Healing
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The word healing carries such hope and encouragement to us all. Our relationship with God was broken and separated by sin. But God, who is rich in mercy, sought to heal our severed relationship through an act of His love: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (Jn. 3:16).
His perfect sacrifice would make a way for us to have reconciliation—healing—with God. He paid the sacrifice we owed Him for our disobedience to Him. Our faith in what He did on our behalf completes His plan for reconciliation.
Recently I ministered a message entitled, “His Ours, Are Ours.” I ministered using Isaiah 53:3-5:
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken; smitten of God, and afflicted. 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.”
THE SACRIFICE
Jesus was placed on the Cross at 9 a.m. during the time the priests made the morning sacrifice. He gave his life at 3 p.m. during the time of the evening sacrifice. He hung on the Cross six hours. One day, while reading the verses from Isaiah 53:3-5, it hit me that there are six “ours” mentioned in this passage. As our substitute, He became ours! Next time you think of Jesus, you will think of Him as our Saviour! Let’s look more closely at the “ours” it took our Lord to vicariously save us from our sins, and heal us.
Isaiah 53:3 says, “We hid as it were our faces from Him.” The type of savior Israel was expecting was not what Jesus represented. The religious leaders sought a mighty military type leader who would help them overthrow the yoke of Roman bondage. The religious leaders sought to control their own lives, and those of their tradition. Neither today do men seek the Man from Galilee for deliverance of sin, but instead, seek Him for only what He can give them; similar to the many who followed Him during His earthly ministry (Jn. 6:26).
On the Cross, Jesus would utter the words from Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? why art thou so far from helping Me, and from the words of My roaring.” In this “our,” He became rejection for us. Because of sin God could not dwell with us. Jesus Christ became the sin bearer—the one who took the penalty for sin—so that we may become acceptable to God:
“According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His grace, wherein He made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:4-7).
PHYSICAL HEALING
The next “our” in the phrase, “He hath borne our griefs,” speaks of physical healing. When sin came into the world, it greatly compromised the human body. Slowly but surely the life span of humanity shrank. Sickness, disease, and malady imposed its dominion on the physical body in place of health and well-being. The fall affected the entire creation of God.
Paul would sum it up this way: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body” (Rom. 8:22-23).
In this “our,” Jesus Christ paid for our physical healing. It is part of the covenant that He established in Himself by His death at the Cross. During our lifetime, we experience colds and flus, but our immune systems usually fight off most of these illnesses. As we get older, or have weak immune systems, our bodies cannot overcome these illnesses. Modern medicine does have some healing virtues and has made it possible to help our bodies overcome some types of illnesses and maladies. Unfortunately, it does not stop the last enemy, death. The promise of healing extends to all of us who believe; even if it means that we receive our complete healing after we pass away. Our physical bodies are tabernacles that we live in while on earth. The apostle Paul would say they are “dissolving.” Moreover, I believe it is proper and right for us to ask the Lord to heal us.
LAW AND GRACE
The first recording of healing is found in Genesis, Chapter 20, where Abraham prayed for Abimelech. God would make a covenant with His people to heal them and remove sickness from them if they obeyed His word (Ex. 15:26, 23:25). Under the law, healing was promised with obedience.
The same holds true in the new covenant, but it was based on Christ’s obedience for us. In the gospel of Matthew, he testifies of Jesus healing all who were sick:“That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matt 8:17).
Jesus commissioned His disciples to go and, “heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease” (Matt. 10:1).
In the next few months, we will journey through the Bible together and explain all aspects of healing. Our need for physical healing is important, but the necessity for spiritual healing is essential. We must endeavor to seek the lost and lead them to Christ Jesus where they can be healed. We will also look at the healing of nations. God has the way for us to experience healing in every capacity of our life.
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