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 I still remember the number of people who were surprised — even shocked — by its truth: Our exalted Lord Jesus Christ still bears the marks of the wounds He suffered on our behalf, and He will forevermore. Have you ever wondered why? Let’s take a look, and I pray you will be encouraged by the witness of His wounds.
- By His Wounds You Are Healed
When the apostle Peter quoted the prophet Isaiah, saying, “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24), he was telling us that it was through the suffering of our Lord Jesus that our salvation was won on Calvary’s hill. The beatings and scourging of our Lord, culminating in His slow, terrible, agonizing death on a wooden cross, delivered the death 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 He walked out of the tomb three days later, giving proof positive that God the Father was fully satisfied by the atoning sacrifice of His beloved Son, we were granted access to a redeemed relationship with God, by grace through faith. We have been healed by Jesus’ wounds from the curse of sin and death. But that’s not all!
- By His Wounds He Is Revealed
His wounds not only healed us, they also revealed Him. Here is how “the Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon, put it in his April 23 Evening devotional:
The wounds of Jesus are His glories, His jewels, His sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is passing fair because He 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.
The glorious Trinity — God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit — revealed their unwavering eternal love for us in the deepest and most profound way through the witness of Jesus’ wounds. Jesus loved us enough to endure the most unimaginable torture . . . willingly! Every blow Jesus endured fell because He allowed it. And when the full, atoning price for our sin had been paid, He willingly gave up His Spirit. No one took our Lord’s life; He laid it down so that He might lift us up into heavenly glory (John 10:17-18).
So as you go about your day and throughout this week, pause to reflect on 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. He loved you . . . He sought you . . . He bought you . . . and one day He will catch you up to be with Him forever.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 
Refreshing to hear a commentary on Isaiah 53 in the context in which it is written and explained in first Peter teo 24 that it is by his woounds that we are sheep that have gone stray are now brought back to the Shepherd of our soul and our healed it is by his wound that we now have redemption through his blood The forgiveness of sins and it is not sickness. It is not disease. It is not having illness, or ailments in our bodies that Jesus died for he died for sin and the sick body that we now live in a fallen state he has prepared a new body for us at the resurrection. amazingly refreshing to hear this commentary on the content and context of Isaiah 53