What Jesus did on the cross when He shed His blood and died for us is nothing short of miraculous! If He was a normal child of humanity His act would have been noble, but because He is the Son of God; the perfect Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, it puts His death in the ultra exclusive “nobody-else-could-do-this” category. His was so much more than just a life lost on a cross for someone He cared for.  It was a death and resurrection that is rooted in the atonement of our sin. Jesus bridged the vast chasm sin caused between Almighty God and humanity; a bridge we now can traverse to commune with our Creator! Hallelujah!

What was included in the atonement? What exactly happened when Jesus offered Himself as perfect payment for our sin? To begin to answer this probing question let’s go to Isaiah 53, a prophetic chapter about Christ the Messiah that was penned about 700 years before Calvary’s cross. See how powerful prophecy can be:

“He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him. Surely he has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole. Isaiah 53:3-5 AMP.

Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives an amazingly accurate description of what happened when Jesus, the Messiah was crucified. For the purpose of this study, let’s look at the three main components:

1.   1. He was wounded for our transgressions

The Hebrew word for transgressions can be translated “rebellion, trespass, sin”. Transgressions here points to our blatant, deliberate personal sin. Sin that clings to our lives when we rebel against God’s will, plans, and purposes for our lives. Every person contends with sin. We read in Romans 3:23 “Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives”. Why is sin so bad? Because it cannot go unpunished; God is just and must uphold the principles of His Kingdom. Besides the wages that sin pays is death. The Message translation puts it this way: “Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.” (Romans 6:23 The Message)

Transgressions (sin) is a violation of God’s kingdom laws and are punishable by eternal death. The Bible is clear in that: “the soul that sins is the soul that dies” (Ezekiel 18:20). And “life is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11) In the book of Hebrews 9:22 AMP. We read: “[In fact] under the law almost everything is purified by means of blood, and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins.” Sin is a huge problem for every human. We simply have to get rid of it if we want to enjoy real life and everlasting life. So is there a remedy for sin?

Yes, praise God there is! The blood of Jesus cleanses (removes) us from all sin and guilt. (1 John 1:7b) This cleansing is not automatic though. We have to comply with the first (a) part of this verse before we can claim the second (b) part. The first (a) part is: “But if we are living and walking in the Light, as he [Himself] is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with another”. We also read in Ephesians 1:7 “In Him (Jesus) we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood, the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor, which He lavished upon us . . . “

Jesus was wounded for our transgressions. His blood paid the price for our sin. The demand of sin has been met in Jesus. That is why it is so vital to appropriate His blood in your life; to accept Him and welcome His salvation into your life by believing in Him; that He died for you and was raised from the dead. Without this faith in Christ your sins remain unforgiven, and will continue to erode your attempt at closeness to God and successful living. Ephesians 2:8 says: “We are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ.

2.   2. He was bruised for our iniquities

Now that we have atonement for our transgression through the wounds of Christ on the cross of Calvary let’s look at the next marvelous thing the Lord did for us. He was also bruised for our iniquities. What are iniquities?

The meaning of “iniquities” comes from a Hebrew word that means “to twist, to distort or to bend”. Often times an iniquity will start as a bended version of the truth; a slight distortion of the real. An iniquity puts its own twist on life, values, mindsets, etc. Upon further study of God’s word it seems like iniquity is different from transgression in that it is something handed to you whereas transgression is something you personally do. Let me explain:

We read in Deut. 5:9-10 “You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, and showing mercy and steadfast love to thousands and to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

The twisted, distorted and bent things that originated over three to four generations before you are handed to you through genealogies and bloodlines. Did you know that your transgression today may become your child’s iniquity? Now let me be clear! You are not paying the price for the sins of your father or grandfather. Each person will give an account before the Lord for his or her own actions, righteous or sinful. We can never use other people’s sin as an excuse for our own calamity.  What I want to point out is that there are things you do today that can affect your children and their children and things done by your father and his father before him can impact your life in a real way as well. It is interesting how things like alcoholism, drug abuse, poverty, heart disease, asthma, etc. follow through the generation of a family. Why is this? I believe it is because of untreated iniquity.  Let’s look at a Biblical example:

In Genesis 20 we read of Abraham and Sarah who journeyed to the South country. Abraham told Abimelech , the king of Gerar that Sarah is his sister in fear that the king will kill him if Sarah was known to be his wife. This was not a total lie. Sarah was his half-sister who also became his wife. His was a half truth which is a half lie; the truth with a twist. The king took Sarah into his harem because he thought she was merely Abraham’s sister, but in a dream the Lord exposed the whole truth to the king and catastrophe was averted.

