MEDITATIONS
FROM ISAIAH
November 9,
2005
Reading
“He
poured out his soul unto death” Isaiah 53:12.
My soul, follow
Jesus from
The willingness
of Jesus to pour out His soul unto death is among the most precious and
endearing acts of His life. As He said to Pilate, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No
one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I
have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. “
The taking of
your sins upon Himself did not come easy to Him who knew nothing but holiness
and righteousness from eternity past. That which was abhorrent to Him, He
became. Not only did He take our sin upon Himself, He became sin, knowing He
would of necessity suffer the full, righteous judgment of His
Father—“indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man
who does evil.” Soul, quiet your heart and listen again to some of the most
wonderful words Jesus ever spoke: "Father, if it is Your
will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be
done."
This was no
ordinary death into which He poured His soul, for He did not deserve it.
Sinners die and suffer the judgment of God because they are sinners, rejecters
of divine grace, but Jesus, Himself the fullness of divine grace, suffered for
that of which He was not guilty.
I
owed a debt I could not pay.
Jesus
paid a debt He did not owe.
My soul, if this
contemplation fails to stir you into praise and gratitude to your blessed
Redeemer, nothing will.
“Hence, when the Lord Christ poured out his
soul unto death, by reason of the extremity of his soul sufferings, and soul’s
travail for his redeemed, he sustained all this as the sinner’s surety, in
becoming sin and a curse, to feel and suffer all that was the sinner’s due. Oh!
who shall say, what heart shall conceive, the
greatness and extensiveness of thy sufferings, precious, precious Lamb of God!
Oh! who shall undertake fully to show the infinite
suitableness of Jesus to every poor humble convinced sinner, in delivering him
from the wrath to come! Here, my soul, fix thine eyes; here let all thy powers
be employed in the unceasing contemplation, while beholding Jesus, thy Jesus.” Robert Hawker
“So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is
finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit” John
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the
joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God” Heb 12:2