Friday, February 13, 2004 (94)
PAST TENSE. By whose stripes ye WERE healed. It is Christ Jesus who bore the full brunt of our punishment. Our debt has been paid. There is no need for His people to continue in bondage to sin or sickness. W. We have been pardoned and healed. The sinless One became sin in exchange for our liberty. He who had never been sick, bore the full impact of all our sickness and diseases in His own body. He filled the gap between sin and righteousness. He became the bridge between sickness and health. He, personally Stepped in between the judgments pronounced against sin and disease and took the full brunt of the punishment due. Jesus paid it ALL. What needed to be done has been accomplished all that remains is for mankind to accept an accomplished work. 1 Pet. 2:21-24
BY WHOSE STRIPES YE WERE HEALED. What sick person would not accept care when they knew that the care giver was fully successful in their administration of healing. The physician who could accomplish such a miracle would be overwhelmed with patients 24/7. There is one, his name is Jesus. Too often we yield rather than resist the attack of the enemy, therefore are not delivered. In seeking healing from the Lord Jesus we are dealing with Spiritual values which need to be upgraded. Persistent faith must be exercised. We are in a warfare and must be aggressive in order to overcome. Consider the words of the Psalmist who declared that the Lord forgives ALL our iniquity. We are in deep trouble if that is not true, but we know that it is a fact, we are fully forgiven. We have our pardon to prove it. In the same breath he proclaimed that the Lord heals ALL our diseases. Ps. 103:3 The two go together and both are completely effective in our lives. The prayer of faith is also doubly effective. It produces health and restoration to the individual who is sick and also the forgiveness of sin. The two are positively tied together and are fully operative in the church, today. James 5:15
BY HIS STRIPES. Under the law a man who was to be punished for his wrongs could not receive more than thirty-nine stripes. If they gave him more it was a sign that the man was held in contempt and was vile in their sight. Deut. 25:3 Paul was punished five times in this manner with never more than thirty-nine stripes being administered that they might repeat this punishment as many times as they pleased. Anyone receiving forty stripes could not be beaten again. Roman law had no such restriction. With Jesus they were able to inflict Him with as many stripes as they desired. The place of scourging was in the synagogue. The individual was laid out on the ground and whipped with a special whip containing pieces of iron or bone that it might tear the flesh. Jesus bore the full punishment. Surely with Him they did not stop at thirty-nine but went on to strike Him innumerable times until His back was like a plowed field, full of furrows. Ps. 129:3 Jesus paid the full price. Never again will He suffer the torments and sorrows of sin and sickness.