A Firmly Established Fact

If I were to say ... "healing is no longer a promise" ... would you believe it?  I read these exact words today in a book written by a Christian pastor. 

Well, that statement is a little misleading.  I only gave you the first half of his sentence.  Here's the whole thing as he wrote it.

"Healing is no longer a promise ... it's a firmly established fact."   

Chapter 53 in the book of Isaiah is a prophetic look at the coming Jewish Messiah.    Isaiah paints a not too flattering picture of the Messiah that we now know fits Jesus exactly and what He would suffer as the lamb of God.  As Christians, we believe Jesus was the Messiah, but the Jews rejected Him because He didn't deliver them from Roman rule or set up His kingdom.

Isaiah starts this chapter off by saying ... "Who hath believed our report?"  The report Isaiah is talking about is in the preceding chapter where he says that Jerusalem is going to rise up out of the dust and the whole earth will see the salvation of the Lord.  That last part will also become an established fact someday.

The problem was that Israel as a whole did not believe the first report the angel gave the shepherds the night Jesus was born, nor did they believe His own words even with all of the miracles of healing He performed for them thirty years later.

The prophet Isaiah's description of the coming Messiah, described Jesus in perfect detail, 700 years before His birth, including all He suffered as though he had been there observing Jesus when He was ... "brought as a lamb to the slaughter."

It is as if Isaiah actually saw Jesus the man.  He says there was nothing special looking about Him ... "He hath no form (special appearance) nor comeliness (magnificence) and when we see Him, there is ... no beauty that we should desire Him."

As he writes, Isaiah places himself with the rest of his people ... "He is despised and rejected of men ... and we hid our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed (valued and regarded) Him not."

This cannot be describing the one all of Israel was waiting on ... their conquering Messiah.  That's why they rejected Him.  But it describes Jesus, the son of God who Isaiah says ... "hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."

Jesus ... "hath borne (lifted) and carried our griefs and sorrows" ... both of which mean, the pain of sickness and disease.

Isaiah writes that it ... "pleased the LORD to bruise Him ... and make His soul an offering for sin."

God was not pleased or happy that Jesus was made to suffer and die for sin.  Being "pleased" means that God was "inclined" to do something to fix the sin and sickness problem man had.  It means God was "willing or disposed toward an action" that would sacrifice His own Son.  There was no other way.
 
"Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him ..."

And then we come to the main point of this study ... "with His stripes we are healed."

If healing is not the will of God for us, then what does ... "with His stripes we are healed" mean?  Why did God place sickness and disease upon Jesus as He hung on the cross the same way He did with the sin of the world?  Jesus bore the sin and disease of the world, for us ... in place of us.

The Apostle Peter wrote in his first letter speaking of Jesus ... "by whose stripes ye were healed."  

"Healing is no longer a promise ... it's a firmly established fact."

All through the Gospels, we find Jesus doing the "will" of God.  So what did He do more than anything else?  Jesus healed people.  

When the Apostle John in 3rd John 2 said ... "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth" ... it wasn't just John saying that; it was the Holy Spirit speaking through him.

In Young's Literal Translation of John 14:12, Jesus is saying ... "He who is believing in Me, the works that I do; that one shall also do ..."

Should we consider healing as part of the works that Jesus did?  If so ... then is not Jesus saying He expects believers to also have healing as part of their works? 

Unless I'm mistaken, isn't one of the nine ministry gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the church in 1st Corinthians 12:9 ... gifts of healing?

Just as the Lord's Prayer is an example of how we are to pray to God the Father ... so likewise the Apostle James gives the church the steps to be taken when we pray for the sick.  These are not rules to follow, but rather inspired guidelines.

James 5:14-16 ... "Is any sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

If healing wasn't purchased for us on the cross, why are we told to pray for the sick?  Why did James say ... the Lord shall raise him up.

Healing is no longer a promise ... it's a firmly established fact.