Now let’s jump to the next generation. In Genesis 26 we read that Isaac and Rebekah, Abraham’s son and daughter in law journey down to Gerar because of a famine in the land. When they arrived in Gerar some of the men asked Isaac about Rebekah and he told them that she was his sister! Again Abimelech the king saw that she was actually his wife and had to expose the lie for what it was. Isn’t that interesting. Years before Abraham told a twisted version of the truth in Gerar and now when faced with a similar situation his son, Isaac, also reverted to a lie. Only this time it was a blatant lie and not a half truth. The twist got twisted even further. Abraham’s transgression became Isaac’s iniquity; a weak-spot that provided a temptation for Isaac to transgress in similar fashion than his father before him.

Are you ready to look at the third generation after Abraham? Isaac and Rebekah had twins called Jacob and Esau. The name Jacob means “heal-catcher, surplanter or deceiver”. According to the Bible Jacob deceived his own father to obtain the blessing of the first born. Later he wrestled with God and the Lord even changed his name to Israel which means “prince of God or celebrated”. Can you see the pattern? What originates as a half truth grows though the generations of Abraham that Jacob’s character became twisted to deceive. Abraham opened the door with his transgression and both son and grandson stepped through that door of iniquity.

This is not an isolated incidence in Scripture. David, the beloved king of Israel was a great man but he also had his sinful moments. His ultimate transgressions were adultery and murder, sins for which he gained forgiveness through repentance and confession.

When we look at Solomon, David’s son we find a man gifted to succeed. God bestowed to Solomon an understanding heart (wisdom) along with great riches and honor. He started out in good form by building a temple for God that was simply amazing. His end was not as impressive at all. He ended with 700 wives and over 300 concubines! We read in 1 Kings 11:4 “For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect (complete and whole) with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.” As a result of his transgressions the kingdom of Israel was split into two and never retained the stature and glory as in the days of David. David opened the door to lust and sexual sin and Solomon walked through that same door in pursuit of 1,000 or more women, accommodating all their idolatrous customs that deceived him in the end.

Iniquities are real and create real challenges for so many people in their lives. They give the enemy a legal right to temp and deceive generations to follow. What makes the work of Jesus on the cross so powerful is that not only did He deal decisively with our transgressions, but also with our iniquities! Regardless of what iniquity your bloodline was exposed to, in Jesus they are all neutralized.

We read in Psalm 32:5 “I acknowledged my sin to You and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord [continually unfolding the past till all is told] - -then You [instantly] forgave me the guilt and iniquity of my sin.” David shows us the proper and only way to deal with our sin; through confession. You cannot ignore it and think it will go away by itself. No amount of money, even to good causes can absolve you from sin. Only the forgiveness of Jesus because of your repentance / confession of sin will do. 1 John 1:8-9 says: “If we say we have no sin [refusing to admit that we are sinners], we delude and lead ourselves astray, and the Truth [which the Gospel presents] is not in us [does not dwell in our hearts]. If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, though and action].”     

Do you see the two things mentioned in the verse above? He forgives our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. The unrighteousness mentioned here can also be translated “iniquities”. Sin is forgiven and iniquities are cleansed. The word cleanse speaks of “purification in a Levitical sense”. The Priest and Levites in Bible times took care of all the sacrifices in the temple. If someone was unclean they went to the priests and after sacrifices were pronounced clean. Jesus is our High Priest Who can purify your life and cleanse you because of what He has done. He was the Sacrifice! It was His blood that cleansed you! The evil cycles unhindered iniquity can establish in your life and the lives of your family are broken because of what Jesus did on the cross!

3.   3. With the stripes that wounded Him we are healed and made whole

The third part of this study is really straight forward. Healing is part and parcel of the atonement. Not only can we get forgiveness for our sins and cleansing for iniquities but we can also receive health and healing based on the amazing work Jesus did on the cross. “He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness . . . surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains. . . “(Isaiah 53:3, 4 AMP.)

Christ throughout His ministry has been known as a Healer not only because of His teachings and declarations but also His acts of healing. If you can believe in Him for salvation you have enough faith to believe for healing as well. We see so many miracles in meetings every week. Miracles of salvation and miracles of healing. God has not changed. His love for you has not changed. He longs to see you saved and healed. We obtain both in similar fashion!

Thank God for the atonement. Thank God for His mighty word. Thank God for Jesus. I pray that through this short but powerful teaching you gained a clearer insight into what happened on the cross when Jesus paid the price for our sins.

I pray that you will experience His forgiveness and cleansing power of His blood as you confess your sins before Him and activates you faith in Him and Who He is.