Wounded for Out Transgressions

January 30, 2011

Background Scripture: Isaiah 53
Lesson Passage: Isaiah 53:1 – 12

What an unbelievable report. Or shall I say a difficult to accept and believe report? What kind of deliverer would allow himself to be taken captive and ill treated by some of the very ones he had come to deliver? How can the one being destroyed be delivering even some of his destroyers through the same process? How can a singular event be effective for everyone at all times? To those who preceded it, this event was a promise yet unfulfilled. To those who would come later, this event was an accomplished mission that would stand as such throughout the reminder of time. This passage of scripture stood out for hundreds of years as a dark passage out of the book of prophecy written by the prophet Isaiah. It seemed to have generated more questions for its readers than it provided answers. Who was Isaiah talking about? Is it him or someone else? Only the fulfillment of the prophecy could truly unlock its meaning. Only then could it be accepted that the suffering servant is also the savior of the world. Here then is the mystery revealed, God would use suffering as the remedy for the sinners’ transgressions against Him. The sinner would be healed through the suffering of the one who would take the sinner’s place. Death is the price for sin and suffering is the price for peace. No ordinary person could endure all of this and provide an acceptable offering to God. No ordinary person would submit themselves to such a cruel display of human torture and punishment on behalf of others. Indeed, God would not use an ordinary person. But God would send His own servant to do His bidding. God would be satisfied in the results that His servant would bring about. His servant will be innocent. His servant will be obedient. His servant will be perfect in his humanity. Divine justice had been violated by humanity and that violation had caused a separation between the creator and the creature. Man was not made to be eternally separated from God. But sin had created a great gulf between man and God that was impossible for man to cross. The gulf could not simply be eliminated nor the sin ignored by a holy and just God. The elimination of sin would eliminate the great gulf. To ignore sin would bring to naught the righteousness of God? The sin must be atoned for if the separation is to be taken away. God would accomplish both through His suffering servant. The servant would become the substitute for sinful man and experience the separation and divine wrath of God that sin brings. The servant did not sin but he would be made sin in man’s stead. As a sin offering, the servant would endure the divine punishment that sin exacts. Divine justice would be satisfied and the great gulf would be removed. This vicarious suffering would be for our transgressions that we could become the righteousness of God that was in His servant. What an unbelievable report. God’s only begotten Son would submissively become His faithful Servant. He would bring mankind back to God because he would be wounded for our transgressions.

Robert C. Hudson
January 15, 2011