“He was crushed for our iniquities.” – Isaiah 53:5
Christ Crushed
He was Crushed. “If you offer a grain offering of firstfruits to the LORD, you shall offer for the grain offering of your firstfruits fresh ears, roasted with fire, crushed new grain” (Leviticus 2:14). In Leviticus chapter two, the grain offering is instituted. The grain offering is a symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. When Isaiah wrote of the suffering Servant, he did so seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. Yet his words are written in the past tense. The fatal decision in the Garden of Eden led to the struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. Satan would bruise the heel of Jesus. Jesus would crush the head of Satan. But Jesus also would have to be crushed.
Our Iniquities
For our iniquities. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?’ “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars.” Mankind has a terrible disease. Sin. Iniquities. Written with a pen of iron, engraved with a point of a diamond on the tablet of our deceitful and desperately sick hearts. Examine your thoughts for one day and take note of the sinful ones. When it comes to our iniquities does the Bible exaggerate? We might deceive others. We might deceive ourselves. We will never deceive God. He searches the heart and tests the mind. His verdict? Guilty.
God’s Will
Will of God. “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him” (Isaiah 53:10). “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). Jesus committed no iniquities. He was sinless. The only one qualified to be our sin bearer. The only one qualified to be our Savior. The consequence of our iniquities? Jesus was crushed by the millstone of God’s wrath. A righteous God has to judge sin. Punishment must be meted out. We deserve it. It was the will of God to crush Him! Eden’s ban became Gethsemane’s invitation. The desire of the forbidden fruit led to the necessity of the crushing of our Firstfruits. The disobedience of Adam brought death, the obedience of the last Adam brought a life-giving spirit. Because of Adam’s sin, he would eat bread by the sweat of his face. Because of Adam’s sin, the Bread of Life would sweat drops of blood. The temptation yielded to in Eden led to banishment. The submission offered in Gethsemane led to restoration. “It was the will of the Lord to crush Him.” Jesus surrendered to God’s will. He drink of the bitter cup.
Firstfruits
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive…And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.” Christ was crushed for our iniquities. He was crushed for our redemption. When our “kernels of grain” are buried in the ground, our souls will join Christ. Because He has been crushed, we have been made pure. The angels that guarded Eden will welcome us into Heaven. Our crushed Savior will be sitting at the right hand of the Father who crushed Him. The millstone of God’s wrath will not be there, because our iniquities have been crushed and cast to sea. Crushed by God’s steadfast love.
“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all of our sins into the depth of the sea.” -Micah 7:18-19