The Punishment that Brought us Peace
Sermon by the Rev. Matt Kennedy
October 22nd, 2006
The Church of the Good Shepherd
Isaiah 53:4-6

A famous professor, Dr. RC Sproul, once lectured on the cross of Christ and what Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished. Afterwards an angry student stood up and said, “That is primitive and crude.” Without skipping a beat, Dr. Sproul looked him in the eye and said, “You’re absolutely right. The cross is primitive and crude. But it’s fitting that the cross is primitive and crude, because human sin is primitive and crude.”

Well, what was God doing in Christ’s sacrifice and what sets it apart from the Aztec version?

  To answer this let’s open our bibles to Isaiah 53. Isaiah began his ministry around the year 740BC. BC means Before Christ. So what we’re about to read, as vivid a picture of the cross as any ever written, was penned hundreds of years before the crucifixion. If you’ve any doubts about the divine origin of the Bible, Isaiah 53, a picture perfect description of the crucifixion and interpretation of its meaning, should help do away with them..
So let’s get started in verse 4.

  “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God.” Who is the “he” in this verse? Isaiah doesn’t know Jesus. Jesus hasn’t yet been born. But he does know the Son. God the Son did not spring into existence when Jesus was born. God the Son has always been with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The Son is eternal. So while Isaiah didn’t know of Jesus, who was born of Mary 700 years later, he did know God the Son. And God the Son, the Word, gives Isaiah this knowledge of his future incarnation as the messiah, the suffering servant, the man we know as Jesus born of Mary, the savior. This is a difficult point but crucial, because it reveals one major difference between the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and pagan human sacrifice.

  The Aztecs killed captives or prisoners to satisfy the anger of the gods. By way of illustration, let’s say you’re driving down the road and run into a BMW. You total it. It’s your fault. The driver is angry. He wants your insurance. You don’t have any. He’s beside himself with rage. Just then you see some poor guy walking out of a bank. You pounce on him, beat him up and take his credit card. Then you use the card to fix the angry man’s car. That’s essentially what the Aztecs were doing. Aztecs took captives and killed them to pay the gods for their messes.

  This is not what happened on the cross. Jesus was not killed to pay God back. He is God. Using our illustration, he would be the driver of the BMW. Our sins have wrecked God’s good creation. Through disobedience, we’ve wrecked these souls and bodies, cut ourselves of from the life-giving power of God, ushered in death and infirmity and sorrow. But “he” has taken up our sorrows and infirmities. “He” is not some poor guy God pounced on to get payback. “He” is God himself. We’ve rebelled against God. We’ve destroyed ourselves and God’s creation. But God himself took up human nature in Jesus Christ to pay the price to restore it.

  Turn back again to verse 4 where you’ll see two very important words: “took up”.
Isaiah says, he “took up” our infirmities and “carried” our sorrows. Sorrows and infirmities are part and parcel of being fallen people, being disconnected from God. If you wonder why God allows sickness, sorrow and death, it’s because human beings chose that destiny when we chose to turn from God and all of us have been a part of that choice. But Jesus didn’t share our fallenness. Our humanity is wrecked, his was not. It was perfect like Adam’s before he sinned. Jesus wasn’t born with a sin nature and he never sinned in thought word or deed. Jesus, then, because he was sinless, was not naturally subject to sorrow or infirmity or death which came into the world as a result of sin. Only those who are fallen experience them. Jesus, being sinless, “took up” these experiences voluntarily. He didn’t have to. Why? To feel what we feel? Yes, in some ways. The author of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses…” (Hebrew’s 4:15). The Son is a true friend. He didn’t pass down encouraging words from above as we suffered. He got down in the pit with us.

  But there’s far more in “taking up” our “infirmities and “sorrows” than just feeling what we feel. In taking them up Jesus lifted them from us. He carried them for us. Revelation 21 tells us that when Jesus returns, “will be no more mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away.”

