ATONEMENT AND
HEALING
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we
ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.” Isa. 53:4
The story of the healing ministry of Jesus is a very great
one. There are those who would like to tie the atonement prophesied in Isaiah
improperly to His healing ministry. There are passages in the Bible which help
us to properly link the atonement with the suffering and sorrow of humanity.
Matthew has given us the inspirational secret for the
activity of Jesus as He laid His hands on all that multitude. His quotation was
from Isaiah 53:4. Let us read it as
we find it there:
"Surely He hath
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows."
The Hebrew which is here rendered "griefs" is sicknesses; Surely He hath borne our
sicknesses and carried our sorrows. I would ask you to notice carefully that
saying has nothing of atonement in it. "He
hath borne our sicknesses," that is not atonement "He hath carried our sorrows," that is not atonement. If
you will go on,
"Yet we did
esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted," in spite of the
fact that He bore our sicknesses, bare them sympathetically, carried our sorrows
sympathetically; that is how we esteemed Him. Now, "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;" that is atonement. That is in vs. 5. Atonement is not in vs. 4.
Vs. 4 is the public ministry of
sympathy. He did not atone for sickness. He atoned for sin; and the healing of
the body is not guaranteed in atonement in this life, any more than exemption
from death is guaranteed. Sickness He can heal, and He often does heal today
without any human means; but far more often He heals through means. I have no
quarrel with the man who tells me he is healed by the Lord, providing he does
not say he has been healed by his faith. Divine healing, yes; and there is no
healing that is not Divine. God is able, if that be His will, to heal without
means; but in the great majority of cases He uses means, and - blesses means.
Notice the word Matthew used in quoting Isaiah.
"Himself . . . bare our diseases."
Please remember the word "bare"
there does not mean atonement. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, "He was offered to bear the sins of
many." Peter says, "He bare
our sins," but that is not the same word at all. In these cases an
entirely different word is employed. The word, “bare our sicknesses" is the word that you get when Paul says,
"Bear the
infirmities of the weak," or,
"Bear ye one
another's burdens."
Jesus went forth, "bearing
His Cross." Bearing our sicknesses is the Greek word bastazo, which
means He gets under them with us in love, sympathy, and help. The word "bare;"
in reference to atonement, is anaphera, which means to lift up and
carry away. He did that with sin; He did not do that with sicknesses. Out of
the sympathy of His heart He bare the sicknesses, and He took them away, not by
virtue of His atonement, but by virtue of His infinite compassion and Almighty
power. Then beyond that, came the hour when He got down deeper, to the profound
cause of all suffering and all sorrow, sin; then He bare sin in a new sense. He
did not get under it merely, to carry it with us; He took it upon Himself, and
bore it into the land of eternal forgetfulness and extinction. That is
atonement.
The Atonement.
These verses (Isa. 53:4-6) are the
heart of the prophecy of Isa 53.
They present the atoning work of Jesus Christ and indicate why it is that He
suffered and died.
Christ's
death was misunderstood in its significance (Isa. 53:4-5) - what really happened upon the Cross as God
understood it and planned it was far different from what men thought was going
on at the Cross as they watched.
1). What God knew was happening at the Cross.
a. Jesus was bearing our griefs (diseases-sicknesses). He
had borne the griefs of some people during His public ministry (Matt. 8:17) - at this time the prophecy
of Isa 53:4 was partially fulfilled.
At glorification we shall receive the fullness of this prophecy.
b. He bore the griefs of all believers during His
crucifixion - at this time the prophecy of Isa
53:4 was wholly fulfilled.
Modern faith healers fail to understand that the benefits of
this aspect of the Cross work will not be experienced until the resurrection
and rapture of believers. In the ministry of Jesus physical healing was a
visual aid, a means to attract attention to Himself, so that people would
believe the message concerning Who He was and why He had come (Matt. 9:1-6). Physical healing, as a
sign miracle, is not occurring today.
2). Jesus was carrying our sorrows (Mat 11:28-29).
3). What men thought was happening at the Cross. That Jesus
was being stricken by God much as Uzziah had been stricken with leprosy.
<stricken> "naga"
word in the Hebrew is often used for leprosy. This is what the Israelites
believed to be true of Jesus as He hung on the cross. Stricken as with leprosy
as King Uzziah was stricken with leprosy (2
Chron. 26:18-20). They made accusation to Jesus while on the Cross. "Look, He cannot come down from the
Cross. He is defeated. He is afflicted, stricken of God, He is a leper"
(leprosy was a symbol of God's hatred and curse). They also thought and made
accusation that this was final proof of His wickedness - this was the same
error which Job's 3 friends had made. Good health is not a sign of spiritual
superiority. Some of God's greatest servants are the greatest sufferer's. The
apostle Paul was one of them, Timothy for his oft infirmities and for his
stomach sake. No faith healer for these but just advice to change your diet for
your stomach's sake.
But we know
that it was not nails which held Him there. Love held Him there.
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