Pastor's Pen
March/April 2002

The five actual wounds of Christ are considered to be His two hands, His two feet and His spear-riven side. We include the Roman beating and the crown of thorns to enforce the truth: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

All of mankind is guilty, all of mankind is destined to go to hell; but because God so loved the world, it was agreed in heaven that the Son should become a man - made an embryo in the womb of a woman. (He had to become a man so that He could die. God cannot die!) That Christ would be the substitute to take man’s punishment, death and hell!

The last wound inflicted upon Christ was after He was already dead. We read in John 19:33-34: "But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water."

Pierced side: there is a medical explanation for the blood and water that gushed out. This is attributed to a broken heart – He died of a broken heart to fulfill Psalm 69:20. O, yes, He would have died of the wounds, but the soldiers were surprised to find Him dead already.

This was the worst wound of all, a broken heart. Have you ever experienced a broken heart? I’m talking about being so overcome with grief that you have no power for anger or bitterness, but your heart is broken. Maybe it was through rejection or through death?

There were two reasons why the heart of Christ was broken:

• One reason was because Israel as a nation had just rejected there Messiah – Savior. "He came unto His own but His own received Him not." In fact, when Christ returns in clouds of glory they say to Him: "what are these wounds in your hands…" and He responds: "I was wounded in the house of my friends." Then Israel weeps! See Zec. 13:6

But that was not the greatest rejection!

• The greatest rejection was that the heavenly Father had to turn his back upon His own Son! The night before Christ was crucified He prayed earnestly concerning the cup that He had to drink to fulfill the plan of salvation. It was not the brutal torture that Christ was struggling with, but that He had to drink the bitter cup of the sins of mankind. In short, He had to become sin; He had to take the curse upon Himself for all of mankind!

All of the sins of mankind were going to be transmitted upon Him for all time. He had to become sin: "He became sin for us who knew no sin." It was at that moment and time that God the Father had to turn His back upon His beloved Son.

Do you see the tremendous price The Lord Jesus Christ paid for you? The cross was His destiny. Satan did everything in his power to keep Jesus from getting to that cross because he knew that the cross would destroy his power over us!

But that was not the end of the story because after three days in the bowels of the earth, Christ arose with all power and with all the saints that had lived before.

Do you know that He still lives? Do you know that His wounds still plead for you? "You are graven upon His hands," as the prophet said! He ever lives to make intercession for those who believe! There were two others crucified with Christ, one believed. One did not. What is your response to Him?

There was a story told of years gone by about a man who operated a drawbridge for the railroad. How it was located I’m not exactly sure, but  after he got the signal he only had several minutes to get the bridge in place. One day (to his horror) as he was just about to pull the lever he looked down and saw his little boy playing on the huge gears that turned the bridge. He screamed, he shouted… the little lad didn’t hear. The split second of decision: the train or my son? He had to pull the lever… the train come rumbling through. The passengers were waving, never knowing the price that had just been paid. His heart was broken for you!