During this time of the year, early spring, the thoughts of many Christians surely also are turned to the events related to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ which happened about 2000 years ago in Jerusalem.
These events are the focal point of human history, because since the fall of Adam shortly after the beginning of mankind everything has been focused and directed toward the coming redeemer who would reinstitute by his sacrifice what had been lost in Adam. Since that time now, our view is directed back to that which at that time was accomplished by Jesus Christ and which is now available to us as believers on Christ because of the grace of God; and in addition, our view is also directed toward the final and complete realization of the redemption and salvation when Christ will come to gather the saints unto him.
Man originally had a high rank among the creation and had been created in the image of God. God had granted great freedom and had placed him into a marvellous surrounding in which man could in a perfect manner enjoy fellowship with his Creator, God, and live a life according to the plan of God.
Adam not only had a very blessed physical life in all regards, he also had a defintie promise to an everlasting life together with God, a promise of eternal life. God in His love even warned Adam to not do a certain thing because such action would have terrible consequences even on that very day - the loss of just that life.
It did not take all that long and Adam decided to be disobedient to God and to follow the words of his wife instead of adhering to the word of God. Eve and Adam both ate of the forbidden fruit when they followed the suggestion of the serpent and did not keep what God had commanded them. The result was exactly as God had already said beforehand. In addition, Adam's deed did have consequences for all his descendants, for all men came under the judgment and condemnation which had been brought on the plane with Adam's sin. Man lost this life, and he was now lost and needed a redemption and salvation.
This salvation however was only possible with God's help because man does not have the necessary means to save himself. Adam's transgression of God's command was sin, and the wages of sin is death. To bring about a redemption it was necessary that an innocent man would give his life as a ransom and in that way meet the demands of justice and be able to redeem man on legal grounds.
As by one man, Adam, condemnation and death came upon all men, so justification and eternal life became available again by the work of one other man, the lord Jesus Christ.
This tremendous truth is set forth for the believers in the church of the body of Christ in the epistle to the Romans.
Romans 5:12-19:
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
This section of Scripture shows that by ONE MAN each something happened which led to an influence of a certain kind on all others. In Adam all men are so to say united as "natural man" (in their natural descent as man of body and soul); in Christ however all those who believe on him are united as men who have been given eternal life by God as a gift.
By Adam sin came into the world and with it came death which has extended to all men and reached all men because they all do sin or have sinned. It is not that they all after Adam have sinned in the same way or with the same transgression. But all have sinned and thereby have earned death and brought death upon themselves. In Adam and in his sin is the cause for the condemnation and the loss of eternal life for mankind. The individual man after Adam is by nature "a child of wrath", that is he is under the condemnation of the just judgment of God's wrath. This concerns all man after Adam, the whole of mankind, who are his descendants.
All men are thus "lost", "dead in trespasses and sins", and they are under the judgment and condemnation by the wrath of God.
But now, God has proivded a possibility to be saved in that He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.
John 3:16-18:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
In very few short verses we are told by the evangelist John what God had purposed and what He then achieved in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.
Once again we can read that man ("world" is used here within a figure of speech for "man", "mankind") is condemned already and that he is lost. This is the case because of Adam's sin, as we are told in the record in Romans 5:12ff.. God's way out of this dilemma is then proclaimed here, and this way is very simple (but perhaps especially impressive because of this), "whosoever believeth on him"!
There is nothing demanded of man in terms of own works or deeds, of an own sacrifice, etc. Man really has nothing to offer which would answer to the righteous judgment of God and by which he could possibly achieve his own salvation. Man has nothing which could serve as an appropriate ransom — only his death would be the just price or the correct "wages", however that would not bring him life.
God however intervened in this process in order to make plain a way for man to be saved and to receive eternal life. What moved God to such a thing was His great love! "For God so loved the world [man] , that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God gave His only begotten Son!"
God GAVE … He had something to give! He sent His only begotten Son into the world so that through the sacrifice of his innocent life the ransom could be made available so that many, i.e. all, who believe on him are now no longer standing at God's judgment seat as condemned, but rather as those who are justified and to whom the penalty and wage for their sin will no longer be counted because it already has been fully paid for and accomplished in Christ on their behalf.
Colossians 2:14:
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
There were ordinances against us which brought us death, the loss of eternal life! Before the judgment of God, the sentence for sin can only be "Death!"
God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, now took it on himself to blot out the handwriting of ordinances which as against us. He took our place and as the innocent he endured the righteous judgment which we as sinners would have deserved, and he paid with his life for us.
A passage from Isaiah 53 already points in a sort of prophetic message to exactly this great truth.
Isaiah 53:1–5:
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
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.
These verses explain in a prophetic message what the redeemed of Israel will recognize and say when they look on him who had been delivered into the hands of the Gentiles and who had been pierced and when they then acknowledge and recognize him as the Messiah, the servant and redemmer whom God has sent. Then they will recognize looking back (cp. "when we shall see him" in V. 2) that Jesus, who had been despised of the Judeans and been rejected as one who was cursed by God had actually hung on the cross as their redeemer and because of their sins in order to also accomplish their redemption. Jesus bore the curse of the Law on the cross on their behalf.
