By His stripes, we are healed. This is part of a very well-known verse in the Bible. I am going to share why we are healed by His stripes in two ways. I will also explain why the stripes illustrate both types of healing.

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 53:5 (KJV)

Amazing prophetic verses

The prophet Isaiah tells of what the Messiah would do hundreds of years before it took place. It is part of a larger passage with many details that are shockingly, accurately, prophetic, and unmistakably fulfilled by Jesus. In the 1900s secular Bible scholars dismiss such miraculously prophetic scriptures being prophetic. However, these passages appear word for word in the text of the book of Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls in Israel. These scrolls predate the events.

The most important thing we learn in Isaiah’s prophecies is that Jesus is going to come and make Himself a sacrifice for us. The sacrifice will accomplish more than we can study in this short blog, but it will include two vital things.

Two kinds of healing; the body

There are two outcomes of the fall of Adam. His treasonous disobedience places all mankind in a fallen condition of body and spirit. God warns Adam not to eat of the tree of knowing intimately good and evil, blessing and curses. He would go from only knowing good and blessing, to also immediately knowing evil. This included pain, suffering, and calamity, in all areas of his body’s physical existence.

To redeem man from the fallen state of his body, will require the sacrifice of the body of Jesus. Only this will provide a way to remove our bodily afflictions. The sacrifice of His flesh overcomes every way the devil can kill, steal, and destroy our flesh. This will include physical sickness, disease, oppression, depression, and calamity.

The second kind of healing; the spirit

The second outcome of Adam’s fall is being cut off from acceptance and union with God. This is what it means to die spiritually. Fear and hiding replace walking together in the garden. The price of sin was first physical torment of the body and second, spiritual death.

The second outcome of the death of Jesus was to pay the price for man’s spiritual death. Because Jesus sacrificed his blood mankind can have a rebirth spiritually. We can accept the covenant that the blood of Jesus ratified. When we do, this forgives us of all sin and returns us to complete right standing with Father God.

This is why the body and the blood of Jesus are in communion

Restoring a complete covenant union with God requires a sacrifice for the body and the spirit. For this reason, the Communion meal celebrating this new covenant has two components.

Luke 22:19-20

9 Then He took a loaf [of bread], and when He had given thanks, He broke [it] and gave it to them saying, This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.
20 And in like manner, He took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament or covenant [ratified] in My blood, which is shed (poured out) for you.

The bread represents the body of Jesus. He gives his body to make our bodies whole. Jesus proved that He was the Messiah who would do this by healing all that were sick. None of them had to repent first. They did not have to give up sin first. None of them had to be born again first. No person Jesus lays hands on is already born again.

The blood represents the price for eternal life. Life is in the blood. When Jesus gave his blood, he gave His perfect life to pay for all the sin and unrighteousness. Making Jesus Lord is to accept Him as your covenant maker. You now rely on His perfection rather than your own, as a gift of God making you in right standing.

Why we are healed by His stripes

Most Christians understand that Jesus did save us through His sacrifice. But few understand the significance of his scourging by a roman punishment putting bloody stripes on his back. We will now see how it shows both things his death accomplished.

Part of the damage done by Roman scourging with a whip is severe bruising of the flesh. Embedding barbs in the whip they use increase pain and suffering. They tear open the skin along the line of impact causing immediate bleeding. The lines appear as red stripes.

Bruises and blood together

In the stripes of Jesus, we have the wounding of the flesh with bruises. Also, we see the pouring out of the blood. His stripes show in the same instant both sacrifices, the body bruised, and the blood poured out. We can see in the stripes of Jesus how He meets both our physical and spiritual needs. By His Stripes, we are healed and made whole. 

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash