Despised and Rejected

“Who has believed what he has heard from us?

    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,

    and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

    and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:1-3 ESV)

If you are going through difficult circumstances in your life, and if you are at that place where you feel like no one cares, that no one understands, please be assured that we have a God who understands and who has been where we are and has suffered immensely so that we could be free from our slavery to sin and so that we can now walk in purity of devotion to our Lord in walks of holiness and righteousness, and in obedience to our Lord. And his name is Jesus Christ, who is God, our creator God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).

For Jesus Christ, who is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and who was God incarnate (in the flesh) when he walked this earth, came into this world as a human baby to a human mother, but conceived of the Holy Spirit. So, God the Father was his birth father, and he was not born into sin like we are, and he never sinned. And during his years of ministry he healed the sick and afflicted, raised the dead, cast out demons, fed the hungry, and preached repentance for forgiveness of sins.

Although some people liked him and received him warmly, and even though he had crowds of people following him for a while, because he fed them and because he healed them, and because of the miracles he performed, he did not have many who genuinely followed him with their lives and whose lives were committed to him in genuine faith that he was their Messiah, the Christ who had been promised, and who were willing to surrender their lives to him and to forsake their lives of sin to follow him in obedience to his commands.

And so he was indeed despised and rejected, at first mostly just by the religious leaders and rulers and people of prominence in the Jewish faith who were against him and who continuously persecuted him and taunted him and tried to trip him up so that they would have cause to accuse him. But as time progressed, many who had been following him deserted him because they found his teachings too hard, and eventually all abandoned him, and one betrayed him, and one denied him, and the many said, “Crucify Him!”

“Surely he has borne our griefs

    and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

    smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6 ESV)

But when Jesus’ enemies had him hung on a cross to die, this was in the will of God for Jesus, and for us, too, that Jesus should be the perfect lamb sacrifice to die for the sins of the people of the world so that, by faith in him, we might die with him to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. For he shed his blood for us to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our slavery to sin so that we will honor God with our lives.

But Jesus Christ did not just take upon himself the sins of the people of the world, but he took upon himself our griefs and our sorrows, too, and not just in his death, but in his life here on this earth. For he was mistreated, hated, persecuted, mocked, falsely accused, called “of Satan,” called “crazy,” and even his family members wanted to put him away. So, whatever you are going through in this life, Jesus can feel your pain, and he cares, because he suffered like we suffer when he lived on this earth.

And when he died on that cross, it was not just so that he would forgive us our sins so that when we die that we get to go to heaven and not hell. He was crucified on that cross, and he was resurrected from the dead, so that by faith in him we will be crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God, and so that we will live holy lives, pleasing to God, and so that we will now follow him in obedience to his commands.

For all of us like sheep have gone astray and we have gone our own way, but via God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in Christ we can now live for him, and for his will and purpose for our lives. We now can serve Jesus Christ with our lives in doing what he has called us to do, and we can no longer go astray, and no longer go our own way, but we can go God’s way, by his grace, and in his power, in forsaking our sins and in following him in obedience and in holy living, to the praise and glory of God.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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