His Ways Are Higher—Isaiah 53:1-12

Russ Ramsey

When we thought we were healthy, He took up our infirmities. When we thought we were righteous, our iniquity was laid upon Him. When we thought our own righteousness would save us, by His wounds we were healed. When we thought we were safely “in the fold,” never transgressing God, He was counted among the transgressors. He bore the sins of many. He makes intersession for the transgressors.

His thoughts are not our thoughts. This is more than a comparison of intellect. His thoughts transcend time and space—and His eye pierces through all the veils, known and unknown, we throw up around our hearts.

His ways are not our ways. This is more than a comparison of ethics. His righteousness is complete and unlimited—and His holiness shines through all the blindness, intentional and accidental, we fumble around in as we walk.

His thoughts conceive what we need—this man of sorrows on whom our iniquity would be laid. His ways bring about what we need—a tender shoot with no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him. And yet by the score we are attracted, but by what? Our way is to be drawn to what is beautiful, majestic, strong. But we are none of these things until we are made these things. Our thought is to be saved through changing our minds. But “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him…” (1 Cor 2:9)