A Love that leads to the Cross and Beyond: A Love that took Our Place

And now we're really getting to the heart of the problem. Not only do we have sicknesses and pains and iniquities, but the problem our problem runs much deeper than that. It's rooted in our nature. And notice it says, we what? Some of us, we, most of us, all but the people who go to church. Now we all, all of us, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Moses to David to Solomon to you and me, all of us have like sheep gone astray. We're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. That's our nature. We inherited that nature from Adam. [01:00:22] (47 seconds)  #AllHaveGoneAstray

There's punishment for him and there's peace for us. In Isaiah 57, it says in verse 20, but the wicked are like the storm tossed sea for it cannot be still and its water churns up muck and mire. There is no peace for the wicked says my god. And so here we find Jesus taking the punishment, the chastisement. This is this is legal language, a judicial language. There's a there's a punitive judicial sentence for a violation of the law. An offense was committed and a consequence is due. This is also the language of discipline and of correction. [00:54:04] (54 seconds)  #JusticeAndPeace

And then in in one of the hardest passages you'll ever read, Deuteronomy 28, that if you've been reading with us this year, you have been through it. This is the covenant curses. This is the curses for breaking the covenant. Deuteronomy twenty eight fifty nine says, then, in other words, if you are disobedient to the covenant, the lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. And so I think that what I think we need to see here that Isaiah is alluding to is that is that the effects of sin and disobedience are sickness and sorrow and grief of every kind. [00:40:54] (47 seconds)  #SinBringsSorrow

And this makes sense, doesn't it? If life is found in God and in right relationship with God and the requirement for perfect perpetual life is perfect perpetual obedience to him, then it stands to reason that our rebellion against God, our walking away from God, our turning our back on God and going our own way produce these effects in us. This disquietness and griefs and sorrows of many kind. Isaiah uses much the same words in Isaiah one where God says, oh sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity. The whole head is hurt and the whole heart is sick. [00:42:29] (46 seconds)  #RebellionBreedsSorrows

And so I think we need to see here there's double imputation. Jesus on Calvary gets treated as a sinner, so that you and I by grace through faith can be declared righteous. Not just free, not just sent off to do our own thing, not not just innocent, but but the righteousness of Christ that he purchased on Calvary would actually be yours to wear, and your iniquity and mine, Jesus took on Calvary's cross. [01:07:28] (34 seconds)  #DoubleImputation

Jesus took the punishment and the wounds and we get the peace and the healing. And this is not just temporary peace. This is not just lack of conflict. This is shalom peace. This is the Hebrew word for peace that carries with it the idea of nothing missing, nothing broken, well-being, soundness in all areas, and especially in covenant relationship with God. And this is why Jesus can promise to his disciples on the day he was betrayed in the upper room. He can promise them his peace. This is like nothing that they had ever known before and nothing that the world could give and we see here the purchase price that secures it. [00:55:17] (52 seconds)  #ShalomThroughChrist

And so I think that we get a glimpse into what seems like an exchange taking place. Everything in her life was broken by sickness. Her finances, her sustenance, her relationships, her worship. She would not have been welcomed anywhere near the temple with such a bleeding disease. And so her hope, Jesus is her last hope. And I think this is a graphic image of sin's ravaging effects on us as much as anything else. Jesus seems to exchange it for healing and the outpouring of his power. He offers her peace and healing. And this is the same language that we see later in our text, peace and healing. But it seems to cost Jesus something. [00:38:44] (57 seconds)  #HealingExchange

And so the language here is so strikingly similar, and Jesus is as it were crushed with the twistedness, the perverseness, and the depravity of my heart and of yours. See, every violation of god's law, every rebellion against it, and the depravity and the wickedness of every human heart will be justly punished by a holy and righteous God. And here is Jesus taking the penalty. The piercing and the crushing for and in our place and in the place of all of his elect for all of the ages. This, my friends, is substitutionary atonement. This is Jesus getting what we deserved. [00:52:59] (60 seconds)  #HeTookOurPlace

And now we're really getting to the heart of the problem. Not only do we have sicknesses and pains and iniquities, but the problem our problem runs much deeper than that. It's rooted in our nature. And notice it says, we what? Some of us, we, most of us, all but the people who go to church. Now we all, all of us, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Moses to David to Solomon to you and me, all of us have like sheep gone astray. We're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. That's our nature. We inherited that nature from Adam. All of us have chosen our own way except for Jesus. [01:00:21] (53 seconds)