The Final Lamb

"He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5)

When John the Baptist first saw Jesus approaching and said to his followers standing nearby, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29), he sure said a mouthful, beloved! Not only was and is Jesus Christ "the Lamb of God" but He is further the final lamb God will ever require to be sacrificed for the sins of mankind. When Jesus went to the cross outside Jerusalem and laid down His life for our sins, He completely and forever fulfilled the sacrificial requirements of the Law of Moses. And no statement in Scripture, none about which I am aware anyway, declares this truth more clearly than these words of the prophet Isaiah.

Pierced through for our transgressions - Without going into a detailed exegesis of this term, what the Scriptures reveal is that Jesus suffered physically for our acts of sinfulness. The nails and the sword were instruments of death because of our failure to live up to the glory of God.

Crushed for our iniquities - Again without a detailed explanation of these words, what the Scriptures also reveal is that Jesus suffered mentally and emotionally for our sinful nature. Not only did He die, then, for the things we have done but He died as well for what we are. And no image of His mental and emotional anguish is anywhere more graphically displayed than in the passage dealing with the hours spent in Gethsemane prior to going to the cross.

The chastisement for our well-being - Having seen what our sins have done to Him, we discover from the words of Isaiah next what He has in love done for us. Here the word "chastisement" refers more to that parental discipline that every good parent uses to shape and mold his child's life, revealing to us beautifully the Fatherhood of God in welcoming us into His family and in dealing with us as His children. And the word "well-being" refers to our overall sense of personal contentment and peace that comes from being placed in right standing with God through what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

By His scourging we are healed - A close look at the overall context of the surrounding verses in Isaiah 53, beloved, reveals to us clearly that the kind of "healing" promised is not that of physical healing from our diseases but rather of the healing of the soul from the disease of sin. The Scriptures do promise physical healing and miraculous healing occurs every day. But that is not the primary focus in this verse of Scripture.

So this, then, is what the final Lamb has done for you and me! How could we ever look into the truths revealed here by Isaiah the prophet and still want to live our lives selfishly for ourselves? How could we not fall at His feet in conviction and repentance and declare to Him anew our allegiance to Him and to His cause? What does God's final Lamb mean to you, beloved?

Ron