Reality



Prayer:   My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me,
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

Read: Isaiah 53:1-11
http://www.esvbible.org/Isaiah+53/

Think about It: The prophetic words of Isaiah in today’s passage are so very difficult to read. They are grim and because we live on this side of the crucifixion, we know how very true these words became. But it is necessary that we read them and allow their importance to sink into our hearts and spirits for they describe the consequences of our sin. The punishment for our sin had to fall upon someone and that was the work of Jesus.

If you’ve ever had the unfortunate experience of waiting in the emergency room of a hospital for medical assistance, you know that when people come in it isn’t necessarily first come, first served. No, if someone comes in whose life is in eminent danger they are whisked into the treatment room immediately. A person having a seizure gets bumped down the list for someone having a heart attack.

The entire Passion story helps us to realize just how seriously God takes our sin. It isn’t simply an annoyance or a minor complaint. Our sin is serious and life threatening. If sin hadn’t been dealt with by Jesus, we would face eternal death. The consequences are dire. We have a tendency to look away from the dire nature of our sin. We can be guilty of not taking it as seriously as God takes it. That’s why we remember in graphic detail the suffering of Christ during the lasts few hours of His life. In remembering Christ’s Passion we are reminded that God’s punishment for our sin was serious and terrible. That means our sin is serious and terrible. But in that remembering, we also focus on the  resurrection, for there we find the victory over sin’s power to crush us. Isaiah 53 ends with these words:

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. (niv)

     The Father accepted the sacrifice of Jesus for us. Even though He was “numbered with the transgressors” (that’s us!) He triumphed and earned our forgiveness with His blood. We are restored and the sin that enshrouded us is no more!

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