Isaiah 53:5 KJV – “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Perhaps thinking to satisfy the crowd’s thirst for blood without actually going so far as to execute Jesus, Pilate had Him flogged. The flogging would have ripped the flesh off of His back. History records that flogging victims either passed into unconsciousness, went insane, or died. The miracle is not that Jesus survived the whipping, but that He submitted to it! How easy it would have been for Him to defy them and, without cursing but in righteous judgment, send them all to hell!
Why? Why would God allow His Son to endure such physical torture? The answer had been given years earlier, when Isaiah solemnly prophesied:
Isaiah 53:4-5 KJV – “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Thank Him now for bearing God’s judgment that should have been yours!
