The Gospel Healed His Marred Body
Did you know that the body of Jesus was marred more than any man? And it was marred with my sins, your sins, my sicknesses, your sicknesses, my rebellion, your rebellion. Isaiah 52 and 53 was a prophecy given by Isaiah, by the Spirit of God, about Jesus. And in Isaiah 52:13-14, it says, "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men: ..." The words visage and form are two different words in the Hebrew, but they both mean appearance. His appearance was marred, or disfigured, more than any man. And it was the power of God, the gospel, that healed His marred body. So do you think that there is anything you and I might experience that is without hope? Absolutely not.
Prior to dying on the cross, Jesus had a crown of thorns placed on His head, they took a reed and smote him on the head, they mocked Him and scourged Him and spit upon Him. And He forgave every one of them saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Then, after He had commended His spirit to the Father and said, "It is finished", He gave up the ghost - they did not kill Him. He had fulfilled scripture perfectly - just as the Father had ordained it. (Acts 15:18 tells us that "known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.")
Then when one the soldiers came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, he took a spear and pierced his side. They did not break any of His bones so that the scripture could be fulfilled which said, "A bone of Him shall not be broken." But you can read in Psalm 22:14 that all of His bones were out of joint. And in verse 17 it says that He could count all of His bones because they looked and stared upon Him.
I have never had a broken bone or one out of joint, but I have been told that a bone out of joint is far more painful than a broken bone. And every one of His were out of joint. This man went through pain like none of us have ever experienced, or ever will experience. He had all of the sin and sickness and diseases of the world on Him at one time, plus He went to hell where the wrath of God is.
Psalm 88:6-7 is talking about Jesus in hell. It says, "Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou has afflicted me with all they waves." And verse 16 continues on, "Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off." It is hard to even imagine the torment that was (and is) in hell. It says the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies - Mark 9:44. And Jesus worshipped and praised the Father day and night until He came out. You and I would not get out of hell, but Jesus was sent there by the Spirit and He got out because the Father said He would. He went there so you and I would not have to. That is the man of love.
Jesus overcame every one of these things that were done to Him by trusting and believing the power of God. He believed what the Father had told Him; and that was that He would die, be buried and then He would be raised from the dead on the third day. And He went through this because it was the will of the Father so that you and I might have life everlasting; and that we might also walk in complete victory while on this earth. In the book of Deuteronomy it says have 'heaven on earth'.
The exchange of what Jesus did for the human race is absolutely incredible. To name a few; He took all the sickness and disease of the world on Him, that we might be healed and walk in divine health; He was rich and became poor (for those three days), so that we through His poverty might be rich; He took all of our unforgiveness upon Himself, that we might walk in forgiveness; He was wounded for our rebellion, that we might walk obedient and upright in this gospel; all of our turmoil and fears were place upon Jesus, that we might walk in total peace. And every bit of this is received by faith in believing the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Back in Isaiah 53:2, the last part of this verse says the He had no form nor comeliness. There was no beauty that we should desire Him. It was all of our sicknesses and diseases and wickedness that marred the body of Jesus - not His own. He was a man who was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He went to the cross to die, be buried, descend into hell, and then was raised from the dead. He was a man who believed the gospel - believed and preached His own death, burial and resurrection. And because of Jesus' obedience to the Father, He was highly exalted and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. Have you ever known a man with love like that? And people reject this man all the time by not believing what He did for them. We will read this in the next verse.
Verse 3 continues on and says, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows (pains), and acquainted with grief (sickness): and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not."
Verse 4, "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." We thought God did this to Him, but this says He bore our griefs and sorrows (sicknesses and pains). Yours and mine.
Verse 5, "But He was wounded for our transgressions (rebellion), He was bruised for our iniquities (perversities): the chastisement (instruction) of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." In I Peter 2:24 it is looking back to the cross and says we were healed. When the stripes of Jesus were healed, we were healed too. All of this was done 2000 years ago, and anything you and I will ever need in our lives has already been done; all we have to do is mix our faith with that power and believe it, to see the manifestation.
There is not one thing that you and I cannot overcome in our lives by believing this power that raised Jesus from the dead. In Colossians it tells us that Jesus spoiled principalities and powers and made a shew of them, triumphing over them in Himself. He triumphed over them when He was raised from the dead. He overcame all the authority and power of Satan - all sickness, disease, poverty, curses, unbelief, rebellion, fears; and I could go on and on. And in I John 5:4 it says that the victory for us to overcome the world is our faith. You have to mix faith with the gospel (the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus) to be profited and overcome. You can read this in Hebrews 4:2. It also says we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
Because of Jesus' obedience to the Father and how He humbled Himself unto the death of the cross, God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every name. And in Philippians 2 it says that this mind is to be in us. We will not have to die, be buried, go to hell and be raised again, but we will have to humble ourselves to the will of the Father and obey Him. And because of that, God will exalt us in due season, if we do not faint and are not weary in well doing.
Whatever it is you need in your life, in your body - today is the day of salvation. Believe the gospel - the death, burial and resurrection power - to bring you deliverance from any hindrance that you may have. God is no respecter of person's - He just responds to faith mixed with the gospel.
