Not Just "For" But "Because" of Us!

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised and we did not esteem Him.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us have turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgressions of my people,
to whom the stroke was due?
His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself unto death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.

Do we reckon the work of Christ as merely something He wanted to do "for" us? To better understand/appreciate the work of Christ we must come to realize that Jesus came to earth in the incarnation, lived a perfect life, was crucified in innocence, and raised up on the third day not just "for" us but "because" of us! If we (all of humanity) had no griefs to bear, sorrows to carry, transgressions to be paid for, and no iniquities to to be crushed then there would not have been a reason for Christ to come. If we were able to keep the Law of God there would have been no need of a sacrifice, but "because" we all fall short of the glory of God, Christ came to take our place on the judgment seat of God. He became the perfect sacrifice that God required. We could never meet God's standard (that is the whole purpose of the Law - Gal. 3:24). Christ had to come not just to hang out with us here on earth and see what the food was like, but because we are fallen and and unable to please God. It is "because" of us that Jesus gave His life as a ransom for many.