1 Peter 2: 21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.25For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls
My children were fairly normal. Every so often they inflicted injuries upon themselves, as children do, and most were fixed with a kiss and/or an Elastoplast. They weren’t as bad as the neighbour’s child who thought he was Superman and hurled himself out of a tree, collecting a broken arm for his trouble, and the nickname “Birdman”.
We had the normal amount of skinned knees and superficial cuts and scrapes, but one of my children, my second son, was a bit of a disaster area. At the age of 4, on a visit to the local pool, he fell over and ended up with 9 stitches in his eyebrow. A rather good job of stitching by the family doctor, who used plastic surgery techniques. Then he fell through a glass door, more stitches in his face and 4 in his hand. As he got bigger he swapped to different techniques, stabbing himself with a soldering iron, and dropping molten solder down his leg. And then there was the incident with the chain saw.
So by the time he was finished high school he had quite a collection of scars, of which he was very proud. Then his older brother took over. He was injured in a serious car accident, and bore the scars of surgery required to fix the broken bones and cuts to his face. Fortunately he had a very good plastic surgeon and the facial cuts healed quickly with minimal scaring. He was then very proud of the scars to his legs, and between the pair of them, looked like battle hardened warriors.
While these scars were interesting to my sons, and painful for a short time, in the scheme of things they were pretty minor. We could hardly say that “by their wounds you have been healed”. Yet we can say that of the Saviour. “By His wounds you have been healed”. By His wounds we HAVE been healed. Healed of the sickness caused by sin. Healed of the wages of sin.
He received these wounds so we could be saved, so we could be redeemed , so we could be the adopted sons and daughters of God, so that we could share in the glory that is rightfully His. The glory He rejected for a time, so that He could live with us on earth, so that He could fulfil the law and the prophets, so He could be the Lamb that was worthy, the Lamb that was slain.
He received these wounds so we could receive grace.
Come and see, come and see
Come and see the King of love
See the purple robe and crown of thorns he wears
Soldiers mock, rulers sneer
As he lifts the cruel cross
Lone and friendless now he climbs towards the hill
We worship at your feet
Where wrath and mercy meet
And a guilty world is washed
By love’s pure stream
For us he was made sin
Oh, help me take it in
Deep wounds of love cry out ‘Father, forgive’
I worship, I worship
The Lamb who was slain.
Come and weep, come and mourn
For your sin that pierced him there
So much deeper than the wounds of thorn and nail
All our pride, all our greed
All our fallenness and shame
And the Lord has laid the punishment on him
Man of heaven, born to earth
To restore us to your heaven
Here we bow in awe beneath
Your searching eyes
From your tears comes our joy
From your death our life shall spring
By your resurrection power we shall rise
Graham Kendrick
Copyright © 1989 Make Way Music,
www.grahamkendrick.co.uk
By His wounds, we are healed.
Light of Christ 