sheep!<\/p>\n

\u2026 each of us has turned to his own way\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Every\u00a0one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made (see Psalm 139:14), and we all have a set of gifts, talents, skills, and interests that distinguish us one from another. Although God created us to be unique, this verse is not referring to the diversity of individuals. When Isaiah stated that each of us has turned to his own way, <\/em>he was writing about the conundrum of sin within<\/em> each wonderfully-made individual. Sin is the \u201cforce\u201d within\u00a0all of us\u00a0that plays havoc with conscience and draws each one toward\u00a0every kind of concern but<\/em> God. Even religiously-inclined individuals seek to \u201csave\u201d themselves<\/em>\u2014which is itself just another dead-end. Since the garden, the truth has been\u00a0that each of us has turned to his own way<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Due to the wayward condition of our race, a huge gulf existed between God and man. Despite His great love for us, God couldn\u2019t just \u201cget over it\u201d and let us enter eternal life as fallen beings. He knew that His holiness would consume sin in His presence\u2014the two cannot co-exist\u2014and His holiness would destroy us<\/em>\u00a0if we stood face-to-face before Him. Therefore, as things stood, unless He stopped being holy, we would be forever separated. But He could<\/em> never and would<\/em> never cease to be holy. And\u00a0men would always be sinful…<\/p>\n

This was unacceptable to God.<\/p>\n

Because you and I were like sheep, munching our way off the edge of the cliff; because you and I couldn\u2019t help but blindly careen down our own path into oblivion; because sinful men and women cannot co-exist in eternity with a holy God (no matter how loving He is), God developed a plan to counteract and overturn all of that.<\/p>\n

\u2026but<\/em> the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sin. Because of it, no man or woman can see God, let alone live forever in His presence. That\u2019s why God chose a Substitute from before the foundation of the world to bear the iniquities of us all. If a Man could live an entirely sinless life and be willing to take on everyone else\u2019s sins and the punishment for all of it, then humans, through faith invested in that Man\u2019s sacrifice,\u00a0could be cleansed of unrighteousness and receive a new nature, qualifying them to enter into fellowship with God\u2014as His sons and daughters.<\/p>\n

The problem was this: every human being was sinful. Therefore, as Isaiah prophesied, \u201cBehold,\u00a0a\u00a0virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name\u00a0Immanuel<\/em>\u201d (see Isaiah 7:14). Matthew explained this further when he wrote, \u201cBehold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, \u2018God with us\u2019<\/em>\u201d (Matthew 1:23). Jesus, the sweet Baby\u00a0of Bethlehem, was conceived by the Holy Spirit for the express purpose of being the sinless One upon whom the Lord would place the iniquity of us all.<\/p>\n

God in the flesh\u2014in the Person of Jesus Christ\u2014came to earth to do the job.<\/p>\n

God caused<\/em> our iniquity to fall upon the suffering Servant, His Son. In this way, without ceasing to be holy, God dealt with the sinful condition of mankind by taking it\u00a0on Himself in the body of Jesus as He hung on the cross. And as He\u00a0bore the judgment for every bit of our sin, He opened up the way for\u00a0all of us\u00a0to enter into His presence and be restored to fellowship with God.<\/p>\n

That day eternal life was opened up for all of us.<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.<\/em> 1 John 5:13<\/p>\n

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.<\/em> Romans 6:23<\/p>\n

And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.\u00a0<\/em>1 John 5:11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All 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. Isaiah 53:6 In the middle of this chapter about the suffering Servant and His agonizing passion on our behalf, focus shifts momentarily to you […]<\/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-6283","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\/6283","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=6283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6284,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6283\/revisions\/6284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}