Jesus Died For Our Sin

JESUS DIED FOR OUR SINS Spring Valley Mennonite; February 19, 2023; Isaiah 53:4-6 We have come to what many consider the most important verses in the most important chapter of the whole Old Testament. When you consider that the Old Testament contains 929 chapters and 23,145 verses, to say that these are the most important is significant. The reason for the significance of these three verses is that contained here is the clearest statement of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ to be found in the Old Testament. Because of the truth we find in Isaiah 53, we can understand the central core of God's plan to solve the problem of sin. We find in these words nothing less than the redemption of the race of mankind. Understanding this truth is foundational; if a person understands nothing more in the world than this: Jesus died for our sins-they have captured the essence of all wisdom and knowledge. Let man be ignorant of all else but let him know Jesus died for our sins! This is the most crucial and important truth ever stated. Positively responding to this message seals our fate for eternity-heaven or hell. Turn to these precious words in Isaiah chapter 53, verses 4-6 (Read). These verses are best understood as a whole, as Isaiah states and restates the central idea in different ways and with different terms. Through repetition and restatement, the truth comes forth loud and clear. The plain truth is that of us is sinful and deserving of punishment, but Jesus took that punishment upon Himself. It cannot be more clearly stated: Jesus died for our sins. First we see the many ways Isaiah describes how: I. MAN IS SINFUL AND DESERVING OF PUNISHMENT What must stand out as we read these verses is the repetition of personal pronouns which refer to us. This is a very personal statement, and Isaiah identifies himself as one with those speaking. Isaiah is speaking as one from the future observing the reasons for the cross of Jesus. He is answering the question, "Why did the Messiah have to die?" His answer is found first in examining those phrases containing the word "our." Observe in verse 4: our griefs, our sorrows. Verse 5: our transgressions, our iniquities. Clearly, we have a problem. Notice that all mankind is included in the "we" but Isaiah is speaking as one of the chosen race of Jews, with the force of "even we Jews." The word 'grief' literally means sickness; the word 'sorrows' means "pains." Isaiah is painting a picture of a body consumed with disease and pain, terminally ill with no hope of recovery. This is an accurate picture of the effects of sin. Sin is fatally destructive for each one of us. Ephesians 2 tells us that we are all dead in our trespasses and sins and under the condemnation of God's deserved wrath. Grief and sorrow are the burden each person bears, for that is the fruit of sin. By the way, can you think of a single type of grief or sorrow not fundamentally related to and caused by sin? Original sin, present in every human being as well as deeply affecting all creation, is the cause of all sorrow and grief. Think of sickness, death, alienation, injustice, cruelty, criminal activity, inhumanity, and greed (these comprising only a partial list)-all have their origin and root in sin. Grief and sorrow speak of sin's effect on our lives, our response. Life is exceedingly burdensome because of sin. We all experience these things. We live in a sinful, fallen world among people who are terribly broken. This is the simplest and best explanation of why bad things happen. The dual terms used in verse 5-transgressions and iniquities-add evidence to the case being made against mankind. Each of us is guilty of sinning against a Holy God. God's standard is perfection, nothing less. Each child comes into this world fatally flawed, for each is a child of Adam. One of the most significant recent accomplishments in the world of science has been the mapping of the human genome. We understand this to mean that it has been determined which genes on DNA molecules are responsible for specific characteristics. Each human is born with a specific genetic code which determines his physical makeup-like eye and hair color, physical stature, tint of skin, and so forth. The hope is that various genetically determined problems can be prevented by gene replacement. This is a significant development in medicine which holds great promise if used wisely. But each human is also born with a spiritual code which is damaged and flawed. His nature, rather than being pure and holy, is broken and evil. Sin deeply damaged the spiritual DNA of Adam, and like genetic characteristics are passed from parent to child, we have inherited this flawed spiritual DNA. And like a child cannot change his genetic makeup, on our own, we cannot fix our broken nature. Only God can do the spiritual surgery to correct our fatal flaw. Paul describes our fatal spiritual flaw Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. Jesus spoke to this in Matthew 15:18: "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those define the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and slanders. These are the things which defile the man." This flawed nature is revealed in the choices we make. Speaking of the universal condition of mankind, Isaiah states in verse six: "ALL we like sheep have gone astray, each one of us has turned to his own way." As we come to those choices of good and evil, because of our flawed