The malady and the remedy

by Charles Spurgeon, "A Simple Remedy"

(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

"He was pierced for our transgressions,
 He was crushed for our iniquities;
 the punishment that brought us peace, was upon Him,
 and by His wounds we are healed!" Isaiah 53:5

Nothing ever delivers a man from the power of sin, like a sight of his suffering Savior.

Then our heart melts with love to Him.

Then hatred of sin takes possession of our soul.

Then the reigning power of evil is destroyed.

Only Christ's wounds can heal us of the love of sin.

Faith in the Crucified One has healed our eyes!
Once we were blind, for when we saw Him, there was no beauty in Him that we should desire Him.
But now, since we have seen His wounds, we see every beauty unite in His adorable person.

If we have put our trust in the sin-atoning sufferings of Jesus—then we know Him to be the most precious of beings. We see Him to be the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely One!

The wounds of Immanuel have also healed our hearts!
We once hid, as it were, our faces from Him. We despised everything about Him.
But now our hearts delight in Him, and we turn our faces towards Him as the flowers look to the sun. We only desire that we could see Him face to face.

His sufferings have also healed our feet—for they were ever prone to evil. "All we like sheep have gone astray; each of us have turned to his own way."
But a sight of His sin-atoning wounds has brought us back to Him. Charmed by His wondrous love for us, which caused Him to suffer in our stead—we now follow the Great Shepherd of our souls, and desire never again to wander from His commands.

From head to foot, His sin-atoning wounds have healed our wounds of sin, and mollified them with His precious ointment. He forgives all our iniquities, He heals all our diseases.

He who once believingly beholds the mystery of Christ suffering for him, shakes off the viper of sin into the fire which consumed the great sacrifice! Wherever the blood of the atonement falls—sin's hand is palsied, its grasp is loosed, its scepter falls, and it vacates the throne of the heart. Then spirit of grace, and truth, and love, and righteousness occupies the royal seat.

"By His wounds, we are healed." This is a universal antidote for sin. There is no disease by which your soul can be afflicted, but an application of the bruises of your Lord, will remove the deadly virus from your soul.

Beloved, if you would be cured of any sin, however ingrained its infection may be—then fly to the wounds of Jesus. This is the only way to be rid of . . .
  the palsy of fear,
  the fever of lust,
  the abscess of remorse,
  or the leprosy of iniquity.
His wounds are the only remedy for our iniquities.