The Power of the Cross

Read Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53:3-5

3 He is despised and rejected by men, A man of sorrows and acquinted with grief, And we hid our faces from Him; He was despised and rejected, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53 is the most well-known prophecy on the crucifixion of Jesus. Written some 800 years before Jesus actually walked the streets of Jerusalem, Isaiah lists in precise detail elements of Christ's crucifixion that only God would know.

When sin entered the world in Genesis 3 it caused a separation between God and man. God created us in His own image for life eternal, but when sin entered the world it polluted the blood line. Death became inevitable. Leviticus 17:11 tells us that the life of a creature is in the blood, and only through the shedding of blood through sacrifice could sin be atoned.

A sacrifice is the act of giving up something precious and valuable for a greater purpose, and making atonement is to satisfy someone or something for an offense committed. The original sin in the garden of Eden was that Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation to be "like God" and chose that path over being "with God."

That is the heart of what sin is, choosing our own ways instead of the ways of God, and that's what causes separation. Always has and always will.

In light of that, God set up a sacrificial system that would temporarily atone for the sins of thew Jews. Once a year the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and blood sacrifice would cover the sins of the people. Again, the atoning for sin was temporary. Death, however, remained inevitable.

The first sacrifice took place when Adam and Eve were removed from the garden. God took the life of an animal and covered Adam and Eve with its skin. Later on in the Exodus story when God sent the final plague to Eqypt, He sent the angel of death through the town and all first born children were taken. The only way to be protected was for the Jews to spread the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. Death "passed over" for a time.

Fast forward now to Isaiah 53 and the prophecy of the Messiah taking on the sins of the world. We know that Jesus shed his blood and died when he went to the Cross, but what we know of the story is that He suffered so much more than was needed.

• He was despised and rejected.

  The accounts of Jesus being spit on, his beard ripped out of his face, and mocked as people hit Him and screamed, "Prophecy who hit you!" are enough to make you wonder why so many held such anger against an innocent man.

  
  

• A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

  Jesus knows what sorrow feels like. He carried the weight of emotional grief on his back. The weight of a sinful world was crushing him, and he bore it all. The next time you are feeling sorrowful, or you are in the throws of grief, know that Jesus understands that pit better than anyone. He truly is the only One who can rescue you from the pit because He's the only One who has been lower.

  
  

• Smitten by God and afflicted

  I often preach this. When Jesus cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" it was because the sins of the world had completely cut him off from His Father in heaven. Thousands of other people had been crucified by the Roman Empire, but only One knows what it feels like to be forsaken by God.

  
  

  It is the promise of God to His people throughout Scripture that He will never "leave you, nor forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Hebrews 13:5-6) When Jesus went to the Cross and took on sin, God the Father turned His face, Jesus was forsaken. His words reflect Psalm 22, and as a result Jesus is the only One who knows what it feels like to be forsaken by God. Why? So you would never be forsaken...you are never alone. God is with you.

  
  

• He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him.

  Pay close attention to the word "our". Jesus was innocent. The spotless lamb who took on our wickedness, our rebellion, our sickness, our disease, our...fill in the blank. It was "ours" not his. He was chastised (which means corrected in a severe manner) for "our" peace.

  
  

• By His stripes we are healed.

  The scourging He took was brutal and unforgiving. The flesh of His body was completely destroyed before the nails ever hit his hands and feet on the Cross. It's a wonder there was any blood left in His body when He hung on the Cross, but perhaps that was why He died in a short amount of time. Either way, Isaiah tells us that His stripes had a purpose. Healing! And it should be noted that the Hebrew language Isaiah uses for sorrows, griefs, and healing refer to physical healing. Yes, those who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior will receive complete healing when they get to heaven, but in Isaiah 53 we are told that there is healing power in the blood of Jesus in this life. We should pray in faith for healing by the stripes of Jesus!

The Power of the Cross is realized when we look upon Jesus as the perfect, sinless Messiah who became sin for us and took on death for us, so that whoever would believe in Him would never die! (John 3:16) This eternal life was even available to a thief on the cross next to Him who said, "Jesus, remember me when you enter into your Kingdom."

That thief on the cross deserved to be there. His sin put him there, but in perhaps the greatest faith story in the Bible, the thief on the cross next to Jesus confesses belief that the man dying next to him on THE CROSS is the Savior of the world. Wow!

There was no baptism. No follow up prayer. No more "works" needed. Jesus simply replied, "Today, you will be with me in paradise."

How?

The Power of the Cross!

I could go on and on about the power of the Cross. I am so thankful for the sacrfice Jesus made for me. I will never be able to repay Him for what He has done for me. Yet in His grace and mercy He doesn't ask for repayment...He just asks that I love Him with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. And I still fall short on that.

It's amazing that God still shows me grace in spite of it. How?

The Power of the Cross.

Josh Huisman is the senior pastor of Crosswalk Church in Brentwood, TN.

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