At least the objector admits that Jesus did redeem us from disease, which is clear to everyone who checks out the Hebrew in Isaiah 53. What should also be clear to anyone who reads Isaiah 53 is that Jesus bore our diseases in our place as our substitute. Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains. You won't be able to have sicknesses or pains in your glorified body. There will be no diseases that he could take away from you then. The only time you can experience "your sicknesses" and "your pains" is in this present life! These, then, are the very sicknesses and pains that Jesus bore in our place as our substitute.

It is clear from Matthew 8:16-17 that the present-day healing of the sick is what fulfills Isaiah's prophecy of healing, not our future healing. If this redemption were only for the future, there would be no way the multitudes could have received healing from Jesus Christ in this lifetime.


The fact that healing is a present-day ordinance in James 5:14-16 should serve as proof that healing is for this life, not just the next one. Actually, there are countless promises cited in this book that are meaningless if healing is relegated to glory.

Since we are redeemed from sin and the effects of it in this life, there is no reason to think that God would require us to bear any part of the punishment for it, including sickness. You cannot separate healing and forgiveness, as is made clear elsewhere in this book.

Walking in divine health is like living victoriously over the flesh. Your FINAL victory over the flesh will coincide with your FINAL victory over sickness -- when you get a new, immortal body. In this life, I don't know anyone who always walks in victory over the flesh, but that doesn't mean that Paul lied when he said in Romans that we are not debtors to the flesh to do after the flesh. We don't have to ever do a single work of the flesh for the rest of our lives. We have the victory NOW. "Sin shall have no dominion over you" is a promise for now, not later. We can always overcome sin. Likewise, we can always overcome sickness because we are healed by the stripes of Jesus. Many people will not enjoy the victory in this life, even though it was provided in Christ. It may be that all of us fall short of what we could have in both areas. But this does not prove that we cannot walk in the Spirit and walk in health now. God says that we can.