1 Peter 2:24—By His wounds you have been healed

…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. 1 Peter 2:24, ESV

Why did Jesus have to suffer the horrible death of the cross? Couldn’t our salvation have been purchased by a less brutal method? Lest anyone be confused about the matter, Peter clearly laid it out:

• He bore our sins in His body on the cross (not while comfortably unharmed).
• So we might die to sin and live to righteousness (we would not have been able to die to sin and live to righteousness had He not taken our place in an atoning death—bloody by Scriptural definition and decree).
• By His wounds you are healed (He was not a Lord who dodged brutality or who hid from the cross; otherwise, “by His wounds you are healed” could never have been written).

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree…

The intimacy and vulnerability of Someone bearing my personal sin brings tears to my eyes. That which I would want no one to see; that which has stabbed me with shame—that very darkness of soul is what Jesus lifted from me and bore in His own body that day—on purpose. And that’s exactly what He did for you, too.

…that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

Try as you might to prove otherwise, sin is sewn into the very fabric of your being by virtue of your membership in the human race. As a result of our fallen nature, the prospect of you and me dwelling in God’s presence for eternity (the very reason He created us) became an impossibility. You see, He is holy, and sin cannot exist in the presence of His unadulterated, full-blown holiness. For you to dwell forever with God, either He would have to change—or you would. And God wasn’t changing. And you couldn’t …

Therefore, when Jesus bore our sins and died under their load, He reopened the door for you and me to enter into the presence of God. When you, by faith in Him, realize and believe that your own sin was placed on Him that day long ago, you identify with His death. And as a result, you die to sin and are made alive to God…no longer in bondage to sin but made righteous with His own righteousness. This is God’s gift to you for opening up your heart to Him.

By his wounds you have been healed.

To me, the invitation to live forever as His daughter is beyond amazing and sufficient to satisfy the longings of any living person. But He, being the God who is more than enough, included physical healing as well in His atonement. Just as salvation didn’t cease when the apostles passed, so too, healing did not cease to be offered when that generation died. Healing is part and parcel of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, and it is accessed just like salvation is—through faith.

It is evident that God loves health: He created our bodies with immune systems and mechanisms by which to combat sickness and infection and to heal injuries. Indeed, one of His names is Jehovah Rapha, “I am the Lord who heals you” (see Exodus 15:26). Yet because we live in a fallen world, we are, nonetheless, subject to the same diseases and maladies that affect the rest of humanity. Therefore, by His design and because He is the Great Physician, He included sickness as well as sin in the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

I want to encourage you to go to Him about any afflictions you may be experiencing in your body. Realize that it is by His wounds that you were healed. In other words, just as surely as you know you are going to Heaven because of your faith in Jesus, you can be assured that healing for any malady you may face was also provided for you in His redemptive work—by His scourging we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

As surely as He bore your sins on Calvary, so too, did He bear your physical afflictions. Go to Him in faith, for by His wounds you have been healed.

Your Redeemer lives!

Dorothy

And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and 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 8:15-17, ESV

© 2015, Dorothy Frick