Video link at the bottom of the page
1. Introduction
Healing is in the atonement through the death of Jesus. Knowing this is essential to our victory in overcoming sickness in our lives. Understanding that our diseases healed is as much a part of the atonement as having your sins forgiven will strengthen our faith that we might heal the sick and raise the dead. But if we think of healing as an ‘add-on’ blessing or promise, this may limit our faith to just hoping for His mercy. Because healing is in Jesus’ atonement, it is as sure as our forgiveness of sins.
2. Jesus and Healing in the Atonement
Jesus quotes and translates the passage in Isaiah 53, showing that His atoning work includes healing.
His death on the cross has atoned for our sins, and it also says it was for our sicknesses.
His whipping brought healing to our bodies.
Surely He has borne our griefs
Isaiah 53:4-5
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
3. Healing is in the Atonement; it is More than a Promise.
A. Some people teach healing is just a promise. However, It is so much more than that.
Because it is more than just a promise, we need to understand that we can have 100% confidence in His healing. Therefore, we can be as confident about His healing as we are about His forgiveness.
B. Jesus showed that healing is in the atonement;
When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
Matthew 8:16-17
“He Himself took our infirmities
And bore our sicknesses.”
Jesus atoning death saves us from our sicknesses:
And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
James 5:15
C. Jesus is quoting Isaiah 53 and making it very clear that He, as the sacrifice, was bearing our sins and our sicknesses.
Surely He has borne our griefs
Isaiah 53:4-5
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
4. Jesus ‘As the Lamb of God’ Took Our Sins and Sicknesses on the Cross
Peter again uses the word – ‘bore’ the sins away, yet still brings healing into the atoning work.
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
1 Peter 2:24
5. About the Old Covenant
Isaiah, Matthew, and Peter refer to the Day of Atonement which occurred once a year under the Old Covenant.
A. Jesus’ death means it only occurs once.
Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.
Leviticus 16:21-22
The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
B. We are confident that God forgives our sins– and because healing is in the atonement, we can be just as confident that God also heals our diseases.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
Psalms 103:2
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
There is further teaching on God our healer, Yahweh Rapha, in OT names for Yahweh.
© Use by Permission Awakening Impact Ministries/ Dr Neville Westerbeek van Eerten 2024
