Day 15: We are healed
Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
If we look throughout the Bible we will see that God can and does heal. Take Jesus’ miracles as an example, or note that right back in the book of Exodus we read that one of the names of God is Jehovah Rapha (the Lord who heals).
Today I want to take us into the book of Isaiah, to one of the most significant verses in the Old Testament, to further understand more how healing works and how the promise of healing can be realised in our lives.
The book of Isaiah is a long prophetic book, and is challenging to understand throughout so don’t be put off if you struggle with it at first. Within these 66 chapters, and almost 1300 verses we can find four songs known as the Servant Songs. Each of these songs are prophetic insights into the Messiah the one who Israel was hoping for, to come and make things right again in the world. As Christians we know that it is Jesus, who fulfilled this hope! Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is the fourth and final of these songs and concerns the suffering of Jesus, his death and his resurrection.
The verses included above begin to describe Jesus and how he was pierced for our transgressions. This means Jesus’ death paid the price for the sins of humanity, thus bringing us peace with God. As Christians we are familiar with the idea that Jesus died on the cross for our sins as it is central to our salvation. Having said this, there is so much more to the cross!
Through the cross, Jesus also overcame the power of death and won our healing. This is what we call healing in the atonement. The passage says that by the wounds of Jesus, we are healed.
What I conclude from this passage is that we can and should pray for, and proclaim healing over the sick, knowing that the power for healing is available to us in the cross. When we pray, we should believe with confidence, and with expectation that we will see God move.
Having said this, at times our experiences can sometimes seem painfully at odds with the truth of this promise. Sometimes we pray and the healing happens, other times we pray and the healing doesn’t happen in the way we hope.
When I struggle to understand this, I try to take a step back and remind myself that God often works on a different timescale to me. Whereas I live in the moment and are concerned with the here and now, God is in the past, present and future all at the same time. It’s not that He doesn’t care about the now, but He does look at things from a broader perspective than we do. So whilst we don’t always see healing in the moment, we can be confident that each of us will be fully healed, as we go onto eternal life in heaven.
Revelation 21:4 gives us this assurance:
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'”
In conclusion, this is a powerful promise that we can stand on, but it is a promise that requires our whole trust in God.
Prayer
Jesus we thank you for the cross, and that in dying on the cross you saved us from our sins, you gave us eternal life, and you won our healing. We chose to stand on that promise and trust in you today.
Ps Dan Hoyle
Campus Pastor, Bishop Auckland