There are religious traditions of man in the church which teach that God’s will on bodily healing is a mystery and is something our Heavenly Father stingily doles out to those “mysterious” few He “mysteriously chooses to heal”.

This is not God’s truth but the reasonings of man that have reasoned away from the Word in the heart. The Lord clearly reveals in His Word exactly how His Beloved Son, Jesus, healed us:

Jesus Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes (wounds) you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24).

It’s NOT a mystery! Both the root (sin) and fruit of sin (sickness) have been destroyed by Jesus Christ at the Cross through the shedding of His blood for the complete removal and total payment for our sin debts and the striping of His body.

And through that same precious Word, we know the exact means by which our Wonderful Savior received those stripes (wounds):

They will whip (scourge) Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again (Luke 18:33).

Context for Interpretation Success

I. Love. God’s. Word! It answers our every question, and the more of it we plant in our heart and water with more Word, the more we can draw on the Living Water of His Truth.

I often say “context for interpretation success” to convey that looking at His Word in context of all of scripture and for those in Christ with the added context of our New Covenant in Christ and Grace lens is how we successfully understand His Word with dependence upon the Holy Spirit of course.

Let’s look at some additional powerful context. In Mark 5:34 we read…

“And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction [sickness, plague, disease scourging you like a whip, 3148],” (Mark 5:34).

The original Greek word used for affliction is Strong’s Greek, 3148 mástiks and means “properly, a disease that (literally) carried a torturous level of pain (the root is, “a scourge/plague”). “The plague or scourge, was a whip used in flagellations.” Refers to a disease (Mark 3:10, Mark 5:29, 34; Luke 7:21), it emphasizes the oppressive pain (suffering) of this acute disorder – acting like a scourge or whip (“plague”) which is highly painful and debilitating; refers to literal whipping (Acts 23:24; Hebrews 11:36), it stresses its pain and debilitating after-effects. (source biblehub.com)

So we can then say the God Himself inspired the writers of His Word to use the term mástiks to refer to sicknesses, plaguing diseases, etc. as being exactly like one is being scourged, wounded, and striped by a whip!

But glory to God because of Jesus’ substitutionary atonement and finished work, HE HIMSELF took our sicknesses, bore our pains, paid all our sin debts in full, and by HIS stripes, we were healed! Forgiveness and healing/deliverance are part of the atonement.

Surely He has!

“Surely He has borne our [g] griefs [sicknesses] And carried our [h] sorrows [pains]; 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 [not ours, HIS, which he received by a tormenting, scourging in OUR place, taking ALL sicknesses for US that] we are healed,” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Grievously, the evil one has used devices of deception to trick many of God’s own people into severely downplaying what Jesus accomplished for us at the Cross through His scourging, shed blood, death, burial, triumphant resurrection, our spiritual position in Christ who is victoriously seated at the right hand of the Father, and the church’s responsibility to preach Christ, heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead. But it doesn’t have to be YOU too!

When that liar comes, even using “Christians” as his mouthpieces, to speak things that exalt themselves against Christ’s accomplished healing for you, answer that thief with the Word and say, “Healing IS Written! And it is written for me, His beloved child. Thank You, Jesus!”