Crushed!

But Yahweh was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

Isaiah 53:10

There is probably no one alive in America today who has not heard someone say God loves you. Some go as far as to say that God loves everyone and He would not send anyone to hell. While that sounds wonderful, it is the farthest thing from the truth. God is love but also a God of justice and vengeance.

Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus, declared, "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 5:6). God's wrath is His vengeance against all who reject His salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The prophet Ezekiel declared, "So I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful reproofs; and they will know that I am Yahweh when I lay My vengeance on them" (Ezekiel 25:17).

For sinful men and women to come to God, justice had to be served, and because God is love, He made a way for his justice to be satisfied. A perfect sacrifice had to be made to cover our sins. God gave us that perfect sacrifice when He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the Lamb that would take away the sins of the elect. Because it was God's will for His Son to suffer and die on the cross, it pleased God. But how can that be? What father would be pleased to see his only son crushed? It pleased God because it reconciled all who would believe in His Son to Himself.

Isaiah 53 is one of the most straightforward presentations of the Gospel we have in all of Scripture:

He bore all of our griefs!

Our sorrows He carried!

He was pierced through for our transgressions!

He was crushed for our iniquities!

The chastening for our peace fell upon Him!

And by His wounds, we are healed!

But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

Glory!

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark