Daily Devotional for Sunday, November 19

Bruised for Our Iniquities

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,” Isaiah 53:4-6.

Isaiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, prophesied many years before the Messiah would come. God’s salvation plan was in motion long before Jesus came to the earth to accomplish salvation for all people. God began to reveal through His prophets that a Savior would come and bear the sins of mankind and be punished in our stead.

I often think of God’s sorrow on crucifixion day as He watched His only begotten Son be brutally whipped, mocked and killed. However, Scripture reveals that God’s plan had been in place for ages before the Messiah would come. Eternal God in His omniscience bore in Himself the knowledge that His Son would be brutally punished for the sins of mankind. God’s fatherly grief could not have been isolated to a few hours on crucifixion day.

Our sin is the reason God planned for His Son to be our Messiah. For thousands of years before the Crucifixion, Jesus was already offered to be our sacrifice in the heart of the Heavenly Father. Every rebellious sin committed against a holy God was placed on Jesus as He bore our grief, our sorrows and our transgressions on the cross.

FINAL THOUGHT: May the eternal plan of salvation cause us to understand the weight of our sin. Jesus died to pay for your sins and mine. May this truth cause us humility and thanksgiving for His indescribable gift.

Steven Ridings