And with His Stripes

Wounded for our transgressions

Bruised for our iniquities,

The chastisement of our peace was upon him

And with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

Healing of the physical

There is no doubt

But when dealing with this verse

We must count this out.

Transgressions and Iniquities

Speak to the spiritual,

And the chastisement of our peace

Does not mean the physical.

Of what are we healed?

Of transgressions and iniquities:

The wounds of one man

Is the healing of humanity.

He was wounded, he was bruised,

The chastisement of our peace was upon him,

It is with his stripes that we are healed:

The remedy for humanity’s sin.

When we check out the tense

Thrice the author uses “was”,

But notes he switches to “are”

To point out what is the goods.

The goods here is the healing

That is both past and present,

A continuing reality

For the saved and the penitent.

Those stripes were indicative

Of the skin stripped from Christ’s back,

It’s with those stripes that we are healed

And the new birth becomes fact.

Healed of sin’s dominance

As expressed in our walk in the Spirit,

Where once the children of disobedience

Now, obedience is our habit.

It was not for his sins

Jesus was punished on the cross

But for our transgressions and iniquities

As all humanity was lost.

Some use this verse

To source a miracle of healing

But for such we must look elsewhere,

It’s to the spiritual this verse is appealing.

With one man’s wounds

All the nations are healed

Of their transgressions and iniquities

When to Jesus they appeal.

By confession and repentance

Regarding their sin,

On the acceptance of Jesus

Spiritual healing is wrought within.

“Healing in His Wings”

That beautiful hymn by Mary J. Nichols

Aptly expresses the healing therein

As the healing that is spiritual.

Regarding healing of the body,

In this life, that is only temporal,

But in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 5,

The healing here is eternal.

Stewart Russell © April 2020

Then by Charles Wesley

“Five bleeding wounds, he bears,

Received at Calvary,

They pour effectual prayers

They strongly plead for me.

Forgive him, O forgive, they cry,

Nor let that ransomed sinner die.”