But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).1
“I have good news for you,” the doctor announces; “You have a clean bill of health.” What a relief to hear those words following a routine check-up. However, how would we feel if, as we left the doctor’s office, he crumpled up the report containing the diagnosis of a serious illness that was slowly killing us from within and muttered, “Better if they never knew”? We would feel cheated, lied to, misled. We would want to know the truth; “Doc, just tell me how long I have,” would be the plea of most.
When it comes to our physical health, we want to know the truth, no matter how bad the news is – “Just give it to me straight.” Why is it that when it comes to our spiritual health, we don’t want to hear the direct diagnosis? We want it sugar-coated; we want the “light” version. Sure, there are a few issues, we might say, but nothing that can’t be remedied with a few good works and a couple of Sundays of church attendance.
The Bible gives us our spiritual diagnosis straight: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). The Bible says the sinner has rebelled against God. Those who rebel against Him are described as being sick: “From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores” (Isa 1:6). The diagnosis reads like this: The sinner is full of faults and perversities. God declares that “there is no peace … for the wicked” (48:22). Scripture could not be clearer about the sinner’s condition.
The good news is that God doesn’t just leave the sinner with a dire diagnosis of his sickness and sin but rather proclaims the remedy and relief. The sinner’s cure is not found in a pharmacy or through an injection. The Bible doesn’t just declare the historical account of Jesus Christ, the Good Physician; it also prophesied many hundreds of years before He was ever born in the town of Bethlehem that He would come to provide healing for the sick sinner.
Isaiah tells us, “He was wounded for our transgressions.” He was pierced and endured the sorrow for our rebellion. “He was bruised for our iniquities” – all those evils, faults and perversities in our heart, mind and soul. The cross work didn’t stop there: “The chastisement for our peace was upon Him.” The price required to obtain peace for the enslaved sinner was paid by Jesus Christ at Calvary.
Imagine receiving the news that without a certain type of blood, your sickness could never be healed; death would be certain. God wasn’t seeking an O positive or A negative blood type to remedy sin, but rather spotless blood, perfect blood, sinless blood, blood in which there was no contamination or blemish. And there was only One who could meet that criteria: God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “And by His stripes we are healed”; His wounds, His blood, set the sinner free. His death satisfied God. Is it enough for you?
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the NKJV.
