Your Identity in Christ
In Christ, we are healed by His wounds and given peace through His punishment. Thank You, Jesus!
Isaiah 53:1-12
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.
~ Isaiah 53:10
- Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? - 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. - 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. - Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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.
Acts 2:42
The Fellowship of the Believers
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Pondering Point
With this prophecy about Jesus’ life and death and resurrection, we know that from the beginning, it was God’s will to have Jesus suffer. A shadow of death was already cast in the form of a cross from the time He was born and given the name ‘Jesus’, foreshadowing how He would "save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).
Often our identity in Isaiah 53 gets wrapped up in verses 4-6 where we are told that our sins and iniquities are what put the suffering servant in this position: Suffering for us. Yes we are sinners in need of a Savior who does end up suffering for us. But in Christ, our identity is way more than that. In Isaiah 53, our identity includes being healed ones and at-peace people. In Christ, we are no longer identified by our sins, but, as the Apostle Paul says, as new creations – the old is gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are given righteousness, holiness, innocence! We are given Christ-like-ness!
Prayer
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for taking on my sin and suffering for my sake. Thank you for letting me take on Your righteousness and being blessed for Your sake. Let no woundedness remain in me – be it in my mind, heart, spirit, or body. Heal me and give me total peace in Your name. Amen.
Biblical Themes: Advent word Yakhal / Hope

Biblical hope is not optimism. In fact, the most hopeful people in the Bible often had very few reasons to believe that things would get better for them any time soon. But biblical hope is based not in circumstances but in the unchanging character of God. Learn more in this video from our Advent series.
https://bibleproject.com/videos/yakhal-hope/