“Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this
law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.” Deut27:26
In Deuteronomy 27 God pronounces a curse on everyone who
does not fully and completely obey His law. In effect He pronounces a curse on
all of us because none of us are able to keep His law perfectly the way He
demanded.
As a result we were all under this curse until Jesus took it
in Himself on our behalf. This is what Paul means in Gal3:13 when He says that
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth
on a tree.”
In Deuteronomy 28 we have a clear description of the curse
and what exactly will happen to whoever disobeys the law. This is what we are
going to deal with in some detail. But before we do that, there is something the
prophet Isaiah prophesies concerning the Cross that is very rarely taught in
Church and that very few of us have ever considered or pondered regarding the
sufferings of Christ. And yet seeing it and understanding it casts our
understanding of the Cross in a very different light.
We realize that not a
single sermon, book, song, play or movie can perfectly convey what Jesus went
through on our behalf. There is no movie or story brutal or gross enough to
portray the sufferings of Christ. I want to start with this prophecy;
“Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be
exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; his
visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men”
Isa52:13-14KJV
“Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high
and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you, his
appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of
the children of mankind, so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings
shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them
they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. Isa52:13-15 ESV
“Many will be shocked by him. His appearance will
be so disfigured that he won’t look like any other man. His looks will be so
disfigured that he will hardly look like a human. He will cleanse
many nations [with his blood]. Kings will shut their mouths because of him.
They will see things that they had never been told. They will understand things
that they had never heard. Isa52:13-15 GW
“(just as many were horrified by the sight of you)
he was so disfigured he no longer looked like a man; his form was so marred he
no longer looked human, so now he will startle many nations.
Kings will be shocked by his exaltation, for they will witness something
unannounced to them, and they will understand something they had not heard
about. Isa52:13-15 NET
“[For many the Servant of God became an object
of horror; many were astonished at Him.] His face {and} His whole appearance
were marred more than any man’s, and His form beyond that of the sons of men–but
just as many were astonished at Him, So shall He startle {and} sprinkle many
nations, and kings shall shut their mouths because of Him; for that which has
not been told them shall they see, and that which they have not heard shall
they consider {and} understand.Isa52:13-15 AMP
Isaiah prophesies that Jesus on the Cross would be so
marred, destroyed and disfigured that He wouldn’t look like a human being. Just
by looking at Him you couldn’t recognize Him as Jesus OR even as a person! Let
me ask you a question, what do you think could have caused such disfigurement
and destruction of Jesus’ body so much that He couldn’t be recognized as Jesus
or even as a person? Do you think that it was the scourging?
I submit to you
that no manner of scourging could ever disfigure somebody to the extent of not
being recognizable as a person! If it had been the scourging then it would have
been impossible for Jesus to walk out of the city and go to be crucified. I
believe the answer lies somewhere else. Isaiah gives it to us in the next
chapter. This is what he says;
“He was despised and rejected by people, one
who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness; people hid their faces
from him; he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. But
he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; even though we thought he was
being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. He
was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he
endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been
healed. All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had
strayed off on his own path, but the LORD caused the sin of all of
us to attack him.” Isa53:3-6 NET
“Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains he
hath carried them, And we, we have esteemed him plagued, Smitten of
God, and afflicted. And he is pierced for our transgressions, Bruised
for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace is on him, And by his bruise
there is healing to us. All of us like sheep have wandered, Each to his own way
we have turned, And Jehovah hath caused to meet on him, The
punishment of us all.” Isa53:4-6 YLT
“Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses,
weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows {and} pains [of punishment],
yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as
if with leprosy].But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for
our guilt {and} iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace {and}
well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are
healed {and} made whole.” Isa53:4-5 AMP
This is what so disfigured and destroyed Jesus on the Cross
so that He didn’t look like a human being at all. It was sin, all the sins
of all the people in the whole world from the beginning of the world to the end
of the world. It was the punishment of God for all these sins. It was
the griefs and anxieties and sorrows of all people. It was the sicknesses and
diseases and pains of all people for all time. All of which came from sin.
Let us examine this more closely;
1) He
carried all of the sins of the entire world for all time.
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto
righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1Pet2:24
God took all of the sins you have ever committed and will
ever commit for all of your life and then did the same for all of the people
that had ever existed and all those that would ever exist and put them all on
Jesus. Can you imagine that? Think about this. Jesus was perfect holiness
itself, He had never committed a single sin. Yet God took every sin you have
ever committed and will ever commit and put it all on Jesus. And not only
yours, but also for everybody else in the whole world.
In fact Jesus didn’t
just bear these sins, as 2Cor5:21 says, He BECAME sin itself. One
man bearing the sins of billions of people for all time that He might take them
away from the presence of God forever.
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and
saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world.” Jn1:29
2) He
carried all of the judgment and wrath and punishment of God for every sin
committed by every single person in the whole world for all time.
