Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
Devotional Thoughts
By Gary Wilkerson
You and I deserve the curse—make no mistake about it. We should have been on the cross. But instead it was Jesus— the unblemished lamb, full of beauty and splendor, omnipotent and impeccable. What a wonder: The only person in history to have completely kept the law— the most admired of all people—took on the curse for us. That means every sin in the world was put on him.
Jesus felt the weight of that sin. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed for the Father to let the cup pass from him. Some have said, “He was afraid of the cross, of the torture to come.” Not true: Others in history have marched to their martyrdom singing songs, and Jesus was stronger than them all. His trembling came at the thought of everything in the cup—all of humankind’s sins—and not just a sip, but all of it, down to the very dregs.
Our beautiful Savior took on all of that and more—the sins of every mass murderer, every greedy idolater, every sexual predator in history. He drank it all, and he drank it to the full. All the crushing weight of sin’s penalty should have been on us. Instead, “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5).
Why did God give that cup to Jesus? Why does Scripture say it pleased him to do it? It was because then his people wouldn’t have to drink that cup. And both Father and Son were in agreement about that.
Yes, we are full of sin, totally undeserving. But our beautiful Savior has declared, “I drank it all. I paid the penalty in full. Now my people, who wholly put their faith and trust in me, have no penalty to pay, no guilt to hang onto, no shame to bear. I took it all for them.” That is the best message in the world. And it is the beauty of our amazing, incomparable Savior, Jesus Christ!