Through the prophet Isaiah, our Father God revealed His plan to save His people from eternal death. The Book of Isaiah says that Jesus was wounded for our transgressions. In the New International Version, it says that Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, and it concludes by saying, “by His wounds we are healed.” This is one of the most frequently quoted Bible verses among believers. But what benefit does a believer expect to receive because Jesus was wounded on the Cross two thousand years ago?
Misconception About His Stripes
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5 (KJV)
We all know that the entire 53rd chapter of the Book of Isaiah speaks about the Suffering Servant, and the above verse describes the sufferings of Jesus in remarkable detail while also revealing the reason behind them. Although various English translations and renderings in different languages express this verse differently according to the understanding of believers who lived in different periods and regions with their own local dialects, the final part of the verse has often been interpreted in ways that conveniently satisfy personal expectations.
Irrespective of the meanings conveyed through various translations, many believers primarily focus on the last part of this verse to seek healing from their sicknesses. Furthermore, the Gospel of Matthew quotes the Book of Isaiah in a different manner to emphasize Jesus healing all the sick people who came to Him.
This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”
Matthew 8:17 (NIV)
As a result, many believers expect God to heal them of every illness, holding the conviction that since His Son bore the punishment for their sins, they are equally entitled to physical healing. Some even assert that the wounds Jesus endured on His body symbolize the stripes meant to cover every disease prevalent in this world.
While healing a paralysed man, Jesus asked, “Which is easier: to heal this man or to forgive his sins?” Only God has the authority to forgive sins, and for this purpose He gave His own Son as an atonement for the sins of the world. Although Jesus healed many who were sick, healing was not the primary mission entrusted to Him by the Father. God offered Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of all the people living on this earth.
To save us from eternal death, the consequence of sin, Jesus shed His blood on the cross, for the Scripture says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). However, to heal sicknesses, God did not need to offer His Son as a sacrifice, because He is able to heal any disease by His power alone, without requiring atonement or sacrifice. In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself as the Healer and explained the way His healing works.
He said, “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”
Exodus 15:26 (NIV)
We often associate sickness only with the devil, yet God clearly reveals that He both sends and removes sickness. In the case of the Egyptians, because they refused to hear and obey Him, He allowed sickness among them so that they might repent and turn back to Him, but they still did not come to Him. The lesson for us is that if we learn His statutes and walk in obedience, we need not wait until a sickbed experience to repent and follow God.
At the same time, a life free from sickness is not necessarily a sign of righteousness, nor is a life with sickness a sign of unrighteousness. Even those who have been made righteous through Jesus may go through sickness as they approach the end of this mortal life and enter into eternal life. This shows that sickness may bring our earthly journey to an end, but it is not a barrier to entering God’s Kingdom. Sin alone is the barrier that prevents a person from entering His Kingdom and receiving the fullness of eternal life. For this reason God gave us a provision to get rid of our sins.
Our Sins Are Forgiven
Isaiah Chapter 53 begins with an intriguing question, which may divert us from mistaking His wounds for the healing of our physical sickness.
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Isaiah 53:1 (NIV)
The Father, son and the Holy Spirit are asking us a question about whether message that they have given to us. The message is nothing but about the forgiveness of our sins. By atoning for our sins, God completely forgave our sins. As the forgiven children of God, Jesus has become our Way to His Father, and the Son has reconciled us with His Father by obeying His Father until His death on the cross. Though our sins are forgiven, we are led to forget that unimaginable gift of God because of the rhetorical religious pattern of absolving the sins of the believers through various rituals.
Further more, a believer is unable to yield the fruits of the Holy Spirit, as he often forgets the truth that his sins were forgiven. In every moments of challenge, a believer is forced to focus on his sins which are truly forgiven by God, but to do something to get rid of them by using the methods of the religious system, as if God has done nothing to cleanse the people from their sins. If we are confident enough that we have been forgiven of our sins, then religion and its rituals cannot blind us to the fact that our sins are forgiven, and we will be able to yield the fruits of the Holy Spirit without putting any special effort.
While we focus on using the wounds of Jesus only for physical healing, we often forget that our sins have been forgiven, and as a result, we fail to bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the letter to the Galatians. Peter, drawing from his practical spiritual experience, presented the growth of these virtues in an ascending order, leading believers step by step toward being filled with the love of God. In the end, Peter concluded that those who are unable to walk in this path toward God’s love are those who have forgotten that they have been cleansed from their sins (2 Peter 1:9).
Optimum Utilisation Of Jesus’ Wounds
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)
To correct the misunderstanding of using the wounds of Jesus merely for the healing of physical sickness, Peter clearly explains that Jesus bore our sins on the cross. Because God is holy and we are sinners, sin separated us from fellowship with Him. In our sinful condition, we stood condemned before the consuming fire of His holiness. The Old Testament itself contains examples of God’s holy fire consuming those who acted wrongly before Him.
God knew that our own righteousness was like filthy rags, and therefore He chose to share His righteousness with us by placing our sins upon His Son. Through this peculiar exchange, the Bible declares that we have become righteous because of the righteousness of Jesus. The entire work of redemption, therefore, is centered on saving our souls from eternal death.
Although God has done everything necessary for our salvation, holiness is not an automatic process in which we remain passive. We are called to respond to the atonement that our Father has provided through His Son. To give us a clear understanding of healing form sin, Peter is reiterating the meaning of Jesus’ baptism, which Paul also explained in his letter to the Colossians:
“having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead”
— Colossians 2:12 (NIV)
Isaiah 53:5 carries a prophetic message pointing to the resurrection of Jesus, as it speaks about the marks of the wounds in His resurrected body. We know that when Jesus entered the closed room where the disciples were hiding, they recognized Him by seeing His wounds. In the same way, the risen Lord Jesus is near to each one of us, but the real question is whether we remain close to Him.
If we walk closely with Jesus, we are given the privilege of dying to our sins and rising with Him into a righteous life. In that journey, we begin to understand the meaning of His wounds, which have healed the consequences of our sin.
Understanding this truth clearly, let us not continue to misuse this powerful living Word.
The Jordan Valley 
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