But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:5-6 (NIV)
This prophetic passage foretold what the Lord Jesus would experience on what we call “Good Friday”. He experienced the piercing for our own spiritual faults. He was beaten and crushed for our evil doings before God. It was on that Friday that he took not only the human punishment but also the divine punishment so that we would have peace with God. His wounds refer to his sacrifice that brought us our spiritual healing.
Why did he have to endure all that? Was it really necessary? Yes. It is because “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way”. Sheep wonder and get lost without a shepherd. They go their own way and they can’t find their way back on their own. The shepherd has to go and find them. That was us. When did we go astray? David says, that we are born with a predisposition to sin (Psalm 51:5). We inherited this from the first man (Romans 5:12). This why we are experts at wondering away from God. We go our way.
Is it bad to go our way? Yes, because just as the first man’s sin lead to death so do our sinfulness lead to death. But this isn’t just physical death, but an eternal separation after death. The only way to remedy this is for someone who is a perfect man and God at the same time to pay for our sins. That was Jesus and He did that on that Friday. God laid our sin on Him, “and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Does this mean I don’t have to do anything? Yes and no. No, you can’t do anything else beside what He did. His sacrifice was enough to cover our sins. In fact, Paul calls this grace. And this grace is more powerful that sin. Grace is a gift. Here is how the Message puts it:
He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. (Roms. 5:6-8)
But yes, there’s something we must do. Believe this message. This is called faith. When we do this our relationship with God is set up straight so we don’t wonder away. And you are back home. But this time is better than before.
“So now, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith in his promises, we can have real peace with him because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” (Romans 5:1) NLT
Jesus paid what you owed God. You don’t have to keep going your own way. Look up and see The Shepherd on the cross. You don’t have to wait till Easter Sunday. You know what happened!
