Thank you to Mark R for this message

Pray: That God would show us the amazing nature of His love, shown to us as Jesus not only comes into our world, but takes on Himself our darkness and sin as He dies on the Cross.

Read: Isaiah 53:1-5:

Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

“A light shining in the darkness”. That’s a wonderfully visual picture isn’t it?

Many of the Christmas cards we send and receive have pictures of houses with lights shining out into the dark and snowy scenes around them.

Last week, we were thinking about Isaiah’s prophecy that One would come who would be a light shining in the darkness. And Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

But the question today is HOW did Jesus become that light shining in the darkness?

As we come to Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah gives us a surprising and shocking answer: the light shines into the darkness – our darkness – as Jesus dies a horrific death on the cross.

Although it’s impossible to put into words all that happened at the cross, Isaiah tells us an amazing exchange took place: Jesus took upon Himself our darkness, our evil, our sin:

Verse 5: “But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.”

“The punishment that brought us peace was on Him”

To put it as simply as possible: Jesus takes on Himself the wrath of God for our darkness, our evil, our sin.

Colossians 2:13,14 says this:

“He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”

“He has taken it away nailing it to the cross”

But there’s more. At the cross, Jesus us not only takes away our sin; in exchange, He gives us the gift of His perfect life, what the Bible calls “the righteousness of God”

As I put my trust in what Jesus has done for me on the cross, I am clothed in His  righteousness, the perfect life that Jesus lived.

God no longer sees the darkness and sin; He sees the light of His own Son shining out.

Richard Barker recently shared with me an illustration on this that I found really helpful.

Imagine a room where there’s a group of people and Satan is there to accuse them of the darkness and evil in their lives. He has some post-it notes and he sticks one on the forehead of each person. There’s a post-it note with the word “Liar”, another with the word “adulterer”, another “thief”, another “gossiper”, and so on. And each  person has one of these post-it notes on their forehead and looks totally downcast.

But into this same room walks Jesus. And He comes to each person with the post-it note on their forehead and says: ‘Give it to Me; I’ll take that”.

“He was pierced for our transgressions….by His wounds we are healed”

THAT is how Jesus is the light shining into the darkness…our darkness.

Advent is all about arrival, the arrival of a very important Person, the One whose light can shine into our darkness as we simply put our faith and trust in what He has done for us on the cross.


Category: The Bridge , Thought for the week