IV – Five Points of Grace!

Introduction

There were five major points from which our Lord Jesus shed His precious blood. In biblical numerology, five is the figure for grace and victory. Jesus bled through His back, His head (including His sweat), His hands, His feet and His side. Each of these is very significant. Combining the five, we see the marvels of God’s grace in providing complete redemption and absolute victory for us from all the vicious grips and devices of the devil. Our God is very precise, very exact. It really does matter how the blood was shed. There is a special message being communicated by each of the points from which Jesus shed His precious blood.

1. Complete Healing

By His Stripes

“Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him.” (John 19:1)

Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged. According to Bible scholars J.F Dakes, a scourge is not the same as a whip. It is a hydra-headed object with a thick handle and thirty-nine long branches with some dangerous objects like small stones or bones or metal fastened to the end of each. The prisoner is stripped, tied face down and the scourge is brutally applied to the bare flesh. As this hydra-headed scourge lands on the victim’s body, it is pulled in such a way that the vicious objects at the end of each branch tear off some flesh and blood gushes out. That was the brutal treatment meted to Jesus. He was so battered that He could not be easily recognized. His form, or visage, was marred beyond recognition.

“Many will be shocked by him. His appearance will be so disfigured that he won’t look like any other man. His looks will be so disfigured that he will hardly look like a human.” (Isaiah 52:14 GW)

This was the first major point through which the blood of Jesus flowed out. Why was Jesus brutalized? Why did He shed His blood through the body? The answer is clear in the Scriptures:

“Surely, He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.” (Isaiah 53:4-5 AMPC)

We Are Healed

That Isaiah passage is one of the most significant scriptures on redemption. It explains the divine exchange that took place when Jesus took our place. The Bible says, He bore ‘our griefs’, and He carried ‘our sorrows’. I took time to check this up in a number of translations of the Bible and a few translations quoted below.

• “Yet it was our pains that he bore, our sorrows that he carried.” (An American Translation) Please take note of the word ‘pains’. Pain is associated with sickness, disease, affliction, oppression and suffering. When Jesus bore those pains on His back and shed His blood, it was your pains He was taking.
• “Surely our diseases he did bear, and our pains he carried.” (A New Translation [Jewish]) Please note the word ‘diseases’. Jesus bore those stripes and shed His precious blood, thereby taking away your diseases. He actually paid with His blood to make healing legally available to you; to take your diseases away, completely – all of them.
• “Yet surely our sickness he carried, and as for our pains he bare the burden of them.” (The Emphasized Bible.) Did you notice the word ‘sickness’? As Jesus was being scourged by the Roman soldiers, He was taking away all your sicknesses, making it possible for us to live in sound health. Your sickness can vanish right now, as you believe the efficacy of what Jesus did on Calvary’s tree.
• “Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endued.” (New American Bible) Two words are combined here – infirmities and sufferings. We suffer as a result of our infirmities. But when Jesus was scourged, he bore the infirmities that cause our sufferings, as well as the sufferings that result from our infirmities so that we may be free indeed. Now put all of these together. Pain, disease, sickness, infirmity, suffering. The Bible makes it so plain that when Jesus was brutalised by the scourge, He bore all of these for us. You can be totally free from pain, disease, sickness, infirmity and suffering as you release your faith in Christ Jesus and claim your complete freedom.
• “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Surely! Certainly! We are not guessing. We are stating what actually happened. We are not speculating, we are speaking the truth in love. There is nothing anyone can do against the truth but only for the truth. It is a true saying that Jesus bore our sicknesses and our pains on His body, thereby making healing available for us:
• “… and with his stripes, we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) Let us examine this Scripture from various translations:

…. And by his stripes there is healing for us (The Emphasized Bible).

The blows that fell to him have brought us healing (Moffat).

By his stripes we were healed (New American Bible, my emphasis).

And by his scourging we are healed (New English Bible).

He was lashed – and we were healed (The Living Bible).

2. Blessed, Not Cursed

The second major point from which Jesus shed His precious blood for us is the head. As before, this is critical. There is a divine reason, a grand purpose for it. Let us look at it in the Scriptures.

The Crown of Thorns

And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and they put on him a purple robe (John 19:2).  The Roman soldiers made a crown from thorns and pressed it on the head of Jesus, and blood flowed from His holy brow. Then, one of the soldiers took the reed they had earlier placed in his hands and hit His head with it. And blood flowed still more:

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:27-31, my emphasis).

When a blessing lands on someone, it falls on his or her head. That is why the Patriarchs of old laid their hands on their children’s heads to bless them and transfer the covenant blessing. That is why in the New Testament, hands are laid on the head to bless, to heal, to ordain and to consecrate an individual to God. Your head is the seat of your life, the centre of control. A curse works in exactly the same way. When a curse rests upon an individual, it rests on the head and inevitably affects every area of his or her life negatively, controlling and dominating the entire life.

