Christ Beaten Beyond Human Recognition
6/20 Reading Portions: Deuteronomy 25; Psalm 116; Isaiah 52; Revelation 22
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6/20 Reading Portions: Deuteronomy 25; Psalm 116; Isaiah 52; Revelation 22
Isaiah 52:14
As many were astonished at You— His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind—
XENOMORPHIC
When Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, He hung between heaven and earth— beaten, bloody, ravaged physically— He was literally unrecognizable as a human being. A xenomorphic1 event occurred. Although it fulfilled Scripture foretold in ancient past, Christ’s physical disfigurement didn’t pay for our sins. God’s holy wrath poured out upon Christ’s soul paid our debt. Christ’s actual death as a perfect, holy Man paid our debt. The Messiah’s shed blood from His pierced side cleansed us and set us free. These satisfied God’s holy justice, paying our debt to God for sins committed against Him. And that He suffered God’s wrath when He was at His weakest point physically, there is no one in heaven or on earth or beneath the earth who will ever be able to say that His suffering for sins was insufficient.
Moreover, when the physical body of Jesus Messiah was reduced to human rubble, it shows us just how sinful and depraved fallen man is as well as how needful we are of a Savior. Men, who needed Christ most desperately, treated Him most dastardly. The corrupt flesh of our “old man” will use every ounce of its strength to dismiss, disregard, and even deny Christ suffering God’s infinite and eternal wrath. Why? We don’t want to come face to face with our sin. The Holy Spirit, however, reproves us of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8), which produces godly sorrow that works repentance unto salvation (2 Cor 7:10) —and we are astonished. Another way our flesh distracts us from facing our sin is by distorting the truth of Christ’s sufferings. The flesh will convince our foolish and fickle minds that the physical sufferings of Christ paid for our sins, diminishing the true gospel power of Christ’s person and work. The Scriptures do say we are healed by Christ’s wounds (Isa 53:5); and, I had already written about that last year (click here to read that devotional). The physical sufferings of Christ should astonish us at how wicked our sin is, and how wonderful is God’s mercy toward us. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Christ’s bloody, beaten, ravag’d form,
Oh! bears witness of our shame—
We’d hate God with the cruelest scorn
Apart from faith in Jesus’ name.
Xenomorphic means a change in shape by deforming pressure from adjacent minerals. Jesus, who came in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom 8:3), was deformed physically by the beatings, brutality, and scourging inflicted upon Him by men, descendant of their father, Adam, who was made from “minerals” of the ground (Gen 2:7).