The Wednesday Word
The Greatest Speech God Ever Made Part 2
by D. G. Miles McKee(For Part 1, see last week’s Wednesday Word).
Before we consider Isaiah 53:1-7, let’s stir up our pure minds by way of remembrance and think of John 12:41. There we are told that the enthroned King of Isaiah 6 is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Isaiah realizes that the despised sufferer in Isaiah 53 is the very same person he had encountered in Isaiah 6 … and he is stunned! You can tell by the way Isaiah is writing chapter 53 that he is living in the events and vividly seeing them. He is writing with a sense of shock.
The One whom he sees as despised, deserted and dying in agonizing pain is the same One he saw high and lifted up in overpowering splendor. Can we be unmoved when we read this passage? Remember how in Mark 14:33 when Christ came near to Gethsemane the pressure of our sins intensified into a crushing horror. He was ‘sore amazed and very heavy.’ Literally, He was astounded, staggered, bewildered and utterly dumbfounded.
The hymn writer described it this way,
“Oh, never, never can we know,
That crushing weight of sin and woe.
When He our great sin bearer bled.
The Lamb of Calvary in our stead.”
But back to what Isaiah saw in that sacred chapter. In Isaiah 53:5 he tells us that Christ was wounded. The creator controller of the universe was indeed wounded. He was nailed to the cross by iron spikes … but why? For our transgressions … that’s why. For my sin … your sin … our sin. For Jesus, sin was the real horror of the cross … not the pain of the beating or the spikes.
I am disturbed when I realize that it was my sins that put Him on that cross. Read these Isaiah verses with ‘I,’ ‘My’ and ’Me’ instead of ‘We,’ ‘Our’ and ‘Us.’ Let’s personalize this passage.
‘He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and I hid as it were my face from Him; He was despised, and I esteemed Him not.
4 Surely He has borne my griefs, and carried my sorrows: yet I did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for my transgressions, He was bruised for my iniquities: the chastisement of my peace was upon Him; and with His stripes I am healed.
6 I, like a sheep, had gone astray; I had turned to my own way; and the Lord has laid on Him all my iniquity.
7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for my transgression was He stricken.
It’s no wonder that Isaiah was stunned! As the Hymn writer said,
“Was it for crimes that I had done,
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity grace unknown
And love beyond degree.”
See the crown prince of heaven hanging naked, mocked and pain racked on that cross for you. Observe the lacerations on His back. Notice the bruises from the wicked fist blows. Look at the iron spikes in His hands and feet. The One high and lifted up is oppressed and afflicted.
Does it not leave you speechless?
The king of kings takes off His crown and is baptized in blood. The cross says something astounding about God. It is this – God is Just – Loving – Merciful and Gracious. Calvary is God’s greatest speech, and it leaves me speechless. Today He is calling us to follow Him.
Will you trust Him? … Today? …
Believe on Him.
Rest on Him.
He is wonderful.
And that’s the Gospel Truth!
The One whom he sees as despised, deserted and dying in agonizing pain is the same One he saw high and lifted up in overpowering splendor. Can we be unmoved when we read this passage? Remember how in Mark 14:33 when Christ came near to Gethsemane the pressure of our sins intensified into a crushing horror. He was ‘sore amazed and very heavy.’ Literally, He was astounded, staggered, bewildered and utterly dumbfounded.
The hymn writer described it this way,
“Oh, never, never can we know,
That crushing weight of sin and woe.
When He our great sin bearer bled.
The Lamb of Calvary in our stead.”
But back to what Isaiah saw in that sacred chapter. In Isaiah 53:5 he tells us that Christ was wounded. The creator controller of the universe was indeed wounded. He was nailed to the cross by iron spikes … but why? For our transgressions … that’s why. For my sin … your sin … our sin. For Jesus, sin was the real horror of the cross … not the pain of the beating or the spikes.
I am disturbed when I realize that it was my sins that put Him on that cross. Read these Isaiah verses with ‘I,’ ‘My’ and ’Me’ instead of ‘We,’ ‘Our’ and ‘Us.’ Let’s personalize this passage.
‘He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and I hid as it were my face from Him; He was despised, and I esteemed Him not.
4 Surely He has borne my griefs, and carried my sorrows: yet I did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for my transgressions, He was bruised for my iniquities: the chastisement of my peace was upon Him; and with His stripes I am healed.
6 I, like a sheep, had gone astray; I had turned to my own way; and the Lord has laid on Him all my iniquity.
7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for my transgression was He stricken.
It’s no wonder that Isaiah was stunned! As the Hymn writer said,
“Was it for crimes that I had done,
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity grace unknown
And love beyond degree.”
See the crown prince of heaven hanging naked, mocked and pain racked on that cross for you. Observe the lacerations on His back. Notice the bruises from the wicked fist blows. Look at the iron spikes in His hands and feet. The One high and lifted up is oppressed and afflicted.
Does it not leave you speechless?
The king of kings takes off His crown and is baptized in blood. The cross says something astounding about God. It is this – God is Just – Loving – Merciful and Gracious. Calvary is God’s greatest speech, and it leaves me speechless. Today He is calling us to follow Him.
Will you trust Him? … Today? …
Believe on Him.
Rest on Him.
He is wonderful.
And that’s the Gospel Truth!
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