Healing for Body and Soul: Christ Carries Our Sicknesses

Have you ever wondered why God heals some people but not others? Is physical healing provided for by Jesus’ blood as a promise to the Christian? Or are the healings of the Bible just meant to illustrate the spiritual healing that comes to us through faith in Christ?

Many believers, myself included, contend that the work of Christ was prophesied by Isaiah to provide a promise of both forgiveness of sins and healing of sickness. Isaiah 53:5 says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

This prophecy is only one verse of a larger prophecy, known as the Song of the Suffering Servant. This is then a part of a larger collection of monologues known as the Servant Songs, found scattered throughout Isaiah 42-53. The rest of these songs are clearly about the nation of Israel. However, early followers of Christ understood this passage in chapter 53 to be about him.¹

The healing mentioned here is for the entire man, for both soul and body. Yet, some would disagree.

We will be continuing our journey through the story of Jesus here, and our text will help us get to the truth of the matter. But before we get there, I would like to examine the claims of those who find fault with the physical healing interpretation.

Healing for the Soul

In his first letter to the Church, the Apostle Peter encourages believers to endure suffering by following Christ’s example. He speaks of what Jesus did for us in dying on the cross: “‭He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:22-25).

This is what we call a cross reference. Peter is alluding to, almost quoting, parts of Isaiah 53 to explain what Jesus did for his people and why we should also endure suffering when we are persecuted for doing good.

Many Christians argue that this use by Peter informs how we should universally understand this prophecy. Clearly, this is referring to the forgiveness of sins and the healing of the soul. I don’t disagree with that. But we have to remember that Peter used this Scripture specifically to encourage certain believers to endure persecution.

This is often eisegeted using an argument from silence to say that Peter’s view excludes physical healing. We call this a logical fallacy. In other words, because he only mentions spiritual applications, that must mean there are no physical applications. But Peter doesn’t tell us one way or the other. He only makes it very clear that we do have spiritual healing through the sufferings of Christ.

Matthew Gets Physical

When we look at the whole New Testament, we get a fuller picture of how we should view Isaiah’s prophecy.

As Jesus wrapped up his display of authority in the Capernaum synagogue, which we discuss in another post, Mark tells us that “immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John” (Mark 1:29). While visiting with his first disciples, they informed him that Simon Peter’s mother-in-law was ill with a fever. Jesus effortlessly grabbed her hand and healed her. She was better so fast that she got up and started serving them.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell this story. They describe how that same evening, multitudes of people who were sick or afflicted by demons came to Jesus to be healed. Mark and Luke emphasize Jesus’ authority over demons in their versions, further substantiating their larger narrative about Jesus following the events in the synagogue.

However, Matthew approaches it from a different angle. Matthew says, “he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases'” (Matthew 8:16-17).

Check out Divine Healing by Andrew Murray!

This prophecy is from Isaiah 53. And Matthew makes it clear that he views Jesus’ healing of physical infirmities and demon possession as a fulfillment of it.

Healing According to the Apostles

Are we to pit Matthew and Peter against each other? Should we ignore one in favor of the other? Of course not! It would be ludicrous to say that because Matthew applies Isaiah 53 to physical healing, there is no spiritual healing to receive. Likewise, it is just as ludicrous for those believers who use Peter’s interpretation to disregard Matthew’s!

Jesus’ brother James would agree with that. He comments on the relationship between sin, sickness, and the promise of God in chapter 5 of his epistle. He says, “Is anyone among you sick? 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 will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:14-16). James ties together these ideas of sin and sickness.

Now, that isn’t to that we are always sick because of a specific sin we commit. It is, however, to say that the consensus of the apostolic message is that sickness and sin are both dealt with by putting our faith in the work of Christ. Confessing sin in faith brings healing of that sin. Prayer in faith brings healing of disease.

