Isaiah 53:1-12
The Suffering Servant Would Take Away Our Sins
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Only believing in Jesus and the One who sent Him can deliver us from the flaws we have and the nature of sin in us...Because each one of has sinned and fall short of the Glory of God...And when we believe in Jesus and the One who sent Him we are given Eternal Life...
So as we journey through life, let us follow the Truth, the Life, and the Way...Let us in our work be humble and generous...In our pleasures let us see the Light and Who is providing that pleasure and enjoyment for us...In our learning and growth in wisdom let us have integrity...In our buying and selling of things, let us manage to make people happier and healthier by creating jobs and making useful what we have done in our consumption of things...Let us learn that science is related to humanity...That science and religion are not rivals but work together to help make the world make sense for mankind...Let us believe we can have politics with principles and with friendships...And let us believe that Jesus was pierced for our personal transgressions...That He was crushed for our iniquities...The punishment that brings us peace, comes from One being tortured and suffering on the Cross, and by His wounds on the Cross, we are healed...The innocent Son of God took our punishment for our sins...His body was pierced, receiving what we deserved so that we could be healed from our sins...
Frederic Lewis Donaldson, an Anglican Priest, wrote about social sinning...Donaldson said the Seven Social Sins are: Wealth without work...Pleasure without conscience...Knowledge without character...Commerce without morality...Science without humanity...Worship without sacrifice...Politics without principle...