The Table of My Peace

The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. (Isaiah 53:5)

This morning, as I took the Table of the Lord, I focused on this truth: The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. I had planned to meditate on something else, but then I came upon this in my psalm reading:

You, Yourself, are to be feared;
And who may stand in Your presence
When once You are angry?
You caused judgment to be heard from heaven;
The earth feared and was still,
When God arose to judgment,
To deliver all the oppressed of the earth. Selah.

(Psalm 76:7-9)

I was struck by this: “Who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry?” I know that I cannot. Neither can you. But then I was flooded with the thought there is only One who could—and He has already done that for you and me. That’s when my mind went to Isaiah 53:

He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

(Isaiah 53:3-5)

Jesus was despised and rejected by men, and nailed to a cross. He was stricken and judged by God, not on His own account, but for ours. It was our griefs and sorrows (in the Hebrew, this is literally, pains and sicknesses) that He bore. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. A great exchange took place: He took the chastisement that we deserve so that we could have His peace.

All the wrath of God was poured out upon Jesus on the cross, for He became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus bore all the anger of God in His own body on that tree. The earth feared and was still when God arose to judgment that day to deliver all the oppressed of the earth.

God poured out all His judgment; Jesus poured out all His blood. There is no more chastisement left for us—only His peace, which we receive through faith in Him. His peace is now our wholeness—nothing missing, nothing broken. It is forgiveness of our sins and healing for our bodies. “There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Take these words at their full value.

The Table of the Lord is the sign of that great day which was so terrible, and yet so wonderful because it brought us salvation. In the bread, we experience the body of Christ, which stood before God when He was angry and His judgment was heard from heaven. In the cup, we share in the blood of Jesus, which He poured out so freely for our sakes, and now flows to us full of His peace.

Faithpoint: The Table of the Lord is the table of His peace, and the wholeness which has been given to us through faith in Him.