  Why? Because, turning back to verse 4, Jesus has taken them up, carried them, to the place where the sin that ushered them into the world and into your life is destroyed. Look at verse 5, “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.” Somehow, what Jesus suffered on the cross will bring believers healing from infirmity and sorrow, when he returns.

  Why is that? He was pierced; the nails pierced his wrists and feet for your transgressions and for my transgressions. What is a transgression? The older word is “trespass”…going beyond the boundary lines. Sin violates the boundaries of God’s law. God is just. When the law is broken, he does not turn a blind eye and let it pass. That would compromise his integrity. When a judge let’s a criminal go free because he’s an old friend, we say he’s crooked. God is not a crooked judge. He punishes sin according to the law. But, look down at verse 5 again, “he” was pierced. “He” was crushed. “He” was punished.” For what purpose? Look down to the end of verse 6, “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

  The divine wrath, the just punishment that I deserve for my sins (and they are many and they are great) the piercing, crushing, punishment I deserve was laid on him, the very one I’ve injured by my crimes. God the Father laid my sins on God the Son in the Person of Jesus Christ who died for me in my place. My sins drove in the nails. Your sins drove in the nails. What a staggering thing.

  It’s easy to say Jesus died for the sins of the world, and he did. It’s difficult to say Jesus suffered and was pierced for me. I did it. I’m the transgressor. But it is true. If I were the only sinner in all creation, he still would’ve suffered for me.

  And now, because God has been both just and the justifier, all those who turn to him will have peace. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” Now that God has done justice and suffered the just penalty, there’s nothing owed. There’s no wrath left for “us” to bear. It’s has been born by God the Son. You and I can have peace, with God, a relationship with the Father that begins now and never ends, that ultimately heals all your infirmities and sorrows and wipes away all tears.

But just as we asked the identity of the “he” in verse 4, we must ask the identity of the “us” in verse 5. Who is included in the “us”? The reason the world did not end the moment Adam sinned, is because God applied the sacrifice of Christ backwards to Adam’s account. Everyone lives because of the cross. But not everyone will have eternal peace with God. “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Romans 5:1-2). The full eternal benefit is applied only to those who put their faith, their trust, in the Son. The “us” represents only those who believe.

  Isaiah says in verse 6, “We all like sheep have gone astray and each of us has turned to his own way.” The Good Shepherd laid down his life for his sheep and he has given us his word to show the way back home, but we must come back

All humanity is like the prodigal son who took his Father’s inheritance and wasted it on wild living until he found himself in a pigsty eating pig food. The Father stares into the distance straining for a glimpse his son’s return. And when he sees him coming he runs, he sprints, to embrace him, to clothe him in new robes, to take him back as a son. That’s the heart of the Father. He longs for sinners to repent and come home!

But he never forces anyone into his peace. If you desire it, you can stray forever. Don’t think that if you consistently live apart from God and refuse Christ now, you’ll magically change your mind when an eternity of living apart from him lies before you. You won’t want God anymore then than you do now. You may want relief from misery, but if that means submitting to God you won’t want it. Jesus taught that the boundaries between heaven and hell are firmly fixed. They’re fixed by the human will, by hardened hearts. People choose hell.

  Don’t take time for granted. No one knows the hour of his death. God has opened the door. He has opened his arms. Rep ent and commit your life to Jesus Christ and he will take you into his peace now and forever.

  For those of us who’ve been washed clean by his blood. How does the cross affect your life? Rather than being humbled by Christ’s sacrifice and seeking to please God, some believers take the blood of Christ as a ticket to live in the very sins for which Christ suffered, holding in contempt the blood that saved them. Christ did not die to make it safe for us to sin. He died to save us from sin to live pure and holy lives. You’ve been cleansed. Don’t go back to the pig-sty. God’s Son died for you and for me. His sacrifice freed us sin’s punishment and its power. So live freely.

Home  Sermons Contact Us  Links  Article of the Week