April 3 | Evening

8 April 3rd, evening.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of

us all.

Isaiah chapter 53, verse 6.

Here a confession of sin is shared by all the elect people of God.

They have all fallen, and therefore in one voice, from the first who entered heaven to

the last who shall arrive, they all say, all we like sheep have gone astray.

This confession is not only unanimous, it is also special and particular.

We have turned everyone to his own way.

All are sinful, but each individual faces his or her own peculiar sinfulness, which

is not found in someone else.

It is the mark of genuine repentance that while it naturally associates itself with other

penitents, it also takes up a position of loneliness.

We have turned everyone to his own way, is a confession that each individual had sinned

against light peculiar to himself, or sinned with an aggravation that he cannot perceive

in others.

This confession is unreserved.

There is not a word to detract from its force, nor a syllable by a way of excuse.

This confession bids farewell to every plea of self-justification.

It is the declaration of those who are consciously guilty.

Guilty with aggravations, guilty without excuse, they stand with their weapons of rebellion,

broken in pieces and cry, all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way.

Yet, we hear no mournful whalings attending this confession of sin, for the next sentence

makes it almost a song.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

It is the most grievous sentence of the three, but it overflows with comfort.

How strange that where misery was concentrated, mercy reigned.

Where sorrow reached her climax, weary souls find rest.

The Saviour bruised is the healing of bruised hearts.

Consider how the humble confession gives way to assured confidence by simply gazing at

Christ on the cross.

This has been mourning an evening, a production of Crossway.