“He was wounded because of our rebellious
deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because
of his wounds we have been healed. All of us had wandered off like sheep; each
of us had strayed off on his own path, but the LORD caused the sin of all of us
to attack him.” Isa53:5-6 NET
“And he is pierced for our transgressions, Bruised
for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace is on him, And
by his bruise there is healing to us. All of us like sheep have wandered, Each
to his own way we have turned, And Jehovah hath caused to meet on him, The
punishment of us all.” Isa53:5-6 YLT
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and
with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of
us all.” Isa53:5-6
God first put all the sins of the entire world for all
time on Jesus on the Cross in one moment, and then after He had done that, He
released all His anger and wrath and judgment on Jesus for all of these sins in
that same moment.
Every punishment and judgment that God had reserved for
every sin committed by every single person in the entire world for all time,
all of this punishment and anger was poured upon Jesus on the Cross.
God took all the guilt and shame and anguish and depression
that you have ever suffered or could ever suffer for all those sins and placed
it all on Jesus.
Jesus became the definition of sin and as a result
became the single focus of all judgment. In the same way that a lightning rod
attracts and receives into itself all the lightning, Jesus became a judgment
rod, attracting and receiving into Himself all judgment and wrath. He
made mention of this to His disciples in Jn12
“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince
of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.” Jn12:31-33
If you read verse 32 in a KJV bible you will see that the
word ‘men’ is in italics. This means that it was not there in the original
language but was inserted by the translators to help with the grammar. Let us
also eliminate it and see how the sentence reads.
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
unto me.”
Now what is this ‘all’ talking about? I don’t believe that
it is talking about all men because that is impossible! Jesus Himself said that
many would perish and go to hell. Even when He was lifted on the Cross there
were many ridiculing Him and making fun of Him right there at the Cross. And
yet here He says that He will draw ‘all’ unto Himself.
Besides the context is not about Him drawing people unto
Himself. It is about Him dying for all people. So what else can this ‘all’ refer
to? I believe it refers to judgment. This is what Jesus drew to Himself when He
was lifted on the Cross. He drew all the judgment and wrath of God
unto Himself.
That’s why the next verse says that “This he
said, signifying what death he should die.”
He was talking about how He would die on the Cross, about what would
kill Him, the judgment of God. He drew all of it unto Himself, and it killed
Him, just as lighting would do!
God poured out all His wrath and judgment into Jesus on the
Cross. By the time God was done, Jesus didn’t even look like a human
being. And yet this was just the physical that could be seen. How
about the spiritual and the emotional that couldn’t be seen? Moreover He also
had to go to hell after all this!!
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able
to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and
body in hell.” Mat10:28
3) He
carried all the sicknesses and illnesses and diseases and weaknesses of
everybody in the world. Including all of the physical and emotional pain and
suffering that they produce
“When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were
demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who
were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying: He Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.”
Mat8:16-17
God took all the sicknesses and diseases that all the people
in the whole world would ever suffer, and placed it all in the body of Jesus.
This had in fact begun even before He reached the Cross. During the scourging,
all the stripes Jesus received proclaimed and availed healing for us. Every
time His body was broken by a lash, healing was given to us as Paul says in
1Cor11:24
“And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said,
Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this
do in remembrance of me”
God took all the pain that sickness and disease would ever
cause to all of us and put it in Jesus’ body. Stop and think about that. Think
about all the sickness you have ever suffered and all the pain it came with.
Think about that time when the pain was too much you thought you were going to
die. It could have been stomach pain, or a severe headache that you couldn’t
even open your eyes, or the agony of an asthma attack, what about that
toothache (if He still had any teeth)? Or a broken bone or whatever. Jesus
suffered that for every single person in the world! How do you think Jesus was
feeling on the Cross? He was sick with every sickness.
4) The
man of sorrows.
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was
despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried
our sorrows” Isa53:3-4
Imagine that you were raped or sodomised by somebody, think
about all the pain and shame and depression that you could suffer. Now realize
that it is only you, one person. Jesus suffered that multiplied by billions of
all people.
All the emotional pain suffered by every single person in the world
was carried by Jesus on the Cross.
He suffered the heartbreaks for all of us,
the grief when we lose loved ones, the fears we carry every day about our
future, our exams, our families, our finances. He carried the anxieties we
always face, the distresses and depression we face every day.
Just think of the time when you faced the most painful
moment of your life. It could have been the loss of a loved one, or a huge
disappointment, or a heart-break, or a deep regret. It’s probably a time you
don’t ever want to remember. Now imagine that Jesus felt like that for billions
of people in the whole world. Multiply the way you felt by billions,
that’s how Jesus felt. He was carrying it, so that we would be free from it, so
that we wouldn’t have to carry it. He carried all the griefs, fears, anxieties
and worries of all the people in the whole world. He is indeed a man of
sorrows.
This is what Jesus carried in Himself. It is how He saved us
from it, He became the curse.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
hangeth on a tree” Gal3:13
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