Jesus was Punished that We might be Forgiven

Now what I’m going to say to you will be straight out of the Bible and you might say it isn’t true. But the truth of the matter is it is true and if you will begin to hear it and say it and think it, it’ll become true in your experience. See, God deals in things that we don’t think are real. God said to Abraham, “I’ve made you the father of many nations.” He didn’t have a son of his own! But God said, “I have made you.” As far as God was concerned it had happened already. So when God says he’s made all the evil to meet upon Jesus, as far as God is concerned it’s happened. It takes you a long while to appropriate what God has done but it’s there all the time. Can you grasp that?

Now let’s look at some aspects of the exchange. Actually, in your outline that you have I’ve listed ten. I don’t want you to imagine for a moment that’s complete, it’s just a specimen. You may recall that when the Lord spoke to me through that young woman from Oklahoma he said, “Consider the work of Calvary, a perfect work, perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect.” So there are respects and there are aspects.

We are going to look, if you wish to say it, at ten different aspects of the work of Calvary. Ten different ways to view what God accomplished there by the death of Jesus.

We’ll begin with Isaiah 53:4–5. I’ll read them again.

“Surely he . . .”

Let me pause there because I want to bring out something in the language. That’s the most emphatic way possible to emphasize the word he. What the Holy Spirit is doing is directing our attention away from ourselves and our problems to him who is the solution. The word surely in Hebrew is aken and it’s a word that’s used to direct your attention to the next word that follows. Then in Hebrew, as in some other languages—maybe not languages that you’re familiar with unless you know for instance Russian—but in Latin, Greek and Hebrew you can either put the pronoun in with the verb or leave it out. But the form of the verb tells you what it is anyhow. Can you get that? So you can say “he bore” without putting in he. But if you put the he in, you’re emphasizing it. And if you put the word aken in front of the he, you’re doubly emphasizing it. So what we get is all the emphasis placed on he. He’s the solution. There’s no solution in ourselves. We don’t have the answer. But if we can only turn ourselves away from ourselves and our own problems to him on the cross, he is the solution.

"Surely he has borne our grief . . ."

But the literal meaning of that word is sicknesses. I’m glad that I have Martin Luther on my side. In the German version he uses the two standard German words ?conkite? and ?schmertz?, sickness and pain. And that is the correct meaning of those words all through the Hebrew language from Moses down to the present day. Still the word that’s used to be sick is the same word. So I’m going to give you the literal translation which you do find in some versions. It’s an extraordinary thing to me that the modern versions which are not hesitant to correct the King James in a whole lot of areas don’t do it in this area. You know why? Because their translator’s mind couldn’t grasp the reality of the fact that Jesus actually took our sicknesses. That’s a tremendous hurdle for a theological mind to get over, isn’t it?

"Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains. Yet we esteemed his stricken, smitten by God and afflicted."

I remember once in l947 I was talking to a Jewish man in the streets of Jerusalem. I told him that I believed Jesus was the Messiah. I always remember his answer. He said, “He couldn’t have been a good man. If he had been a good man God would never have let him suffer like that.” And that’s exactly what Isaiah says. We did esteem him smitten by God and afflicted. But, verse 5:

"He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised [or crushed] for our iniquities, the chastisement [or punishment] for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes [or his wounds] we are healed."

There are two aspects in those verses. First of all, the punishment in verse 5, “for our peace came upon him.” The punishment due to our wrongdoing came upon Jesus. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. That’s the opposite. It says in verse 5 the punishment for our peace that we might have peace. Until the punishment for sin had been inflicted there was no possibility of peace. But Jesus was punished that we might have peace with God through being forgiven.

If you want to look at those two passages there that I mentioned, Ephesians 2:14–17, speaking about what took place on the cross. Paul says:

“He himself [that’s Jesus and notice the emphasis on he] is our peace who has made both one [that’s Jew and Gentile] has broken down the middle wall of division between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And he came and preached peace to you who
were afar off, and to those who were near.”

Notice the emphasis is on the word peace. There can be no peace for the sinner until he knows that his sin has been forgiven. And just to confirm that in Colossians 1:19–20.

“For it pleased the Father that in him [Jesus] all the fullness should dwell; and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him were the things on earth the things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.”

So Jesus was punished that we might have peace through being forgiven.

I think we’ll practice doing this with out hands because I want this to be imprinted on your mind. I want you from this time onwards never to be able to forget. I’ll do it once. If I do it wrong you correct me because I sometimes get it wrong. With my left hand I’ll do the evil, with my right hand I’ll do the good. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. All right, that’s very simple, isn’t it? But it’s very important. This time I want you to do it with me. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. Let’s do it once more. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. Now we’re going to do I and me. This is very personal, it’s you at the foot of the cross, nobody else there. God is dealing only with you. I’ll do it once then you do it together.

Jesus was punished that I might be forgiven. Jesus was punished that I might be forgiven. All right, that’s the first aspect of the exchange.