Blot out my transgressions, Wash me from my iniquity...

by Elizabeth Stewart

Sometimes I get so frustrated with myself and the "sins that so easily ensnares me" as the King James version Bible puts it.  I'm walking through life and doing pretty well, and then that familiar sin struggle with criticalness and faultfinding trips me up. I hate it. I want freedom from it. Praise God, that He has made a way for me to be free.

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 

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.

6 

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6 NKJV

Jesus was wounded for my transgressions. Transgressions are the fruit of the root of iniquity. They are the symptom. Iniquity is the cause. Transgression is when I willfully act out my iniquity. For example, when I speak out my critical and faultfinding thoughts. Oh, how I need the tender mercy and lovingkindness of God to work on my behalf to blot out my transgressions! Praise God, that Jesus was wounded for me on the cross for that very purpose!

However, I need more that just forgiveness for my transgressions. I need God to deal with the root cause, the iniquity that I struggle with. Iniquity is the bend in my nature and personality caused by sin. From Adam and Eve on, we all struggle with this. We struggle with sin tendencies handed down to us from our ancestors. We struggle with brokenness and bends in our inner being caused by the hurts and struggles we have all experienced. These iniquitous bends are the seedbed where sins germinate. 

We lived for several years in an area where grass seed is grown. Each year, after the farmers harvest the seed, they have to burn the fields to rid them of any infestations of harmful weeds that will contaminate the future crop of grass seed.  Similarly, we all need more than just forgiveness for the sins we commit, we need a solution for the contamination that is growing the sin-a cure for the iniquity. 

A bruise is caused by a blow to the body which breaks the blood vessels near the skin's surface, causing a black and blue mark. The harder the blows, the larger the bruises. Our iniquitous bends can often be contributed to by the blows we have suffered in our childhood. Jesus' cure for our iniquitous bends was to take all of the blows we have experienced in His own body on the cross. Our Savior was bruised beyond recognition so that we no longer have to be ruled by the things that have bruised and bent us. He was broken and bruised so that we can be healed and set free. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. He suffered so that we could have peace within and by His stripes we are healed. Thanks be to God!

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