Jesus: The Stricken

Larry Kirkpatrick ++ Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church ++ 20 July 2002

Today we reflect on the sayings of Isaiah 53:8.

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken.

He was taken from prison and judgment, and He was Jesus. Betrayed, imprisoned, falsely condemned, our Lord was taken in the night. One who had eaten with Him, followed Him, worked at His side had sold Him out for 30 in silver. Isaiah asks who shall declare His generation? That is, who can understand and describe what He was made of who, willingly, innocently, consented to die for a wicked race.

Our Lord was not only taken but taken from prison. Innocent of vice He would die for a wicked race. He would take our place. Where our eternal life was forfeit, He would give what we could not. He would succumb to the grave; He would taste death for everyman. When a broken race couldn't answer its Maker He would give what only he could, and buy them one more opportunity to be changed.

Jesus, the Scripture said, was "cut out of the land of the living." Those are fascinating words. "Cut out of" is powerful language. It is very descriptive; it sends a message of decided and active violence and separation. And who more than Jesus deserved to be left in peace in the land of the living? In Him was life said John, and that life was the light of men. So He, the source of our life was cut out of the land of the living. A tragic irony this, one that needn't have ever been. Adam and Eve never had to fall. That was their choice not their destiny. And in the same way, Jesus took man's place by choice not destiny.

We mustn't believe that foreknowledge is the same as predetermination. Jesus stood ready if humankind would fall to intervene. He knew His own law; as the one who called the worlds into existence from nothing, He understood the nothingness of non-life. He knew the sorrow of condemnation attending death, yet for us He consented to die.

"For the transgression of My people was He stricken." For our sin He would die; the Just for the unjust. These thoughts then form the basis of our reflection today.

It is when we especially recall the substitutionary nature of His work that we best realize something of His love. Why was He taken from prison and from judgment? Because He took my place. The moral violator is not me but He. I am the one who has sinned, who deserves penalty and sorrows. He is the one who has not sinned, who deserves nothing of the sort.

It was I who, sinning and thus forfeiting eternal life and earning eternal death, was , and properly so, cut-off out of the land of the living. But He took my place.

He was stricken for our transgressions. And His love was such that he stood forth in our place and took our penalty. In Desire of Ages, p. 25, Ellen G. White put it like this:

Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. 'With His stripes we are healed.'

By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.' John 3:16. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature. This is the pledge that God will fulfill His word. 'Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder." God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the 'Son of man' who shares the throne of the universe. It is the 'Son of man' whose name shall be called, 'Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.' Isaiah 9:6. The I AM is the Daysman between God and humanity, laying His hand upon both. He who is 'holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,' is not ashamed to call us brethren. Hebrews 7:26; 2:11. In Christ the family of earth and the family of heaven are bound together. Christ glorified is our brother. Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love. (Emphasis in original).

When He went to prison and judgment for us, He bound Himself to us. When He came to the rebel planet He came to repair us. When He consented to be led to the cross and nailed there for us, He consented to be stricken in order to buy back a race of unworthies. Stricken for our sins and with our stripes, He offered Himself up for us. All the moral boundaries of heaven are preserved and yet the human race is redeemed. More than bought back on a whim in an arbitrary heavenly transaction, all willing may be changed back, restored to the image their Maker always envisioned for them in the divine plan. This then is the love that enfolds us.

Jesus is for us the Stricken. He alone went to the cross for we who had chosen evil, and took our penalty. Today we endeavor to appreciate what He has done in letting down the chain for us to make a way of escape from what we have been to what He would have us to be. And we are thankful because He has made it possible for us to be so. Let us thank heaven for our Savior Jesus Christ.

Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick is an ordained minister of the gospel. Since 1994 he has served in the American Southwest as pastor to several churches. He received his BA in Religion from Southern Adventist University in 1994 and a Master of Divinity from Andrews University in 1999 with a specialization in Adventist Studies. While in Michigan he was employed by the General Conference at the White Estate Berrien Springs branch office. More important than his scholastic preparation has been his immersion in the biblical and Spirit of Prophecy materials. He is author of the 2003 book Real Grace for Real People. Presently he serves as Pastor of the Mentone Church of Seventh-day Adventists, located near Loma Linda, California. Larry is married to Pamela. The couple presently live in Highland, California along with their two children, Etienne and Melinda.