Sand Mountain Sermonette 25
Isaiah 53:4-6; 2 Corinthians 5:21
The One Who Took the Punishment for Our Sins
When I was a teenager, my mother told me something that caused me to stop and think carefully about what she said. She told me her father, my grandfather Grover Floyd, had a unique way to correct his children when they had gotten into trouble. She said he did not always apply this method, but he did more often than not. When my mother Jeanine for example, would do something she should not have done, her dad would make her go outside and pull a switch off the hickory tree and come inside and whip him. Did you catch that? She whipped him!
Mother said that every time her father would have her do that she would cry and cry because she not only wanted to whip her father, it made her feel so bad for what she had done. That is an interesting way to parent isn’t it? But for my mom and apparently for her other siblings it was effective for it brought the seriousness of the transgression against the father closer to home.
The prophet Isaiah, in foretelling of the Messiah, said, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging (stripes) we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” Isaiah 53:4-6. And Paul said, “He made Him (Christ) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” 2 Corinthians 5:21.
The Bible is clear. It calls you and me to account for our sins committed against a holy and loving God by repenting of our sin and turning to God. Jesus took the punishment you and I deserved in full, so that we could be forgiven and made right with the Father who created the heavens and the earth and who loves you and me with an undying love!
Would you trust Christ today to be your Savior and Lord? And Christian, would you spend some quiet time meditating on these Scriptures and any others the Holy Spirit may be leading you to, as you offer thanks to God for what He has done for you through His agonizing death and glorious resurrection. He received the lashes. He was nailed to the cross. And the Bible says that by His blood you are healed! Hallelujah!
Pastor Louie