The bruising that was pleasing to God
“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him…” Isaiah 53:10
It is perhaps one of the most startling statements in the Bible. God taking pleasure in pain of His Servant! It is even more startling if you consider the previous verses. The Servant, the One being bruised, is described as one without any deceit (Isaiah 53:9). The ones He is getting bruised for are God’s people who have abandoned God. They are described as those “who have sold themselves for their iniquities” (Isaiah 50:1). If this was not enough, the reason for this bruising of this Perfect Servant is the transgressions of the ungrateful people who have forsaken their God! In these heart gripping words it is described – “Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.. He was bruised for our iniquities…the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
It would be hard to understand it had it not been revealed to us in the Cross. Isaiah, 700 years before Jesus, is prophetically talking about the suffering Messiah, Jesus. “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him” was simply saying that Jesus was to be the substitute for people estranged from God, and it pleased God, not to see the pain, but the ultimate achievement, of this bruising, for the verse ends, “When You make His soul an offering for sin.. the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”
In that sacrifice, Christ resolved the conflict between God’s infinite love and God’s ultimate justice. It is this pleasure that God foresaw, and it pleased Him to bruise Jesus. It is what the theologians call the “atonement”. It is not a doctrine that was created to explain away the cross, it was anticipated 700 years before it happened as the only way to reconciliation of man and God. It is this paradox of “just for the unjust”, this substitutionary death that is central to the core of Christianity, is perhaps directly or indirectly challenged most often, and even confounds many Christians.
How can Jesus pay for our sins as a substitute? How could one man represent all of us? Is it not the height of injustice? In these questions, what we are really questioning is the veracity of substitution. Actually, substitution happens all the time. In our own lives we are constantly applauding substitution. When a soldier dies fighting for the country, he dies a substitutionary death. He dies as a substitute for many others who are then free to live. When our brave firefighters, policemen, and medical personnel died trying to save others on 9/11, we, very justifiably, build memorials to them. Who has not felt the surge of nobility in purpose and deed reading the stories of men such as Father Damien who died of leprosy while serving lepers?
I contend that it is not the death of Jesus in our stead that causes us to recoil, it is that that the cross of Jesus reminds us vividly the ugliness of our own sin, and the seriousness of that sin in God’s eyes. The atonement will never make sense, the cross will never become more than a symbol, the love of God will never be more than a fuzzy feeling to anyone who does not first see clearly the seriousness of their own sin. It is in the light of that sin that alienated us, the love of God that longed for reconciliation, we understand why “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.”
Friend, it pleased God, not that He rejoiced in the pain of Jesus, but He rejoiced in the pleasure of those whom Jesus came to save, and that is you and me. Will, what pleased God, displease you? Will, what God came to save, you reject because it does not suit your fancy? Will you dishonor the one who came to be your substitute sacrifice?
I pray that you will look upon Him and be saved!
Danesh Manik
It is perhaps one of the most startling statements in the Bible. God taking pleasure in pain of His Servant! It is even more startling if you consider the previous verses. The Servant, the One being bruised, is described as one without any deceit (Isaiah 53:9). The ones He is getting bruised for are God’s people who have abandoned God. They are described as those “who have sold themselves for their iniquities” (Isaiah 50:1). If this was not enough, the reason for this bruising of this Perfect Servant is the transgressions of the ungrateful people who have forsaken their God! In these heart gripping words it is described – “Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.. He was bruised for our iniquities…the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
It would be hard to understand it had it not been revealed to us in the Cross. Isaiah, 700 years before Jesus, is prophetically talking about the suffering Messiah, Jesus. “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him” was simply saying that Jesus was to be the substitute for people estranged from God, and it pleased God, not to see the pain, but the ultimate achievement, of this bruising, for the verse ends, “When You make His soul an offering for sin.. the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”
In that sacrifice, Christ resolved the conflict between God’s infinite love and God’s ultimate justice. It is this pleasure that God foresaw, and it pleased Him to bruise Jesus. It is what the theologians call the “atonement”. It is not a doctrine that was created to explain away the cross, it was anticipated 700 years before it happened as the only way to reconciliation of man and God. It is this paradox of “just for the unjust”, this substitutionary death that is central to the core of Christianity, is perhaps directly or indirectly challenged most often, and even confounds many Christians.
How can Jesus pay for our sins as a substitute? How could one man represent all of us? Is it not the height of injustice? In these questions, what we are really questioning is the veracity of substitution. Actually, substitution happens all the time. In our own lives we are constantly applauding substitution. When a soldier dies fighting for the country, he dies a substitutionary death. He dies as a substitute for many others who are then free to live. When our brave firefighters, policemen, and medical personnel died trying to save others on 9/11, we, very justifiably, build memorials to them. Who has not felt the surge of nobility in purpose and deed reading the stories of men such as Father Damien who died of leprosy while serving lepers?
I contend that it is not the death of Jesus in our stead that causes us to recoil, it is that that the cross of Jesus reminds us vividly the ugliness of our own sin, and the seriousness of that sin in God’s eyes. The atonement will never make sense, the cross will never become more than a symbol, the love of God will never be more than a fuzzy feeling to anyone who does not first see clearly the seriousness of their own sin. It is in the light of that sin that alienated us, the love of God that longed for reconciliation, we understand why “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.”
Friend, it pleased God, not that He rejoiced in the pain of Jesus, but He rejoiced in the pleasure of those whom Jesus came to save, and that is you and me. Will, what pleased God, displease you? Will, what God came to save, you reject because it does not suit your fancy? Will you dishonor the one who came to be your substitute sacrifice?
I pray that you will look upon Him and be saved!
Danesh Manik
posted by Danesh Manik | 3:36 PM
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