“ … yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” ~ Isaiah 53:4b
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” Tap this magnificent verse lightly and watch it cleave to expose a facet many never see. One I [Eugenia Price, the author] missed for a long, long time. Sometimes men and women have clung to life because they have been able to cling to the first part of this verse about God’s having already borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, but then some turn away at that point.
I did. My heart leaped up with adoration and rested in my relief that Christ on the Cross of Calvary had already taken my grief and my sorrow as well as my sin into His great Heart. I rejoiced that He had smothered them to death there in His Love. I knew it had broken His Heart but I also knew there was no other way for me so I just accepted the gift of what He had done and tried to give thanks. But still there was unrest so deep down in my own heart that I seldom permitted it to reach the surface. And that unrest came when I read the end of Isaiah 53:4! I wanted God and Christ to be one and the same. That’s why I finally became a Christian. I wanted it to be true when Jesus said “I and the Father are one.” Then how could God smite the Christ who had saved me? “Rejoice and again I say rejoice,” because cleave this “pleasant clear stone” to its heart and you see as I have seen at last, that God actually smote Himself four our sin! “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows …” but just as surely He afflicted Himself, as the Lord God “laid on him (self) the iniquity of us all.”
“… God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself …”
I did. My heart leaped up with adoration and rested in my relief that Christ on the Cross of Calvary had already taken my grief and my sorrow as well as my sin into His great Heart. I rejoiced that He had smothered them to death there in His Love. I knew it had broken His Heart but I also knew there was no other way for me so I just accepted the gift of what He had done and tried to give thanks. But still there was unrest so deep down in my own heart that I seldom permitted it to reach the surface. And that unrest came when I read the end of Isaiah 53:4! I wanted God and Christ to be one and the same. That’s why I finally became a Christian. I wanted it to be true when Jesus said “I and the Father are one.” Then how could God smite the Christ who had saved me? “Rejoice and again I say rejoice,” because cleave this “pleasant clear stone” to its heart and you see as I have seen at last, that God actually smote Himself four our sin! “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows …” but just as surely He afflicted Himself, as the Lord God “laid on him (self) the iniquity of us all.”
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