![]() ![]() Often, the people who say they believe this – the prosperity gospel crowd – they don’t really believe it. The idea is that since it is in the past tense, perfect health is God’s promise and provision for every Christian at this very moment, even as the believer has the promise to perfect forgiveness and salvation at this moment. In this thinking, great stress is laid upon the past tense of this phrase – by His stripes we are healed. However, some have taken this to mean that every believer has the right – the promise – to perfect health right now, and if there is any lack of health, it is simply because this promise has not been claimed in faith. It wasn’t as if Jesus had a magic bag of healing power that He drew from and cast about to the needy. This healing work of our Savior cost Jesus something – He took and bore our infirmities and sicknesses. The physical dimension of our healing is partially realized now, but finally only in resurrection. ![]() He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses: The provision for our healing (both physically and spiritually) was made by the sufferings (the stripes) of Jesus. In this, Matthew showed Jesus as the true Messiah in delivering people from the bondage of sin and the effects of a fallen world. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah: Matthew rightly understood this as a partial fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 53, which primarily refers to spiritual healing, but also definitely includes physical healing. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. By the suffering of Jesus, who suffered in our place, we are healed from the “disease” of sin. The context here is pretty clear – Peter understood Isaiah 53:5 as a reference to spiritual healing, healing from sin. …who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. We can safely say that God has both aspects of healing in view, and both our physical and spiritual healing is provided for by the suffering of Jesus. In 1 Peter 2:24-25, the view seems to be of spiritual healing. In Matthew 8:16-17, the view seems to be of physical healing. As this passage is quoted in the New Testament, we see some more of the thought. There has been much debate as to if Isaiah had in mind spiritual healing or physical healing. More so, the prophet announced that provision for healing is found in the suffering of Jesus, so by His stripes we are healed. And by His stripes we are healed: Here, the prophet sees through the centuries to know that the Messiah would be beaten with many stripes (Mark 15:15).
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