“But the Healing Didn’t Come”

Those who hold the spiritual-only perspective will often contend that they or others have prayed for healing and never recovered from a disease.

To that I say, join the club.

As I write this, I suffer from hypertension, a protruding L4/L5 disc in my spine, as well as plantar fasciitis in my right foot. My back and foot have occasional flare-ups that are quite miserable to endure. Additionally, my wife has all kinds of injuries from accidents over the years, which have never fully recovered. She is even recovering from an ankle sprain and a broken metatarsal bone in her foot.

I write these things to say clearly that I still believe healing is provided for in Christ’s atonement. He died for our bodies just as much as for our souls. My experience of life does not change that. And I refuse to let my experience interpret Scripture for me.

Receiving Healing

There are plenty of books written on this subject, so I do not have a comprehensive dissertation here on how to receive healing. However, a post on this subject would not be complete without a little bit of practical application. So here are a few principles to follow if we want to see God’s healing power at work in our lives and the lives of others.

1. Believe God

When God’s Word makes promises, we can stand on those promises. If Jesus truly took our illnesses upon himself and we are healed by his wounds, then believe that is true before you ever see it happen. Just as forgiveness before God is attained by faith, so is healing, according to James 5:15.

2. Don’t Give Up

Jesus tells his disciples a parable in Luke 18:1-8 about a widow who persisted in asking a careless judge for justice in her situation. Ultimately, even the unjust judge, who had no sympathy for her, eventually gave in to her request because of her persistence in asking. Jesus encouraged this group of followers to “always pray and not lose heart.” God, who is the most just of all judges, will give us our justice if we are persistent as the widow.

It is his will to heal us. It is his plan to restore us. Physical healing is a part of “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). So we ought to press into that prayer and seek for his healing to be revealed here on earth.

3. Don’t Blame God

What if someone we love dies? Did God fail to keep his promise? By no means!

The Scripture says that God put all things under the feet of his Son Jesus. “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Hebrews 2:8). Christ is sovereign as King over all things, yet he is not fully in control. Not everything that takes place is his will.

People still die too soon. Some still reject Christ. Others still harm each other. And Jesus does not yet fully undo all the evils of our dark world. He does, however, guarantee us a world to come. This will be a glorious world, full of life and absent of death. Full of joy and absent of sorrow.

I will not create a doctrine that blames sickness and death on the one who came to save us from sickness and death. The Scripture shows us that God provides his people healing in this life. Yet it also promises that we will all one day die and be judged. This tension is where believers ought to get comfortable living. Even when Christ seems to let us down, we can know that the greatest fulfillment of his promises is coming.

A mentor of mine lost his father to a heart attack at a young age. The family prayed and believed God for healing in the hospital, yet he still passed away. The doctor bitterly said to the grieving wife that religion gives people false hope, causing people to pray for healing that won’t happen. Her response? “My husband is more healed now than he ever could be in this life.” God had kept his promise.

4. Don’t Shrink Back

The book of Hebrews frequently warns against denying and turning away from Jesus in unbelief. Speaking to people who suffered greatly for their testimony of Jesus, the author says, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, ‘Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10:36-39).

Too often, people become disappointed that God didn’t give them what they asked for the way they wanted it. This leads them to reject him. But this is, in part, because they have forgotten about eternity.

Let us not be those who shrink back when things become confusing and disappointing. And let us refuse to make excuses for God when things don’t go our way. Sometimes, in his patience with us and with our world, they don’t go his way initially either. But if we “hold fast the confession of our hope” (Hebrews 10:23), we will find that “he who promised is faithful.”

The Lord is still the one “who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3).

Footnotes

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1. Modern Jews argue that Isaiah 53 is only about Israel’s sufferings, not Jesus. Being that the other Servant Songs are about Israel, this makes some sense. However, because Jesus is often presented as the greater Israel in the New Testament, it is better to be understood as both/and. For more on this, check out my post on Matthew’s use of Isaiah. ↩︎