He was wounded for your transgressions, He was bruised for your iniquities: the chastisement of your peace was upon Him, and with His stripes ye are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Christ bore our sins in His own body on the cross that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness, “by whose stripes ye are healed.” He poured out His soul unto death and made intercession for the transgressors, and made His soul an offering for sin. God hath made him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be make the righteousness of God in Him. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up…that whosoever believeth in Him…should have everlasting life.” Christ died, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Will you let Jesus bring you to God?
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Christ died, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” God said, “This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased,” in Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!! Christ died for the ungodly. “God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then being now justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” We love Him because He first loved us. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” If you miss this love, you will have missed the only true unselfish love the world has ever seen.
Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!! Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Christ took away the handwriting of ordinances that was contrary to us, and took it away nailing it to His cross. He gave up His life as a “ransom for many.” They crucified Him between two thieves: “He was numbered with the transgressors.” He came to save sinners and call them to repentance. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. The greatest Christian who ever lived said, “This is faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. “ By Him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses. How shall YOU escape if YOU neglect so great a salvation?
“God hath given all men assurance, everywhere, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” He was declared to be the Son of God by the Spirit of holiness and the resurrection from the dead. Christ became the firstfruits of them that slept: for it was not possible that death should keep Him. His soul was not left in Hell, neither did His flesh see corruption. He arose the third day according to the Scripture. Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him, seeing that He ever liveth to make intercession for them. “If Christ be not risen from the dead, your faith is vain…You are yet in your sins…of all men most miserable, and we are false witnesses.” You can find the grave of every religious leader in the world but this One, and 500 eyewitnesses saw this One walking around after a Roman centurion and a medical doctor declared Him dead! If anyone could find ONE BONE of His body the Bible could offer man nothing better than “one more religion,” for all religious leaders are dead and buried.
As a risen, living Saviour, He stands at the crossroads of eternity, where he HAS been inviting sinners to come to Him for more almost 2000 years. He says: “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” And again He says, “You will not come unto Me that ye might have life. Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely. Come now, saith the Lord, let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. How often I would have gathered you as a mother hen gathers he chickens under her wings, an ye would not! Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let return to the LORD and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.” Will you come to Him today? By faith, the best way you know how? Why not? What do you hope to gain by a delay?
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. If we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us. All have sinned and there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not . No man has ever kept the Law except one, Jesus Christ. As many as are under the works of the Law are under a curse. By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified in His sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sin.” Those who count on the Law to save them are “fallen from Grace.” They, being ignorant of God’s Righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the Righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the Law of righteousness to everyone that believeth. If you really were honest with yourself, what would your self-righteousness look like if it were laid alongside God’s Righteousness?
You see, the whole issue is RIGHTEOUSNESS. Man has a thousand ways to justify himself and sidetrack the issue, but the issue is RIGHTEOUSNESS. It has nothing to do with “religion” except where man has erected such religions as Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, etc., for the purpose of getting around the issue. The issue is God’s Righteousness, and God’s Righteousness is JESUS CHRIST. Any system which pits man’s righteousness against God’s Righteousness is a man-made system no matter what authority is quoted, including the Bible itself. There are two kinds of RIGHTEOUSNESS: God’s and man’s. With God it is DONE, and you are to believe it; with men it is “DO” and you have to work at it indefinitely. God will give assurance of eternal life to any man who substitutes his righteousness for God’s Righteousness! This is why millions of people in the world don’t know where they are going at death. They still insist on trusting their own
self- righteousness. Every priest, preacher, pope, bishop, or prophet on earth who does not know where he is going at death is inwardly trusting HIMSELF or his religion. What are YOU trusting in? Your self-righteousness (filthy rags) or GOD’S perfect Righteousness.
