- Shawn Gerbers
Isaiah 53 - Paying the Price
We have all sinned immensely; yet Jesus paid it all.
Read / Listen
Read Isaiah 53 (Concentrate on v6-11)
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 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.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 12
Q. According to God’s righteous judgment
we deserve punishment
both in this world and forever after:
how then can we escape this punishment
and return to God’s favor?
A. God requires that his justice be satisfied.
Therefore the claims of his justice must be paid in full,
either by ourselves or another.
Summary
If you could see a list of all your sins, would you want to? How long would that list be? Would it take up a whole filing cabinet? Would it fill hundreds of books?
I cannot imagine how many sins I have committed in my life, and honestly, I have no desire to know. Knowing that I am a sinner is enough.
Isaiah confirms what we already know in the first half of v6:
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
It's verses like this that so many people with only a slight knowledge of the Bible think the Bible and the Church is full of: condemnation, guilt & shame... telling us what we already know: that we're really messed up.
But so often these scoffers miss the second half of v6:
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
This is the message of the Bible: we sinned but Christ fully paid the claims of God's justice.
Dig Deeper
The prophet Isaiah is speaking to a people who need to hear words of hope. They are going through a very difficult time, and they need to know that things are going to work out. Part of Isaiah’s prophecy focuses on what God is going to do. One day he is going to send the Suffering Servant. This servant is going to be righteous. He will justify many. He will bear their iniquities.
Isaiah is talking about Jesus.
When Isaiah says that the Suffering Servant will bear their iniquities, he is saying that Jesus will take on our sin. He does not pay for just a few of them. He does not remove only the worst ones. He does not take the seemingly small and insignificant sins. When we confess our sin to God, Jesus pays for all our sins in full.
Every sin separates us from God. Jesus takes all our sin. He pays them in full.
Truly, this is amazing news. To satisfy God’s justice, Jesus pays for our sins in full. Think about all the sins you have committed in your life. Jesus pays for them all. Not one is unaccounted for. Not one is overlooked or forgotten about. Praise God, Jesus paid it all!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Most holy God, who knows everything about me.
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank you for what Jesus has done for me. May I know that my sin has been covered completely by the work of Jesus.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Acts 5
