"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: He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses." Matthew 8:16, 17
"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
These two passages of Scripture are foundational for the Charismatic’s doctrine of divine healing today. They believe that Jesus Christ, on the Cross, not only bore our sins but that He also bore our sicknesses at the same time. Their reasoning is that since Matthew and Peter both speak about healing and also quote from the same passage of Isaiah—who prophesied of the atoning death of Jesus Christ for our sins—therefore healing, as well as forgiveness of sins, was included in the atoning death of Christ.
But we should make it clear from the onset that the real issue is not about whether or not God still heals today. God is Sovereign and can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. He always has healed throughout history and all of us should maintain that He does still heal today when He chooses to do so. The real issue is about whether or not Jesus bore our sicknesses as our Substitute and if we can actually have faith in Him as our Healer in the same way that we have faith in Him as our Savior.
Just what was the intended meaning of Isaiah’s prophecy? We will see that Matthew and Peter clarified that he was prophesying about the healing ministry of Christ on earth and not about Him supposedly bearing our sicknesses on the Cross.
What did Isaiah really mean?
We will start first with a phrase from Matthew; “bore our sicknesses” (8:17b). The Greek word used for “bore” is “bastazo” and it means to “carry in the hands,” “bear what is burdensome,” “sustain, uphold, support.” It appears 29 times in the New Testament but never once in the context of bearing in a substitutionary manner.
It is used frequently to portray the carrying or picking up of something tangible, “Carry [bastazo] neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals” (Luke 10:4a), “Then the Jews took up [bastazo] stones again to stone Him” (John 10:31).
It is also used for the way Christians are to bear the intangible burdens of fellow brothers and sisters, “We then who are strong ought to bear [bastazo] with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Rom.15:1), “Bear [bastazo] one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal.6:2a).
Based on how this word is used in these and other passages, it is plausible that Christ took and bore the sicknesses of individual people in His healing ministry in the role of a Servant and not as our Substitute actually bearing the sicknesses of mankind on the Cross.
Matthew could not have stated more plainly that Isaiah’s prophecy was about Christ’s healing ministry. His casting out of spirits and healing of all who were sick was the fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isa.53:4). But it is only because Isaiah immediately begins to speak of Christ’s substitution on the Cross for our sins that some want to believe that He also substituted for our sicknesses. But what did Isaiah really mean?
But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? John 12:37, 38
John quoted from the first verse of Isaiah 53, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (v. 1), revealing that Isaiah was speaking of the signs and miracles performed by Christ in His ministry. It was His healings, signs, and miracles that proved who He was—the anticipated Messiah of the Jews. But they did not believe in Him.
The next verse in Isaiah, “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him” (v. 2). The next verse in Isaiah is speaking about Christ’s growth to adulthood and common appearance among the Jews. They did not see in Him what they were looking for in the Messiah. In their eyes, there was nothing about Him that stood out.
In the next verse, “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (v. 3), Isaiah depicts the Jews’ rejection of Him. They did not esteem who He really was but, instead, despised Him.
Now Isaiah finally says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted” (v. 4). He was saying that although in His ministry, Christ surely bore the sicknesses of hurting people to authenticate who He was, yet when He went to the Cross, the Jews only saw Him as a man being stricken, smitten and punished by God. Surely, without denial, He miraculously healed the multitudes before their very eyes, yet they still did not accept Him as their Messiah but crucified Him instead.
Matthew began other passages (4:12-16; 12:14-21) with the same statement, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying” which clearly refer to life events in the earthly ministry of Jesus that fulfilled the quoted prophecy. Pentecostals and Charismatics hardly would argue that these prophecies were actually fulfilled on the Cross rather than during His ministry. Therefore, why do they insist that
Matthew’s quote from Isaiah in chapter eight was a substitutionary healing on the Cross?
We are still waiting
When Matthew said, “He Himself took our infirmities” (8:17a), he used the words “lambano” for “took” and “astheneia” for “infirmities.” The word “lambano” is used over 200 times in the New Testament and is accurately translated as “took” to describe Jesus actually taking infirmities away from individual people in His earthly ministry.
The word “astheneia” appears 24 times in the New Testament and is primarily used for bodily sickness and disease, weakness, feebleness, and frailty. A few of the most notable occurrences are: Jesus healed the multitudes (Luke 5:15); the evil spirits Jesus cast out of Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2); the impotent man Jesus healed at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:5); the sickness that Lazarus died from (John 11:4); Paul healing the barbaric people on the Island of Malta (Acts 28:9); Paul’s own weaknesses and infirmities (1Cor.2:3; 2Cor.11:30,12:5-10; Gal.4:13); Timothy’s recurring stomach problems (1Tim.5:23).
The significance of this is what Paul revealed in Romans chapter eight about the curse God pronounced upon the earth on account of Adam’s sin (Gen.3:16-19). He reveals that we, along with the whole created world, are groaning in pain together under this curse (v. 22). But in the meantime, we “have the firstfruits of the Spirit” (v. 23), and are eagerly waiting for “the revealing of the sons of God” (v. 19), which is the “adoption, the redemption of our body” (v. 23). We are the sons of God right now because of the indwelling Spirit of Christ, but that fact will not be revealed and made obvious to the world until the redemption of our bodies.
Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses [astheneia]. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26
Paul now explains that the indwelling Spirit of Christ “helps in our weaknesses [astheneia].” And this help is in present tense. In other words, we are still eagerly waiting for the redemption of our bodies which includes our weaknesses, “astheneia.” We have yet to be redeemed from the sicknesses and infirmities that Jesus and the apostles healed when they were here on the earth. We are groaning together with the Spirit as we cope with these bodily infirmities.
Paul gives us further confirmation as to our future redemption from bodily infirmities, “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness [astheneia], it is raised in power” (1 Cor. 15:43). The simple truth revealed from Scripture is that our bodies will go to the grave in sickness, disease, weakness, and frailty. We will not be redeemed from the curse that came upon the whole creation until our bodies are resurrected.
Are we healed by the stripes of Jesus?
Now we will look at Peter’s statement “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 Pet. 2:24). Those who say that Christ bore our sicknesses in a substitutionary manner on the Cross also say that our physical bodies were healed by the flogging and beating that Christ endured prior to His crucifixion.
Now, please remember, Matthew used the word “bastazo” for the word “bore” when he said that Jesus “bore our sicknesses.” It means to “carry in the hands,” “bear what is burdensome,” “sustain, uphold, support.” It is never once used in the context of Christ’s substitutionary atoning work on the Cross. Matthew stated that Christ was taking away and healing the sicknesses of the multitudes as a suffering Servant during His earthly ministry.
But Peter, on the other hand, used the word “anaphero” for “bore” when he said that Jesus “bore our sins.” It means “to carry up or bring up to a higher place,” “to put upon the altar,” “to take upon one’s self.” This word is in fact used elsewhere in the New Testament for Christ’s substitutionary work in bearing our sins as a sacrificial offering. It appears 12 times and most prominently in this verse, “so Christ was offered once to bear [anaphero] the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation” (Heb. 9:28). This word plainly speaks of sacrificial and substitutionary work.
What all of this means is that Jesus bore “bastazo” the sicknesses of the multitudes of individuals when He healed in His ministry, and He bore “anaphero” the sins of the world when He hung on the Cross. In the one case He is the suffering Servant, in the other He is the substituting Savior.
But then what is meant by the phrase “by whose stripes you were healed” which Peter quoted from Isaiah? Please look again at Isaiah’s prophecy.
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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5, 6
The entire context is the atoning work of Christ on the Cross for our sins and our reconciliation to God. When he said, “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him” he was referring to the punishment that came upon Jesus Christ necessary to bring us back into peace with God. The statement, “by His stripes we are healed” is speaking of the healing of our broken relationship. We were like lost sheep gone astray. We were not at peace with God but were His enemies and Christ reconciled us back to God as sheep returning to their shepherd. This, of course, is exactly what Peter went on to say, “For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1Pet.2:25).
Although this is not a reference to the healing of bodily sickness, the objection will be raised that the word used by Peter for “healed” is “iaomai” which is used in the New Testament for physical and bodily healing of sickness and disease. This is true that it is used this way many times, but it is not true that it is only used this way.
And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal [iaomai] them. Matthew 13:14, 15
And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.” Mark 4:11, 12
When reviewing Matthew and Mark’s parallel accounts of the parable of the sower we see that they both recorded Jesus as quoting the same prophecy of Isaiah. But the last part of the prophecy is phrased a little differently between the two. Matthew says “lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal [iaomai] them,” while Mark says, “lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.” Mark does not use the word “iaomai” at all but seems to give an equivalient meaning of what Isaiah said. Christ Himself said in another place, “For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?” (Matt. 9:5).
But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal [iaomai] them.” John 12:37-40
We looked at this passage earlier when discussing Matthew’s writing. Please notice how all of it begins to fit together. Israel would not believe the report that Christ gave them even in spite of His divine arm being revealed through His healing ministry. Isaiah was speaking of the blindness and deafness of Israel’s heart that kept them from recognizing their Messiah. They did not know His voice and did not see His Light. They had gone astray like lost sheep. As Paul said, “Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Rom.11:25).
Conclusion
The Charismatic doctrine of divine healing is founded almost entirely upon the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 53 and the passages that Matthew and Peter wrote. But these two apostles plainly clarified what Isaiah meant. Jesus Christ bore the sicknesses of the multitudes in His earthly ministry as a Servant when He healed them, and He bore the sins of the world on the Cross as our Savior when He redeemed us. His wounds healed our estranged relationship from God and also our spiritual blindness and deafness.
In the greater sense though, we actually were healed of physical sickness and disease on the Cross, but that redemption will come only at the resurrection of our bodies (Rom.8:23). Although all of our enemies, including physical death and sickness, were conquered and put under Christ’s feet at His resurrection, we do not yet see them under our feet (Heb.2:8). The curse that came upon the earth is still here (Gen.3:16-19). We are still bearing the image of Adam in our bodies in its cursed state until the day when we are glorified into the image of Christ (1Cor.15: 45-49). It will only be then that we are free from death, pain, and sickness (Rev.21:4).
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