{"id":255,"date":"2014-03-29T10:58:42","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T10:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.org\/blog\/?p=255"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:45:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:45:58","slug":"an-inconveient-faith-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/an-inconveient-faith-22\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconveient Faith (22)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”<\/em> (Isaiah 53:5)<\/p>\n

At this point of our lenten journey we will be looking at the most brutal few hours of the passion story. The physical suffering of Jesus at the hands of His enemies is not an easy thing to think about. Many fast forward to the cross and bypass the flogging and the beatings but, these aspects of the story are also necessary.\u00a0 The passage above speaks of the Christ being “pierced”, “crushed”, “punished” and “wounded” for our sake…in our place.<\/p>\n

We must first realize that these horrors, as detailed in the Scripture, are a direct result of our “transgressions” and our “iniquities”.\u00a0 You see, sin has consequences.\u00a0 The Apostle Paul said, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).\u00a0 This is not a new revelation.\u00a0 In the paradise of Eden, God told Adam and Eve that eating from the tree in the middle of the garden would bring death (Genesis 2:17) and they chose to eat from it anyway. \u00a0 Paul also said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).\u00a0 “We all, like sheep, have gone astray,” said Isaiah.\u00a0 There is no mistaking that we are all suffering from the same fatal condition.\u00a0 But God, motivated by love, stepped in and took what we deserved so we wouldn’t have to.<\/p>\n

There is, however, another aspect of this verse that I think is important…”by His wounds we are healed<\/em>“.\u00a0 This act of love is more than Jesus taking a lash for us, it is a healing.\u00a0 The cross not only brings forgiveness (mercy) but it also restores and gives eternal life (grace).\u00a0 We have been mortally wounded by sin and rebellion but Christ has taken the consequence (death) upon Himself so that we could be…healed.\u00a0 Not just “saved” from condemnation but born again to eternal life and fellowship with our Creator.<\/p>\n

The cross is not just a story of God taking<\/strong> our punishment, it is a story of God giving<\/strong> us healing…peace…life…reconciliation.\u00a0 The Gospel message is more than taking away the bad…it is giving the good.\u00a0 It is more than taking away death…it is giving life.\u00a0 The wounds of Jesus are a balm on our wounded souls.\u00a0 They make possible the mending of the brokenhearted.\u00a0 They set the prisoner free.<\/p>\n

As we walk these final hours with Jesus we must remember that every blow that Jesus takes is for our salvation and our restoration.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because He loves us and genuine love is revealed in the sacrifice of the cross.\u00a0 The suffering of Jesus should remind us of the ugliness of our sin and drive us to our knees in repentance.\u00a0 When we humble ourselves before Him, we will not only experience forgiveness but, peace.\u00a0 It is only at the cross that we can find that peace.<\/p>\n

“…by His wounds, you are healed.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) At this point of our lenten journey we will … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-an-inconvenient-faith-2014-lenten-blog","category-all_posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}