About healing

Isaiah 53:1-5

Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But 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.

Healing is a Part of Christ’s Atonement

Due to mankind’s sin, which brought separation from God’s fellowship, God sent Jesus to endure the sufferings and the brutal execution on the cross, "in our place," as our substitute, so that all mankind could have a "bridge" back to the fellowship and benefits of God. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21).

Jesus not only purchased the salvation of our soul, but His sufferings also secured our physical healing. In fact, the word "salvation" so frequently used in the New Testament, comes from the Greek, SOTERIA, which means "wholeness and healing, both in the physical and spiritual."

Years before Jesus came to the earth, the prophet Isaiah described the sufferings of the Savior and their reason. He wrote, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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" (Isaiah 53:4-5).

The stripes mentioned by Isaiah were the awful lashings upon Jesus’ back by the Roman whips. Thirty nine stripes were the traditional punishment for a condemned prisoner. According to the scripture, these stripes upon Christ were in behalf of our healing (1 Peter 2:24). Coincidentally, several years ago a well-known physician claimed to have discovered that all the world’s diseases could be traced to thirty nine root sources. A coincident? Not hardly. Jesus bore a stripe for every disease known to mankind.