Easter 2017
Isaiah 53:3-9 (NLT)
3 He was despised and rejected — a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down.
And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins!
5 But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet He never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, He did not open His mouth.
8 Unjustly condemned, He was led away.
No one cared that He died without descendants, that His life was cut short in midstream.
But He was struck down for the rebellion of My people.
9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone.
But He was buried like a criminal; He was put in a rich man’s grave.
1 Peter 2:24 (NLT)
24 He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.
By His wounds you are healed.
Romans 6:4-11 (NLT)
4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
5 Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as He was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and He will never die again. Death no longer has any power over Him. 10 When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.