Lesson 6: The Old Account Settled

"He was pierced for our transgressions." Make it personal! Put yourself and your own sins in there. Read it as though it said, "He was pierce for my transgressions." Do not get lost in the crowd. If there had never been another sinner in all the world, Jesus would have gone to the cross for you! Oh, believe it and enter into peace!

"He was crushed for our iniquities." Make it personal! Think what your ungodliness and your self-will cost Him. He took the blows that should have fallen upon you. He stepped in between you and God, as the rod of justice was about to fall. It crushed Him in your stead. Again, I plead, make it personal! Cry out in faith, "He was crushed for my iniquities."

Now go farther: "Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace." All that was necessary to make peace with God, He endured. "He made peace through the blood of his cross." Change the "our" to "my." "He made my peace."

"He bore on the tree the sentence for me,
And now both the surety and sinner are free."

Now note the last clause of this glorious verse, "With His wounds we are healed." Do you see it? Can you set to your seal that God is true, and cry exultingly, "Yes, I a poor sinner, I a lost, ruined soul, I who so richly deserved judgment, I am healed by His stripes"?

 It is not that God ignores our sins, or indulgently over-looks them; but on the cross all have been settled for. In Isaiah 53:6, He has balanced the books of the world. There were two debit entries:

"All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned everyone to his own way."
"Jehovah has laid on Him (that is, on Jesus at the cross) the iniquity of us all."


The first debit entry takes into account our participation in the fall of the race. Sheep follow the leader. One goes through a hole in the fence and all follow after. So Adam sinned and we are all implicated in his guilt. "Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

 But the second entry takes into account our individual willfulness. Each one has chosen to sin in his own way, so we are not only sinners by nature, but we are also transgressors by practice. In other words, we are lost - utterly lost. But "the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). By His sacrificial death on the cross, He has paid to outraged justice that which meets every charge against the sinner. Now in perfect righteousness God can offer a complete pardon and justification to all who trust His risen Son.

Thus "the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever." The troubled conscience can now be at rest. God is satisfied with what His Son has done. On that basis He can freely forgive the vilest sinner who turns in repentance to the Christ of the cross.

 Thought Question: 
 After all that Jesus did for us, how should we then live? 
What is the most important part of this passage, to you?