spiritual DNA we each take the dark path. Our flawed spiritual programming makes us choose the way of sin. Romans 3:10-12: "As it is written, 'There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who dos good, there is not even one." So, we are sinners by nature and by choice. Sin clouds our judgment. We each try to justify our sin and find reasons to call sin everything but what it is. Isaiah gives an example of this twisted, sinful thinking is how the Jews self-righteously viewed the crucifixion of Jesus, as seen in the latter part of verse 4: "Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." The sin-clouded judgment of the Jews caused them to evaluate the fate of Jesus as being justly deserved: "He committed the sin of blasphemy, so he 'got what he deserved.'" They considered themselves doing the work of God; they were administering the judgment of God. What are the consequences of our sin? We stand justly condemned before God. We are deserving, as the latter part of verse 5 states, of chastening and scourging. Punishment for sin is demanded, for as God told Adam in the garden, "the soul that sins shall surely die." Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death." The word "Piercing" in verse 5 carries with it great force, for it speaks of a violent and fatal destruction-a "piercing though" resulting in death. This piercing was our just fate, a fate that Jesus bore. That is the consequence of our sin. Sin not only destroys us in the present but carries with it the eternal implications of destruction. Contrary to popular opinion, hell is not a benevolent or comfortable place where sinners party continually. Jesus described it as being fiery, a place of torment which is never ending. Those are the consequences of our sin, a fate every one of us completely deserves. It is of utmost importance for each of us to realize that we are sinners under a sentence of eternal death. For until it is realized that we have a problem we cannot solve, we will not either seek a solution or appreciate the solution when it comes. I spent a bit of time thinking of how we are like sheep: II. ALL WE LIKE SHEEP First of all, not all about sheep is bad (baaaad!) In fact, in the world of Isaiah and the ancient world, a man's wealth was measured in the size of his flocks. Sheep provided man's three basic needs for survival: they could be eaten for food; their wool was made into clothing and the woolen cloth or skin could be turned into material for tents. Sheep were portable, easily moved from one place to another. They could live on grass and were prolific, providing increasing and renewable wealth. To the Israelite, sheep met the need for required sacrifices. Sheep were valuable. But sheep have a downside. They require almost constant care, they are "high maintenance." Sheep cannot care for themselves. They are subject to a multitude of problems and dangers, many of which they bring on themselves because they are just dumb! Sheep are the consummate "dumb animal." Left on their own, they seldom make good decisions, but always seem to follow one another into danger. For example, I heard of an instance where one flock of 1000 sheep broke through a fence and got into a lush alfalfa field. Most animals eat until they get full, then quit; these sheep continued to eat until they foundered-and over a third of them died. Another story I heard was of a sheep grazing in a field which contained a disc. The sheep grazed up next to the disc and reached for grass growing between two of the round discs and her head was caught. All that she needed to do was back out, but this dumb sheep dug a hole with her front feet, trying to go forward! The farmer found her stuck, and almost dead. He knocked her back feet out from under her and she fell down, freeing her head. Then she got up and walked away. Perhaps it is the sheep's tendency to wander which moved God to use sheep to represent mankind. Sheep by nature are prone to wander off and get lost. Once out of sight of the other sheep, they just get "loster and loster!" A stray sheep is then subject to all sorts of danger, for a sheep is truly defenseless. One of the biggest jobs of a shepherd is to find straying sheep and bring them back to safety. John 10:11: "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." III. GOD'S SOLUTION FOR MAN'S SIN Look at the last phrase of verse 5: "By His Scourging we are healed" Verse 6b: "But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." God, out of His great love for man, provided the only solution which could satisfy His justice. God's solution was that of substitution. Sin demanded death, so Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin. Jesus died for our sin. Like the multiple expressions describing sin, there are multiple expressions for the idea of atonement: He bore our griefs; He carried our sorrows; He was pierced; He was crushed; He took our chastening and our scourging. The iniquity of us all fell on Him. Can it be any clearer? Every bit of the punishment we deserved fell on Jesus. He took every stoke of punishment for us. Every bit of God's wrath toward sin was absorbed by Jesus. And GOD WAS SATISFIED. The payment for our sins was accepted. Jesus' last words on the cross: IT...IS...FINISHED! PAID IN FULL! We had a debt we couldn't pay; He paid a debt He didn't owe. The idea of atonement for sin was planted in the Jewish mind through the sacrificial system of the Jews. Blood was required and without the shedding