“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Bruised (Heb): Daka: Beat to pieces, break, crumble, crush, oppress, smite

Iniquities (Heb): Avon: Perversity, moral evil, faults, mischief, sin

There is a thought that overwhelms the soul when we meditate upon it, when the depths of it hit the heart that Christ Jesus was broken to pieces, crushed and smitten for my perversity, my faults, the mischief of my evil nature, for my sin.

Words like, “oh wretched man that I am” (Romans 7:24a); “woe is me for I am undone” (Isaiah 6:5); “Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8); all were confessions and acknowledgments of the evil nature into which we were born. As David expressed it well, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).

Herein, therefore, lies the key to repentance; not that we have made a mistake, not that we did an evil deed; but that we were born with an evil nature whose propensity is to do evil continually. In this light there is no distinction between the evil man who does evil deeds and the evil man who suppresses them. Jesus was not broken in pieces just for the evildoer; but for all who are evil beings. Until we acknowledge this truth, we will remain unrepentant deceiving ourselves that we are not that bad. Perhaps it is, we just have not encountered the Lord as did the Apostles Peter and Paul, the Prophet, Isaiah, or King David. Acknowledging our evil being comes by way of revelation as we spend time in the Presence of the Lord of glory, in the fiery Presence of His holiness.

The words of Christ to the Scribes and Pharisees were a strong rebuke and came from the perspective of the Righteous One who knew all too well the evil that lay within the heart of the righteousness of man:

“Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whited sepulchers which, indeed, appear beautiful outwardly, but are within full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).

“Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess (lack of self-restraint)” (Matthew 23:25).

Of course, it was not the evildoers who condemned Christ to be crucified, but the very Scribes and Pharisees who were exposed by the word of the Lord.

Even so, Christ did not come to just expose the sin and hypocrisy of the self-righteous. No, He came not just to expose, but to redeem, to cleanse and to remove the iniquity; and for that He was smitten, crushed and beaten to pieces by the whips, the thorns, and the Cross.

There is one who testified to the truth. One “of the stock of Israel, of the Tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews and as touching the Law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness which is of the Law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:5-9).

Oh, the efficacy of His bruising. What Redemption, what cleansing, what transformation in the souls of men that was accomplished when Christ was beaten to pieces, crushed, smitten, bruised for our iniquities. Indeed, as the Prophet said, “and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5b).

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