The Original Curse

When man fell in the beginning, God released a curse because of sin and disobedience. This has affected mankind down the ages. This is what God said:

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field (Genesis 3:17-18,(my emphasis).

Thorns and thistles were the symbol of the curse placed on the earth and its effect is on man. “Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee.” When we say a man’s life is full of thorns, we mean it is full of hardship, frustrations, difficulties, obstacles, defeats, sorrows and pressures of all kinds. These have characterized man’s life since the fall. But while Jesus was paying the price for our redemption, He took upon His head (the seat of life) the symbol of man’s curse, which is the thorn, and shed His precious blood as the thorns pierced His brow. He allowed the curse to fall upon Him so that He might lift, cancel, revoke, annul, make void, any form of curse in your life forever.

When He shed His precious blood through His head, He was paying the price to free you from every curse forever. The price is already paid. No matter what curse you have been struggling against, Jesus has already paid to free you from it. What He paid for, you must have. No curse must have a hold or effect upon your life any longer. The Bible makes it clear that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law:

“Christ purchased our freedom and redeemed us from the curse of the Law and its condemnation by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs [crucified] on a tree (cross)”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might also come to the Gentiles, so that we would all receive [the realization of] the promise of the [Holy] Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13-14 AMP).

Study this Scripture carefully and absorb the revelation it carries now to you:

• Christ has paid a price to redeem you from the curse of the law and every form of curse.
• He did this when He became a curse for you. He took your place. He wore the symbols of your curse and bore the actual curse itself that you may be free.
• Having abolished the curse, He now released upon your life the covenant blessings of Abraham.
• Now, in Christ Jesus you can be completely free from every curse.

You can be blessed in the morning, at noon, in the evening, at night. You can walk in the blessing of the Lord every day of your life. You can find yourself in a situation where every curse is gone, and the blessing of the Lord is upon your life. ‘Ye are blessed o the LORD which made heaven and earth’ (Psalm 115:15).

The price is already paid. No matter what curse you have been struggling against, Jesus has already paid to free you from it.

3. Abundant Life Released (Prosperity)

Now came the crucifixion. After they scourged Him and put on Him the crown of thorns, Jesus was brough to a place called Golgotha and there they crucified Him:

“Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified him, and two others with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.” (John 19:16-18)

In crucifying Jesus, they stretched His hands and nailed them to the cross. His blood flowed freely, with Him bearing excruciating pain. This was the third major point from which Jesus our Lord shed His precious blood.

His Hands Were Pierced

Why did He shed His blood through His hands? Your hands are the symbol of your economic capability and strength. Your hands are used to work and to gather wealth. You receive and give money with your hands. The Bible always talks of ‘the work of your hands’ or ‘that which you set your hands upon to do’ (Deuteronomy 28:8,12).

You handle money with your hands. Your hands have to do with your prosperity. This is why a man who is lazy or idle shall come to poverty; but the diligent shall be made rich. To further confirm that your hands have a lot to do with your economic activities, read what Moses said when speaking to Israel:

“And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee” (Deuteronomy 12:7.) God wants to bless the work of your hands and prosper you abundantly in all that you set out to do. This is made clear in this covenant Scripture given to Israel as well as to all who believe and trust God.

“The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouse and in all that you undertake. And He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you…. The Lord shall open to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.” (Deuteronomy 28:8,12 AMPC).

Prior to the fall, man was living in God’s abundance. All he needed was freely available in the garden. He did not need to sweat in order to eat. Abundance was at his fingertips. As a matter of fact, God provided the garden of abundance before He made man. Eden means abundance, pleasure, paradise, bliss, or delight. At the fall, man was driven out of Eden, from thenceforth to live “out of the sweat” of his face. Prior to the fall, his land yielded super-abundantly. Now, following the fall, the land “shall no longer yield its strength.” (Genesis 3:17-19). Poverty, hardship, insufficiency and debt were direct products of the curse. The land was cursed for man’s sake and his economic capability became greatly diminished. Poverty now replaced abundance.

Poverty became a major consequence off the fall of man but thank God for the blood shed by Jesus. If poverty was a major issue at the fall, and if poverty is a major problem of our world now, then a redemption that does not address poverty is incomplete and inadequate. But when Jesus stretched His hands and allowed the nails to pierce Him, He was paying the price to cancel poverty and release abundance. He opened those same hands that flung stars into space and allowed them to be pierced by cruel nails. He became poor for your sake so that you, through His poverty, may be rich.

