What does it mean that "by His stripes we are healed"?

Ans.—This verse plainly says it was “for our transgressions” the Saviour was “wounded,” and “bruised for our iniquities;” thus His “bruise” (margin) is our spiritual healing. There is not one word about bodily ailments in this verse, which speaks of atonement for sin. “Griefs” and “sorrows”—earthly trials—are the subjects of verse 4. “Touched with the feelings of our infirmities,” our sympathizing Lord identified Himself with the afflicted, delivering them from their afflictions during His ministry of love here, as Matt.8:16,17 tells us. But this was not atonement; it was the sympathy of love. Atonement was when “His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet.2:24)—there, on the cross, it was Divine Righteousness that smote our Substitute.

Besides other great and precious objects of this sacrifice, the object here insisted upon is "that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." So it is not only that our sins should be forgiven, but that we should recognize ourselves. in His death, to have died to sins, having left them practically in the grave, cutting off all connection with them, so that not even the cruelest treatment of ungodly men would revive such things again In our hearts. For it is by His stripes we are healed. This is no mere bodily healing, but healing from the dread malady of sin: for the stripes are those of God's judgment poured out upon Him on Calvary.

The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is used by Peter in this paragraph. There it is written: "By His stripes we are healed," and the confession, "all we like sheep have gone astray." Of late the so-called "divine healers," men and women who claim gifts of healings, if not gifts to work miracles, speak of the sentence, "By His stripes we are healed," as meaning the healing of diseases. They claim that Christ died also for our bodily ills and that the stripes laid upon Him were specifically for the healing of our bodies, which Scripture so clearly states are "dead on account of sin." This is a most dangerous perversion of the truth. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, but nowhere is it written that He died for our bodily diseases.

In connection with His suffering for sins Peter quotes part of Isaiah 53 verse 5: ‘by whose stripes ye were healed.' It is important to understand that this does not refer to what men did to the Lord. They ploughed long furrows on his back, scourging him with a bone or metal tipped whip (Psalm 129:3; Matt. 27:26). That was terrible but what Isaiah 53 verse 5 refers to was far more terrible because it describes the judgement that God laid on him because of the sins He was bearing: ‘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.' It should be borne in mind that where the emphasis is upon what Christ suffered from men the issue is always judgement upon men (e.g. Psalm 69). But when the emphasis is upon what He suffered from God for sin and sins the issue is in blessing to men (e.g. Psalm 22). Peter turns the fact that Christ suffered for sins to practical account too. God does not want his children to suffer governmentally because of their sins but ‘that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.'

Moreover, He bore our sins in His own body. He was definitely our Substitute. We had sinned in our bodies, and having become a true Man, apart from sin, He bore our sins in His holy body as a sacrifice for sin. This He accomplished on the tree, for it was exclusively in His death that atonement was effected. He did not bear our sins during His life, but in His death, and we are healed by His stripes as Isaiah 53 had also declared.

Not only did He bear “our griefs” and carry “our sorrows” in His precious sympathy, when the nation considered, contrariwise, that the weight which lay upon Him was because He was “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”—because God was against Him; but faith now sees “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.” In sympathy He bore our griefs: in atonement He bore the punishment due to our sins. Blessed Saviour! “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.” There was no other way; but thanks be to God, we can now say, “by His stripes we are healed.’’ The stripes were His: the healing is ours.

Now here is a remarkable fact: — as printed in our English Bibles, verse 5 is the central verse of this chapter, which really begins with verse 13 of Isaiah 52. It is therefore the central verse of the central chapter of the central section, of this latter part of Isaiah. And without a doubt it predicts truth which is absolutely central to our soul's salvation, and in our soul's experience. The transgressions, the iniquities were mine, each of us has to say, but the wounding, the bruising were not mine but His. The peace, the healing are mine, but the chastisement, the stripes that procured them, were not mine but His. In all this He was my Substitute.

This thought is again emphasised in verse 6, and it is made plain that His substitutionary work was the fruit of an act of Jehovah, for He it was who laid our sins upon Him. In these verses, we must remember, the "we" and the "us" are those who believe, whether ourselves today or the godly remnant of Israel presently. And those who believe are those who have first confessed their sinnership; all going astray like lost sheep, though the way we took may have differed in each case. Sin is lawlessness; the doing of our own will, regardless of God's will, and the going of our own way independently of Him.

The apostle adds a gracious encouragement as the result already achieved by Christ and given to the believer, for which he borrows the language of Isaiah, in the same chapter but a different verse, yet as exclusively descriptive of Christ's expiatory sufferings: "by whose stripes ye were healed." Strange paradox, but no less blessedly true! It is literally the weal or rising left by the lash which many a slave knew well. How comforting to the Christian, slave or not, who rests with assurance, not on the puerile use made of Pilate's unprincipled indignity (whatever general custom might be pleaded in excuse) to the Lord of glory, but to that which God wrought for the ungodly through the ignominious but glorious death of His Son!

(Vv. 24, 25). Moreover, the Christian has another incentive to do right, or “live to righteousness”. Christ has borne our sins in His own body on the tree, not only that we should be justified and saved from the judgment of sins, but that we should live to righteousness. Having been healed by His stripes, can we go on with sin that cost Him so much to remove? Christ having suffered for our wrong-doing, it is to our shame if we suffer for wrong-doing. It is our privilege to be allowed to follow His steps and suffer for well-doing. Only by having Himself before us can we follow His steps; as His sheep, we are only safe as we follow the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.

But Dr. W. boldly asks, "Where is it written that man is free from wrath because God in His Son punished sins against the law, so that He can no longer be justly angry with us because of these?" Did Dr. W. ever read Isaiah 53? was "the curse of the law" not the punishment of sins? did He not suffer, "the Just for the unjust"? was He not forsaken of God? what was the cup He had to drink? was not the chastisement of our peace upon Him? is it not with His stripes we are healed? was it not for our transgressions He was wounded? was it not for sins Christ suffered, "the Just for the unjust"? It is, then, "so written." Did it not please Jehovah to bruise Him? put Him to grief when He was making His soul an offering for sin? To whom? Was He not bearing others' iniquities there? was He not bruised for their iniquities? was it not for the transgression of Jehovah's people He was stricken? Was He not bearing the sins of many there? It is written, and written in both Testaments, that "by his stripes we are healed." Stripes from whom? "It pleased Jehovah to bruise him." Oh, it is sorrowful to think that any one, for a theory, can pass over the deep mystery, but revealed truth, that God was dealing with sins, our sins, in the atoning sufferings of the Son of God, "made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death"! What is hard to conceive is, how Dr. W. could ask where it is written.*