His Heart, My Home

NOTE: This week we posted three special teachings on Jesus’ sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. Today’s is the second. The last will be posted tomorrow and is entitled: The Rock That Rolled

May He bless you and your loved ones as you celebrate the unconditional, unfailing love of His resurrection life.

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All of mankind’s ills: sin, sickness, poverty, and death began at the Fall, when Adam and Eve were separated from God’s life by their rebellion.

We know God wasn’t caught off-guard by this turn of events. As always, He was way ahead of the enemy. He had already formulated the antidote for sin and death, long before the sly serpent injected his poisonous venom into our original parents. God’s wonderful plan would provide salvation for our whole human nature; spirit, soul, and body.

SALVATION FOR OUR BODIES:

“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… and with the stripes that wounded Him we are healed and made whole.” (Isaiah 53:4,5, Amplified Bible)

Jesus bore (Hebrew word, “nasa“, means “to lift up and carry away”) our sicknesses, diseases, pains, and weaknesses. Every horrific disease known to man: tuberculosis, smallpox, HIV, malaria, polio, cancer, cholera, ebola, leprosy, Parkinson’s, stroke, meningitis, Alzheimer’s, lupus, arthritis… all mankind’s ills came upon Him simultaneously and collectively, as a crushing burden.

It’s impossible to even imagine the combined and compounded effect of these diseases on His body and mind! But He carried them all, bearing the burden of every one of our diseases, so we wouldn’t have to bear them.

Isaiah 52:14 tells us that Jesus:

“became an object of horror” (Amplified Bible)

“no longer looked like a man” (Passion Bible)

“hardly seemed human” (The Voice Translation)

“had a ruined face, disfigured past recognition”
(The Message)

He was so horrible to behold, we “hid our faces from Him” and God, in His loving mercy, covered the disjointed, devastated, disfigured, damaged, disease-filled body of His Son with a cloak of darkness for three torturous hours.

SALVATION FOR OUR SOULS:

“…the chastisement needful to obtain peace and well-being for us was upon Him…”
(Isaiah 53:5, Amplified Bible)

At the moment we are born again, our spirit is made new with the life of God. We now have eternal life.

But our soul (our mind, will, and emotions) is not instantly changed along with our spirit. Rather, we begin to undergo a transformative process of “metamorphosis” as we renew our minds to the Word of God. (Romans 12:2)

And while we are going through this process, we can have and enjoy the peace of God in our souls. (Isaiah 26:3)

“And the effect of righteousness will be peace [internal and external], and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confident trust forever.” (Isaiah 32:17, Amplified Bible)

SALVATION FOR OUR SPIRITS:

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and  iniquities…”
(Isaiah 53:5, Amplified Bible)

The Hebrew word translated as “wounded” is the word, “chalal.” It means “to wound; to pierce through.” Of course, this refers to Jesus’ physical wounds and the fact that His hands, feet, and side were all pierced through. But this word, “chalal” also means “to pollute; to defile; to profane.”

We don’t usually associate Jesus with the words “pollute, defile, or profane.” But we should, because, although He was perfectly holy, all mankind was polluted, defiled, and profaned by sin and death. He willingly identified with us, and took our place, as our Substitute, exchanging His perfect life for our profane, polluted, defiled, corrupted one. The spotless, sinless, Lamb of God came to take away the sins of the world!

Even though Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice was universal, for the whole world, it is only when we recognize and receive His sacrifice as ours personally that we discover God’s power to deliver and save us.

Jesus didn’t just bear our sins. He was “pierced through” with our transgressions. He was “made to be our sin.” He took our sin-nature into Himself.

The Living Bible translates 2 Corinthians 5:21 this way:“For God took the sinless Christ, and poured into Him our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured God’s goodness into us!”

Jesus drank the cup of our transgressions, our trespasses and our rebellions. That foul, bitter cup was filled to the brim, and He drank it all, drained it of every last drop!

And because He actually became our sin, Jesus also drank the cup of God’s wrath against sin. That cup was full-strength, undiluted, and concentrated. The wrath of God which had accumulated since Adam, for the entire human race, was poured out in fury upon the one Man who represented all of us.

Knowing that this was God’s plan, He had cried out in prayer, in the Garden, not once, but twice, “O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39,42, NKJV)

The Voice Translation renders Jesus’ prayer as, “Father, this is the last thing I want. If there is any way, please take this bitter cup from me.”

Yet, it had to be. Jesus was destined to be pierced through. He chose to be polluted, defiled, and profaned by our transgressions. There was no other way for God to bring us out of the tomb of spiritual death into His life.

But there’s still more revelation in Isaiah 53:5. He was also “bruised” for our “iniquities.” We’ve all had bruises. Most bruises are really not that painful or serious, and they usually disappear after a few days.

That doesn’t sound like much of a punishment for our iniquities, until we study the Hebrew word that is translated as  “bruised”. It is the word “daka”, and it means, “to pierce; to crush;  to beat to pieces with the intent to destroy”.

The Abarim Theological Dictionary says “daka” can also mean, “to turn something once solid into dust.”

The Message translates Isaiah 53:5 in a way that highlights the brutality of our sin’s effect on Jesus: It says, “But it was our sins…that ripped, and tore, and crushed Him – our sins!”

He was ripped, torn, beaten to a pulp, physically, emotionally, and spiritually… pierced, crushed, and cut off from the life of God.

All of it, His pain, His humiliation, His suffering, and His death was all for our redemption. The Bible tells us it actually “pleased” the Father to “bruise” His beloved Son, the one in whom He was “well-pleased.” (Isaiah 53:10 and Mark 1:11)

Why? Isaiah 53:11 tells us that God considered all that He and Jesus suffered to be worth it, to bring us into His family! “He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge my righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.”

Jesus was wounded and pierced for all our transgressions! He was bruised and crushed for all our iniquities!

That is SALVATION for our SPIRITS!

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him!

That is SALVATION for our SOULS!

And by His stripes we are healed!

That is SALVATION for our BODIES!

What a loving, and merciful Father! What an awesome Savior! What a perfect salvation!

Jesus suffered excruciating pain and agony… physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for you. He bore all of your sicknesses, your sorrows, your sins, and your shame, even going so far as to accept spiritual death (separation from God) to free you from the punishment you deserved.

He knew that without His suffering and death you would be forever lost, separated from God for eternity because of your sins. So He willingly and joyfully took your sin, your pain, and your punishment so you could receive His mercy. You can accept His gift of life and be resurrected, born again, into a new relationship with God as your Father right now. Simply pray this prayer from your heart as you trust in Him to save you:

“Jesus, I want to know you. Thank you for suffering and dying for me, so that I could come to the Father, and receive His forgiveness and mercy.

I declare that you are my Savior and my Lord. I invite you to enter my life right now by your Holy Spirit. I believe you. I receive you.

I believe I am now saved! I am now born-again! And I thank you for the gift of eternal life you have given me. I will live my new life in union with you. I am yours for all eternity, beginning now.

Amen!”

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NOTE: Portions of today’s post were taken from two previous posts: Never Forsaken and Forever Favored published on July 21, 2024, and Completely Crushed published August 19, 2024.