“For you are recognizing [more clearly] the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [His astonishing kindness, His generosity, His gracious favour], that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich (abundantly blessed).” (2 Corinthians 8:9 AMP)

Jesus was rich in all ways, but He became poor to identify with our poverty. The result? ‘That ye through his poverty might be rich.’ The Bible is not talking of ‘spiritual poverty’ here as some will want us to believe. Jesus was never at any time spiritually poor. But he tasted physical poverty in order to cancel poverty. The abundant life that Jesus has brought for us includes financial and material prosperity: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

By shedding that precious blood through His hands, Jesus released the covenant blessing of wealth upon your hands – the power to get and create wealth. Jesus paid for it with his precious blood. God is doing that in order to establish His covenant upon the earth: “But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 8:18).

4. Dominion Restored

Next to be pierced were His feet. As they were nailed to the cross, His precious blood flowed freely. Every drop of His blood that was shed was some payment for us. He gave His life blood and redeemed us from the fall with its awful consequences. There is no way we can talk of our redemption and not refer to the fall of man. It was the fall that made redemption necessary. Redemption was to counter and nullify the effects of the fall and unfold God’s eternal plan for blessing mankind.

“And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this. thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise they head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15)

When Jesus was born, Satan incited Herod to kill all male children two years and below. He was searching for the Seed of the woman. In all these, he missed it terribly. God has always been ahead of the adversary!   IT HAPPENED AT CALVARY! At the crucifixion, Jesus, the actual Seed of the woman, allowed his feet to be bruised, thereby fulfilling a prophetic word pronounced four thousand years earlier. And the devil really bruised His heel. The scar is still there to be seen, even right now as Jesus sits on the throne, the scar of God’s eternal love for all mankind. By letting His heel to be bruised, Jesus paid the price and fulfilled that crucial prophecy. It is now certain that Satan’s head had to be crushed in exchange. Indeed, Jesus smashed Satan’s head on the cross. The Bible has this to say about it.

“And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15)

“For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)

You can see that Jesus spoilt all principalities and the powers of darkness. He made a show of them openly. He triumphed over them in absolute victory. Through His death and shed blood, He did not only vanquish but also destroyed the one who had the power of death, that is the devil. He conquered all the powers of darkness and obtained absolute dominion over them. Now, Jesus did not need to conquer the devil and all the powers of darkness for Himself. He had never at any time been under the dominion of the devil. Never! He is God from all eternity. But on the other hand, mankind had been under the dominion of Satan right from the fall. As such, if He was going to liberate us, then He needed to identify with us completely in our state of bondage. And that is why, according to the will of the Father, He submitted Himself in death to the powers of darkness that they might triumph for a short time, in order that He might break our chains of slavery forever and restore dominion to man as it was in the beginning. Howbeit, that was not the end of the story. Jesus allowed His feet to be bruised to make it possible for you to bruise the head of the serpent all your life and walk in dominion on the earth. This actually was the original plan of God for man at creation. (Genesis 1:26-27)

The crown of dominion fell from man’s head at the fall. But Jesus put it right back in place after His death and glorious resurrection. The prince of this world did not understand the wisdom of God, that through His death Jesus was going to get hold of the enemy and free humanity by destroying the yoke of bondage, lifting man back to the position of dominion. That is exactly what happened. This makes Jesus’ prophecy in Luke a legal reality.

“And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:18-19)

Walking upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy is now your birthright – secure with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ feet were bruised in order to put Satan and his hosts under your feet forever. Like the first Adam you can now walk in dominion upon the earth and make the devil kiss the dust. You are to reign in Christ Jesus and enjoy complete victory.

“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17)

This is not to say that the enemy will not fight or resist you, but absolute victory is certain. It was secure for you with the precious blood of Jesus.

5. The Foundation of Life

“Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 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. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe” (John 19:32-35).

The fifth major point from which Jesus shed His precious blood was His side. This was a clear fulfilment of an Old Testament prophecy, given by Zechariah long before Jesus was born. “They shall look on him whom they pierced” (John 19:37; Zechariah 12: 10). The Jewish authorities did not want the body of Jesus and those of the two thieves that were crucified with Him to hang on the cross for too long, because of their preparation for the high Sabbath. So the soldiers came to break their legs so that they might die quickly. (They used their legs to support the body to be able to breath.) They broke the legs of the two thieves, but on getting to Jesus they discovered He was dead already. Hence his bones were not broken, fulfilling another scripture, ‘A bone of him shall not be broken’ (John 19:36; Exodus 12:46).

Then one of the soldiers plunged a spear into Jesus’ side. Doing this he opened up a fountain, and blood and water gushed out. The Bible speaks of this:

“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” (Zechariah 13:1)

That is God’s fountain of life, opened at Emmanuel’s side, for sin and for uncleanness. That is the fountain the entire race of mankind had been waiting for in order to be free from sin and uncleanness. That is God’s fountain of grace. That is God’s fountain of compassion and mercy, forgiveness and cleansing. Now, you can be completely free from sin in all its ramifications. Just one drop of that precious blood and your sins are gone for ever. It does not really matter the magnitude of the sins or the extent of the damage they have done to you. All you need to do is just come to the fountain, wash and be clean, and you are free for ever.