“WHO HAS believed (trusted in, relied upon, and clung to) our message [of that which was revealed to us]? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed? For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:1-6 AMP)
Why, why, why, do we read this passage and still wonder if God really cares for us? Isaiah saw prophetically Jesus as mankind’s Redeemer; the One Who took our place on the cross.
You see, we were the ones who deserved to bear all the Father laid on Him. It should have been us! We should have carried the griefs and sorrows. It should’ve been you and I that were bruised. But we were not strong enough to bear them, because we had earned each and every stripe; we could not pay for them, our account was empty. Yet He who was guiltless set us aside, took our place, and payed our debt. Completely!
He did it! He bore, carried, all our guilt, all our iniquity. Wounded for us, bruised for us, stricken and smitten by God for us!
For our complete wholeness. To undo all the enemy’s work. Spirit, soul, and body. And then He rose from the dead. He did it for us!
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8 ESV)
“He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.” (Romans 4:25 NLT)
Jan Grace 