Our Nature in Christ: Healed
"But he [Jesus] was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his stripes we are healed," (Isaiah 53:5, New International Version)
(For starters, let me begin by saying that this first paragraph is a little [very] graphic and made me squirm)
"These 'stripes' (or wounds) were administered by whipping the bare backs of prisoners whose hands and feet were bound, rendering them helpless. The phrase 'by His stripes we are healed' refers to the punishment Jesus Christ suffered—floggings and beatings with fists. Whips made of braided leather with pottery shards and sharp stones affixed to the ends tore the flesh open with each whip. When we picture this terrible, inhumane form of physical punishment we recoil in horror. Yet the physical pain and agony were not all Jesus suffered. He also had to undergo the mental anguish brought on by the wrath of His Father, who punished Him for the sinfulness of mankind—sin carried out in spite of God’s repeated warnings, sin that Jesus willingly took upon Himself." (GotQuestions.com)
Can I be honest? I am a very visual person so picturing Jesus in these beatings definitely made me uneasy. However, it also made me think of His love for me. I love the author's point that Jesus had to "undergo the mental anguish brought on by the wrath of His Father." The first time that I read that, I literally had no idea what that meant. I was praying and trying to figure out how God measured sin in physicality? Then, the Holy Spirit revealed that He took on the fullness of shame, guilt, and condemnation.
Let's be real for a second here. The shame, guilt, and condemnation from disobeying God for myself can be bad, and has even proven to be crippling from time to time in my life. In the past, I've had panic attacks from being so overwhelmed. I cannot even BEGIN to imagine what it is like to take on the shame, guilt, and condemnation of EVERY, SINGLE person in the name of love.
Just take a moment to take that in.
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"Some have taken this [verse] to mean that every believer has the right - the promise - to perfect health right now, and if there is any lack of health, it is simply because this promise has not been claimed in faith. In this thinking, great stress is laid upon the past tense of this phrase - by His stripes we are healed. We can say that God's promise is perfect, total, complete healing, but we must also say that is is not promised to every believer right now, just as the totality of salvation isn't promised right now. The Bible says that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8), we are being saved (1 Corinthians 1:18), and we will be saved (1 Corinthians 3:15). We have been healed, we are being healed, and we will one day be healed. God's ultimate healing is called 'resurrection,' and it is a glorious promise to every believer. Every 'patch-up' healing in this present age simply anticipates the ultimate healing that will come.
What Christians must not do is foolishly 'claim' to be healed, despite 'mere symptoms' that say otherwise, and believe they are standing on the promise of Isaiah 53:5. What Christians must do is pray boldly and trust God's goodness and mercy in granting gifts of healing now, even before the ultimate healing of resurrection" (Guzik).
I LOVE this latter section!!! Haha! I have struggled with everything that the last two paragraphs refer to. Today, I even asked Holy Spirit, "Uhhh, are we sure that Christians can't claim healing despite symptoms? I think it's faith!" But I love the rest of this article and this quote from Charles Spurgeon, "'With his stripes we are healed.' Will you notice that fact? The healing of a sinner does not lie in himself, nor in what he is, nor in what he feels, nor in what he does, nor in what he vows, nor in what he promises. It is not in himself at all; but there, at Gabbatha, where the pavement is stained with the blood of the Son of God, and there, at Golgotha, where the place of a skull beholds the agonies of Christ. It is in his stripes that the healing lies. I beseech thee, do not scourge thyself: 'With his stripes we are healed' (Spurgeon)."
I love the humility of this.
Resources
https://www.gotquestions.org/by-His-stripes-healed.html & https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/archives/guzik_david/StudyGuide_Isa/Isa_53.cfm