November 9th

It is Finished

Isaiah 53:5
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.

A Prophetic Event

These words, spoken by the prophet Isaiah, foretold of the work of Calvary that would be accomplished by the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a future event, from Isaiah’s time perspective, a prophetic foretelling, and yet he spoke of it in the past tense, as if it had already happened. We could say that the LORD, speaking through Isaiah, spoke of these coming events as having already happened.

Faith Transcends Time

We sometimes fail to recognize that time is a created thing, and that the things of the Kingdom of God are not subject to the restrictions of time. Faith in God, and faith in His promises, transcends the barriers and constrictions of time.

That may sound a little farfetched, but there are illustrations that we can easily see, that verify the truth of this statement. For example, the verse in Isaiah 53 says that He (referring to Jesus, the coming Messiah) was wounded for our transgressions. And we recognize that to be the fact that Jesus paid the price for our sins. It’s the Biblical truth that we base our salvation on.

Yet, Jesus went to Calvary’s cross over two thousand years ago, long before anyone of this generation was even born. How could He pay the price for our sins thousands of years before we existed, thousands of years before we had ever sinned? He could do that only if time is not part of the equation. And that is indeed the case. Salvation, as well as all the promises of God, take place in the timeless realm of eternity.

In other words, if we believe that Jesus paid for our sins, and we do, then we must believe that He did it long before we were ever born, long before we ever sinned. Then, if this is true for the first part of the verse, the same principle must also apply to rest of the verse.

All His Promises are Timeless

When the verse says that the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, it means He took the punishment for our Shalom, our peace, our welfare, our prosperity, long before we were even born. The things that Jesus purchased for us were ours before we ever came into the world.

It also says that with His stripes we are healed. Then, physical healing is as much ours as forgiveness of sins is. They were both purchased on the same day at Calvary’s cross. Healing was ours before we were ever born. But, like salvation, we must believe it in our heart, and lay hold of it by faith. And that's the way all of God's promises work.

Begin today to view the promises of God as things that are already done. God has already forgiven our sins, He has already provided peace and blessing for our lives, and He has already healed our physical bodies, in Christ, in the finished work of Calvary. It is our job to mix faith with that finished work, claim it as ours, and let it become reality in our lives.