A Life Worthy of the Price of Redemption

“But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on Him; and with His stripes we ourselves are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

This was Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah. I have often wondered because it is without a doubt so clearly about Jesus, why the Jews cannot see Jesus in his prophesies. But the truth is that Jews for the most part do not read the prophets. They concentrate on the Torah. This came about in the time of the Pharisees and Sadducees who were both adamant about reading and following the Torah. The Sadducees were stricter in following the Torah than the Pharisees who interpreted the Torah according to their traditions, which the Sadducees did not.

We who have read the Gospels about the life and ministry of Jesus, clearly see Jesus. Our Scripture of study is reiterated by Peter. “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that dying to sins, we might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.” (1Peter 2:24) Isaiah was looking for forward to the time Messiah would come. He writes “...with His stripes we ourselves are healed.” But Peter looking back to the Messiah writes, “...by whose stripes you were healed.” It’s a done deal in heaven. It’s God’s will. We can pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It’s already done in heaven. We need the faith, not in healing, not in believing in healing, but believing that it’s God’s will which is done already in heaven. Jesus came to make that a possibility for us. He came to heal us spirit, soul (mind, will and emotions) and body. “But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” (Matthew 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31)

We can read all that Christ suffered. But the Scripture uses different words. He was wounded, bruised, chastised and received stripes. To be wounded is to be injured, harmed or damaged. We skip over the word wounded but when we realize that Jesus was injured, harmed and damaged we feel the wounds He received. Jesus was bruised physically, mentally and emotionally. It came from the pounding He received from the soldiers rupturing the small blood vessels. Mentally and emotionally, He was bruised which means He was crushed mentally and emotionally when He was abandoned by all. Even if He knew it would happen, it still crushed Him. If we know we are going to be hurt, we may think it may not hurt as badly, but it does. He was chastised, meaning berated and insulted for His teaching which was meant to set people free and for saying Who He was, the King of kings and Lord of lords Who was to redeem man. He received the stripes from the flogging of many soldiers using whips with bone, rock or glass fragments. We deserved all of this, but Jesus took it for us. (Isaiah 53:5)

What an exchange! Jesus was injured, harmed and damaged because of our rebellion, our sin and trespasses. And we receive forgiveness. He was bruised for our iniquities, our perversities, evilness and faults. And we receive righteousness. He was chastised, rebuked and berated, taking our shame so we could have peace. And the stripes He received from the flogging bought us healing. This is the kind of God we have. He is a good God, a God of love, wisdom and full of mercy.

When God revealed Himself to Moses, He revealed Who He was. “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”. (Exodus 34:6-7) [A side note: Not to be distracted, but later in the Law, God declares that each will be accountable for his own sin. “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” (Deuteronomy 24:16)] In the marvelous and wonderful exchange, no man could have been able to make that exchange. Man has nothing to give on his own merit, no righteousness, no forgiveness, no peace and no healing. We received that from Jesus and from His sacrifice.

In short, God’s mercy from the foundation of the earth toward man was manifest in Jesus and redemption. What that means for us is that now we are filled with His love, mercy, goodness and truth. We are given the way to be righteous, not on our virtue, but on Christ’s. We are accepted as righteous. “But now a righteousness of God has been revealed apart from Law, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets; even the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ, toward all and upon all those who believe. For there is no difference...” (Romans 3:21-22) We are given the gift to live a supernatural life worthy of a child of God, even in this world. We are to live a life that honors the price of redemption.