“I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.” (Revelation 5:6)
I first preached on this text many years ago, and a number of people were surprised and even shocked by its exalted truth: our Lord Jesus Christ bears the marks of His wounds and will forevermore. Have you ever wondered why? Let’s take a look . . . and may you be encouraged by the witness of His wounds!
By His Wounds You Are Healed
When the apostle Peter said, “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24), quoting the prophet Isaiah, he was telling us that our salvation was won through the suffering of our Lord Jesus on Calvary’s hill. The beatings and scourging of our Lord, culminating in His agonizing death on a rough wooden cross, was the crushing blow to the evil one. Jesus took our punishment, our beatings, our scourging, our crown of thorns, our nine-inch nails, our cross, and ultimately our death. And when the grave could no longer hold Him three days later, we were given access to a relationship with God, by grace through faith. By His wounds we have been healed. But that’s not all!
By His Wounds He Is Revealed
His wounds not only healed us, but they revealed Him. Here is the way the prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, put it in one of his lovely devotionals:
The wounds of Jesus are His glories, His jewels, His sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is passing fair because Hs is white and ruddy – white with innocence, and ruddy with His own blood. We see Him as the lily of matchless purity, and as the rose crimsoned with His own gore. Christ is lovely upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea, but oh! There never was such a matchless Christ as He that did hang upon the cross.
God in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, revealed His eternal love for us in the deepest and most profound way through the witness of Christ’s wounds. Jesus loved us enough to endure the most unimaginable torture willingly! Every blow Jesus endured was because He allowed it. And when the full price for our sin had been paid—that is, when He had made full atonement for us—Jesus gave up His Spirit. No one took our Lord’s life; He willingly laid it down so that He might lift us up into heavenly glory.
As you go about your day and even throughout this week, let me encourage you to pause and reflect upon the witness of His wounds. You have not only been healed, but Jesus has been revealed as the lover of your soul who refused to let you go.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 