of blood there was no remission, no withdrawing the penalty for sin. But Jesus' blood paid it all. What was the result of the atonement? IV. THE RESULT OF THE ATONEMENT By His stripes we are-what? We are healed; made whole! The fatal disease of sin has been cured! It would be a tragically shallow understanding to interpret this as physical healing, except in a secondary sense. We do realize that because Jesus died and paid for our sin that all sickness and death will ultimately pass away. The physical healing done by Jesus was two-fold in purpose: first, to authenticate His message-to prove He was the Messiah; secondly, healing was a preview of how sin would be completely dealt with at the cross. Both physical healing and ultimate victory over death are guaranteed by Christ's atoning work, but these will not be fully realized until the end of time. To prove that this healing primarily refers to spiritual health, we need only to go to 1 Peter 2:24: "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." All illness and physical infirmity come from the same source: the curse of sin. Christ's death guarantees a future free from all sickness. Often, in the here and now, our present illness and infirmities provide an opportunity for His grace and power to be displayed; not by healing, but by divine enablement to continue in kingdom work despite the infirmity. That was the situation with Job and with Paul. His thorn in the flesh was the avenue through which he learned the sufficiency of grace. But while it is not God's intention or in His plan to heal everyone immediately, we all have seen abundant evidence that He does answer prayers for healing. It is always right to pray for healing; it is always wrong to demand it. Often illness achieves God's higher purposes. As the consequence of our sin is death, the consequence of Jesus' death is life. The result of Christ's death is that payment has been made for our sin. Paid in full! He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He took our place; He was our substitute. We call this the substitutionary atonement or the vicarious suffering of Christ-it was in our place. But knowing these truths are only the beginning. We must act upon this truth. V. ACTING UPON THIS TRUTH I am fully aware that the majority of those hearing these words have blessedly already made the decision to follow Christ and have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. But there is always the possibility that someone might be unsure of their salvation and desperately need to hear this message. To anyone unsure of their eternal fate, I would say this: Do you realize you are a sinner? Do you know Jesus as your sin bearer? The penalty for your sin has already paid, but that does not mean you are saved and bound for heaven when you die. While the penalty has been paid, each man, woman, boy or girl must individually believe. As Paul told the Philippian jailer who asked, "What must I do to be saved?" "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." What does one need to believe? First, we must believe that we are a sinner, as these verses state. Your sin is keeping you from a relationship with God; your spiritual DNA is irreparably damaged, and you stand before God condemned and guilty. Unless something drastic changes your status, you are on the path straight to hell. That is the first thing you need to believe: that you are a lost sinner. Secondly, you must acknowledge that you cannot save yourself. You are a beloved and valued sheep, but you have gone astray, following your own way. You are helpless and lost and in grave danger of death. You cannot pay for your own sin. Doing good to others cannot pay for your sins. It is a horrible lie of the devil that God weighs our good acts against our bad deeds, kind on a giant weight scale, and whichever side is heaviest determines our eternal fate. Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ can pay for your sins. He is THE way, THE truth, and THE life. No one can come to the Father-to heaven-except through Jesus. Thirdly, you must believe that Jesus is God's ONLY solution to your sin problem. Believing that, you must submit to His mercy, trusting His Word that tells us that whoever comes to Him will find a welcome there. Christ died for your sins; would He refuse to save those who come seeking salvation? John 1:12 promises, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name." We believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that He was buried and that He rose again on the third day. Do you believe these things? Do you believe you are a sinner? Do you believe that you cannot save yourself? Do you believe that Jesus died for YOUR sins? Can you see any reason why you would not like to accept Jesus as your Savior today? Believing these things, it has been found helpful to express them to God in prayer. While it is faith alone which opens our hearts for Christ to enter, faith is well expressed through a prayer such as, "Lord Jesus, I acknowledge I am a sinner. I acknowledge that You died on the cross for my sins, taking my place. I cannot save myself, so I cast myself upon your mercy and promises. I give You my life. I ask You to cover my sins with your shed blood which alone can atone for my sins. Come into my life, forgive my sins, make me a new person, give me eternal life. As an expression of my belief and faith, I thank you that you have come into my life and have forgiven all my sins. Amen. 2