When Jesus suffered and died, he was despised and rejected by all of them, he was regarded as stricken and smitten of God, as lowly and suffering grief and pain. They did not want to have anything to do with him, they did not desire him, and he was regarded as nothing and people even mocked and were of the opinion that he rightfully was suffering such things for his "blasphemies in claiming to be the promised Messiah". They thought it was confirmed that God was punishing him with these sufferings and this pain for his own sins and that he was therefore rightfully cursed (cp. Verses 3 and 4).
However, the truth was a different one, and some of Israel will realize and recognize it finally. The one who was on the cross as a cursed person and who suffered such sickness and pains was not at all a condemned before God and he had not been smitten of God because of his own sins. He suffered as an innocent person! He suffered because of our sins and because of our transgressions! Oh, how blinded was the mind of those who thought that he suffered all this because of his own sins. Yes, he was indeed "smitten of God, and afflicted" — but from a completely different perspective.
The verses 3–5 can be better understood when they are translated slightly differently form the Hebrew texts, for some terms are at times easily misunderstood.
Isaiah 53:3–5 (different translation with some comments):
He was despised and rejected [forsaken] of men [on the cross], a man acquainted with pain and suffering [Heb. holi – suffering, affliction], and as one from whom one would hide one's face [because of the terrible execution, as he as hanging on the cross as a cursed person]; he was despised and we esteemed him not for anything.
Surely, he has borne our suffering [holi – i.e. the suffering and affliction which we really as a curse of the Law had deserved and should have borne], and our pains [the pains which we should have suffered] he has carried. And we regarded him to be punished [for his own sins], smitten of God and afflicted,
but he was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities. The penalty for our peace was laid on him, and through his stripes we have been given healing [wholeness, salvation].
The Hebrew word holi does mean at times "sickness", but also is used of "suffering, affliction". Jesus was acquainted with pains and with suffering and with affliction, which he all suffered on our behalf.
Really, each one of us had deserved to be smitten like that, and each one of us should have suffered like that and carried such "sickness" and finally should have died and thus received the wages for our sin. That would be our righteous judgement which we should have endured. That was what the handwriting of ordinances which was against us actually demanded!
But at this point God and His only begotten Son intervened in the events — because of their great love! As one man had sinned and by him sin and death had come into the world and had had their effect on all men and all men had become guilty before God, so also one man now could take the penalty for this sin upon him and make available to all others justification and salvation on the grounds of grace. This is exactly what God did when He sent His only begotten Son into the world and when His Son as the innocent lamb of God gave his life as a ransom for many.
Christ was cursed on the cross as he carried our penalty and sentence of judgment form God on our behalf, a judgement which needed to be dealt to us as sinners in order to atone for our sin and grant us rightesouness before God. The chastisement, the penalty, for our peace with God was on him. The pains and the suffering we had deserved as consequence for our sin (we should note: The words in Isaiah are not dealing with some kind of mystic connection in that Christ carried then those sicknesses we now experience and that we therefore should not become sick at any time or always have a claim to perfect physical health).
Jesus Christ took our place, he intervened for us, the innocent took the place of the guilty. We are not afflicted and chastised as part of God's judgment, we do not experience pains not do we receive wounds – Jesus was wounded, he endured the pains. Because he suffered already on our behalf and died for us, we now have peace with God and have salvation, and we are not under the judgment with its wounds and stripes and pains.
Isaiah 53:6–8:
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.
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 openeth not his mouth.
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 the transgression of my people was he stricken.
Jesus Christ was oppressed and afflicted, suffered all this pain willingly and withour complaints from his side. It was all of our sin which was upon him and for which he died. He did not bear the punishment for his sin, but for our sin., and he "was made sin [was made the sin-sacrifice] for us ".
2 Corinthians 5:21:
For he [God] hath made him [Jesus Christ] to be sin [a sin-sacrifice] for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The sickness, the pains and the chastisement mentioned in Isaiah speak of that which Christ suffered in our stead as the sin-sacrifice – we should have really suffered these pains, this affliction and chastisement. But Jesus took this on himself. Isaiah mentions this point again and speaks of the tresspass-offering which the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, offered for us.
Isaiah 53:9–10:
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Jesus' life was the offering for sin, the ransom to redeem us and to make available to us a new and eternal life.
As we could read in Romans 5, it was the one sin of Adam, his transgression of God's commandment, by which sin and death entered into the world and passed on to all men. It also was the one righteous act of Jesus, his offering of himself at the cross, by which the fullness of grace and the gift of righteousness were granted to the many.
May we continue to walk in an ever greater degree in the full measure of the grace of our lord Jesus Christ and not be moved from it. May we continue to hold on to that which we already have come to know from the Word of God regarding Christ and his great work of redemption .