by His stripes

Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the LORD shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-12, NRSV)

I remember this verse in the King James version, “and by His stripes we are healed”

The NRSV says bruises… It doesn’t carry the same weight for me. He was punished and beaten, practically to death before His crucifixion. He was striped, literally His back would have been stripped of the flesh and had stripes running over it.

And by this we are healed and given a new life! This is the verse where the band Stryper got their name.

And it is a verse for us to remember what He did for us, so that we could be with Him!

many

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:24-28, NRSV)

What does many mean? Merriam Webster defines it as ‘being one of a large but indefinite number’.

Which is actually not all, but just a few shy of it…

Any one who is eagerly awaiting His return is one of the many according to the author of Hebrews, because when He comes again it will not be to deal with sin, He doesn’t have to do that again. It will be to save those who are awaiting His return.

So for an indefinite number, which means it could be all, if He is waiting for us who are expectantly awaiting His return to tell everyone we know about the life-giving grace we received, before He returns to save us.

So be one of the many, and tell the rest to join the many!

fear of death

but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.” Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. (Hebrews 2:9-15, NRSV)

Are you afraid to die?

I do not know many people who aren’t.

But here is the thing with death in story to show we need not fear.

When a dog does not know what is on the other side of a door it will be hesitant to go through that door when it is opened. But if that same dog hears the voice of its master on the other side of that door, even if it does not know what is there it will leap through that door when it opens. That is no fear. Not knowing what it will experience, but only knowing it’s master is there.

And that is how we can face death with no fear. Jesus is there waiting for us. So no matter what it is we know who we will see and because of that we can face death with no fear!

new creation

For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. (2 Corinthians 5:14-19, NRSV)

When we are washed in Christ we are a new creation the old has gone and the new has come.

We are no longer beyond by the old Adam, but are set free in the new life we have ahead of us in Christ.

It is the caterpillar becoming a chrysalis and then a butterfly. The old had gone and the butterfly is a new creation!

You are a butterfly so spread your wings and fly into the new life you have in Christ!

one man

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned—sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:12-19, NRSV)

Sin came into the world through 1 man…

Or 1 man and 1 woman…

But Sin was not known until we partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is not to say it didn’t exist, we just had no knowledge of it…

But sin entered and man died because of his sin. And then entered Jesus!

And through the sin of 1 man we all die, and through the gift of 1 man we are all covered by grace!

It is like the single candle, the single light shining in the darkness. Lighting our whole world!