A MATTER OF INNOCENCE AND GUILT

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.

By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?

For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people, He was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

Isaiah 53:6-10

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Think about our common view of justice today.

When people commit wrongs and break the established laws, we expect that they will be held accountable for their actions.

When people have not done what other people allege they have done, we expect that they will be acquitted of the charges levied against them.

A violation of either one of these justice-related expectations and you can expect a wave of protesting emerge.

Yes, we are a people that demand justice and anticipate that it will be exercised properly and fairly.

It’s a matter of innocence and guilt.

Question: Would we ever today allow for an innocent person to die in the place of a guilty one?  

I would say the majority of people would be appalled at such a proposition because it doesn’t make sense, does it? Why should someone innocent perish to allow someone wicked to live?

And yet, when we look at the most important person in our lives today, our Savior Jesus, that’s exactly what happened, didn’t it? Look at today’s passage from Isaiah 53:

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.

By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?

For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people, He was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand.  Isaiah 53:6-10

Note here who represents the guilty. It’s all of us, every person who has ever lived who is not God or Jesus. We are the ones who have gone astray, turned to our own ways and desires, and committed countless iniquities against the very God who made us and reigns over us.

For this, we, the ones who have wronged God, deserved the fullest extent of His judgment and punishment. We were the ones who should have suffered and had our lives taken away. That would have been what was viewed as right using our view of justice.

And yet, God decided to lay all of our iniquity on His Son who had never sinned. The perfectly righteous and unerring Jesus, the unblemished Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, was led away to slaughter, crushed and caused to suffer immensely as he was offered up as a living sacrifice of finishing atonement. He was cut off from the land of the living but it was all part of God’s greater plan.

For in order to offer sinners like us an opportunity to have salvation through His love, mercy, and amazing grace, something extraordinary had to happen. The price for sin had to be paid and then someone had to find victory over death so others could follow. One could not happen without the other. The crucifixion led to the resurrection and Jesus had to rise in victory before anyone else could. That’s why He told us that He is the Way and the Truth and the Life, the only One who can lead us to God the Father.

Friends, Jesus paid a very steep price for us all but in order to be completely vindicated, we still must believe that the only way we can be saved is through the One who bore our sin and in doing so, brings us justification before God. In other words, through Jesus, we appear to God as if we have never sinned because the innocent Savior of the world served the sentence all mankind deserved.

It’s a different way of looking at the matter of innocence and guilt but thanks be to God we have it for it’s the only way that we have eternal hope and peace.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com