Saturday, February 16, 2013
Isaiah 53:12 ... the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
BE CERTAIN OF YOUR FORGIVENESS
We are convinced that God is for us because from eternity to eternity there is evidence of His love. He chose believers from before the foundation of the world in an election of grace. In time He called us out of the darkness into His marvelous light, and made us His own special people.
Just as Abraham was willing to give up His son Isaac, even more so was God willing to give up His only Son. He delivered Him up for us all. God Himself also delivered His Son over -- not in betrayal but in selfless love. God turned over what was most valuable to Him in order that His enemies might become His children. The greatest gift has been given. Without being coerced, without being forced, He freely sent His Son into death and the pangs of hell in order to save those who would otherwise be damned. Without being coerced, without being forced, the Son of God willingly walked the way of the cross.
This is a tremendous comfort as we turn our thoughts toward eternity. At certain times in life, and perhaps even more so as we face death, doubts can creep in. We may look back over the course of our lives, maybe even just in the course of a week, and see our guilt. We look at ourselves in the light of God's commands and find failure after failure. We find that sometimes mistakenly and at times even blatantly we have disregarded what God had to say, and went our own way.
It is written in Isaiah 53, "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way ..." and now here comes the beautiful words which we cling to for all of eternity, "And the Lord has laid on Him [Christ] the iniquity of us all." In that act of atonement, God has declared you not guilty. He has granted you forgiveness for every sin that you have committed.
