HERE is a marvelous wonder, that Jesus, the Son of God, should be wounded for the transgressions of sinners! The God of all grace was angry with one who had never offended Him, that He might reconcile rebels unto Himself! The God of all justice punished the innocent Jesus, that He might, consistently with His justice, justify the ungodly! Truly here are wonders of grace! When we read the wonderful fifty-third chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, and compare it with the history of Jesus as narrated in the four gospels of the New Testament, we are amazed at the thickness of that veil which is cast over the eyes of the Jew, and which prevents him seeing in this “glass” the countenance of that Jesus whom he has so long despised and so scornfully rejected. Our amazement is, however, increased when we turn our eyes over the so-called Christian church, and see the large numbers of professing Christians stumbling over the same stone of unbelief as that on which Israel was broken. The Jews have spiritualized and allegorized this portion of God’s Word, and have wrested it to their own destruction. Some of them have maintained that this chapter has reference, not to the Messiah, but to the Jewish nation; others have said that it refers to the whole of the prophets taken collectively; and others, that some individual prophet is intended. This is just similar to the plan which men are adopting now-a-days, in order to get rid of the scriptural fact, that Jesus shall come personally a second time, to reign on the earth, over the whole house of Israel, with His redeemed church. The very same process of false reasoning, which enabled the Jew to evade the obvious meaning of this chapter, is now employed by hundreds of preachers and writers in their endeavors to evade the plain teaching of God’s Word concerning the second and pre-millennial advent of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. O let them beware! lest it be found at last, that because they have been fighting against God, therefore, He will fight against them. True Christians should receive the Scriptures simply because they are the words of God, and believe whatever they find noted therein, even when they cannot understand it. When God says, “And the Lord shall inherit Judah His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again” (Zechariah 2:1212And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. (Zechariah 2:12)), what right has man to spiritualize, and to say that Jerusalem means the church? Jerusalem is spoken of by God, and God means Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be rebuilt in more than her former splendor; the protection and glory of the Lord shall be unto her as walls; the people shall be gathered to their own land, and Jerusalem shall be the city of the great King, and the center of the Divine glory. Jesus Christ will come again―He will come personally―He will come to reign over this earth. As truly as Jesus suffered, bled, and died on this earth, so surely shall Jesus reign over this earth as universal Monarch. As literally as the prophecies which referred to the first coming of Christ have been fulfilled, so literally shall those prophecies be fulfilled which speak of Christ’s second coming and reign. Here let all who love their Bibles take their stand, and watch for the return of their Lord from heaven.
But to return to the passage of Scripture at the head of this paper, let us notice the wonderful person here spoken of. “HE was wounded for our transgressions.” He whose name is “Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,” He who was the Creator of the Universe, He was wounded! Those hands, which might have burled thunderbolts on His foes, were nailed to the accursed tree! Those lips, that might have been the doors of thunder, were cruelly buffeted! Those feet, that once trod the waves, and that shall again tread this earth as the robed Monarch, were pierced by the rude iron! Surely here is a marvel of marvels, and wonder of wonders, that the altogether-lovely Jesus should suffer, groan, agonize, bleed, and die! That He, for our sakes, should become “a Man of Sorrows,” and be despised of all the people! Is it not to be feared that we sometimes forget that Jesus, the eternal Sun of God, did really die for us? that He was actually wounded for our transgressions? He was “wounded” in His body, in His soul, and in His reputation. His head was crowned with thorns, His back was lacerated with the cruel whip, His face was spit upon, and smitten, the hair was plucked from His cheeks, His back bore the heavy cross, His hands were nailed, His feet were pierced, His side was opened, His heart bled for us. He poured out His soul unto death. His soul was filled with exceeding great sorrow. His character was blackened, and His fair name traduced for us.
Jesus was wounded, not for angels, not for His friends, but “for us,” who were sinners, and enemies. On His Cross it might have been written, “He who is not a sinner hath no part here.” He died for sinners. This little word “FOR” has in it the pith and marrow of the whole gospel. It contains within it the great doctrine of substitution. Jesus stood at the bar of justice as though He were a sinner, He was punished as though He had transgressed, He died as though He were guilty, that we who were sinners might be pardoned, and stand before His Father’s throne as innocent. Oh, how blind were the Jews to reject the suffering Messiah! How blind were God’s children, before conversion, to despise their bleeding Saviour! How blind are unbelievers now, who see no beauty in a crucified Redeemer! Jesus shed His blood, not for the righteous, but for sinners; not for the innocent, but for the guilty. If Jesus shed His blood for sinners, then His blood must be efficacious to cleanse my polluted soul, yea, to cleanse the souls of all the myriads who trust in Him.
Sinners, did Jesus die for you? Do you feel your need of Him? Do you hate all sin? Are you seeking for Jesus? Then Jesus died for you, and you are secure. Believe in Him and you shall be saved. How foolish is self-confidence and self-love! Throw them both away, and cast yourself, a naked, empty, vile, polluted, black, filthy, lost, helpless, ruined, and dead sinner, upon Jesus, and the moment you do so, that moment you are saved; but if you continue a careless, Christ-rejecting sinner, then for you there is no hope. Reject Jesus, and you reject Him who is the only Redeemer of lost and guilty souls. Reject Jesus, and you reject the only balm that can soothe your sorrows. Reject Jesus, and you reject the only light that can dispel your darkness. Reject Jesus, and you reject the only refuge that can shield you from destruction. Reject Jesus, and you reject the only life that can deliver you from death. Reject Jesus, and there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. O reject Jesus no longer! Oh, receive Jesus!
“For the human breast
Ne’er entertained as kind a guest:
No mortal tongue their joys can tell
With whom He condescends to dwell.
Receive Him ere His anger burn,
Lest He depart and ne’er return;
Receive Him, or the hour’s at hand
When at His door denied you’ll stand.”
T. W. M.