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With His Stripes We Are Healed
(Isa. 53: 5).
pp. 199, 200
With the New Testament in our hands, we do not need to attend faith-healing
campaigns to believe that countless thousands were miraculously healed during the
earthly ministry of the Saviour, at Pentecost and through the years covered by the Acts of
the Apostles, alike by Peter and by Paul and in such churches as those that were of the
same type as set forth in the first epistle to the Corinthians. Those sent forth to preach the
near approach of the kingdom were commissioned to:
"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers raise the dead, cast out devils" (Matt. 10: 8).
The Ascended Christ is seen, in Mark 16: 15-20 "confirming the word with signs
following"; "they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover".
We often read accounts of healing ministry, and we do not doubt that in some cases
the restoration to health has been genuine, but what we are asking is:
"Do these cures, even if they are indeed genuine, do they fulfil the words of Isa. 53: 5
and I Pet. 2: 24?
`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' (Isa. 53: 5).
`Who His Own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to
sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes ye were healed' (I Pet. 2: 24)."
It will be observed that both Isaiah and Peter place "healing" in the same relationship
to the Cross as our sins. Peter says "Ye were healed", and this raises a question of the
first magnitude. Before ventilating this question, let us notice Peter's own explanation of
a healing miracle. When the Apostle was questioned by the religious leaders of his day
concerning the healing of the man who had been lame from birth, he said:
"If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what
means he is made whole, Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom ye crucified, Whom God raised from the
dead doth this man stand here before you healed . . . . . neither is there THE
SALVATION in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among
man, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4: 9-12).
The word "whole" in verse 9 is a translation of the Greek verb sozo, the word
"salvation" in verse 12 is the Greek noun soteria, and the words "be saved" in this verse
is once again the Greek verb sozo. In addition, the article "the" must be employed, "the