Isaiah 53

This is probably the best passage in the Bible to use to demonstrate that God has provided healing for us in Christ's atonement.

This is surely one of the most-quoted chapters in the Bible, written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ came, yet foretelling his works. One of these works is healing. Unfortunately, this has been somewhat muddled with some unfortunate word choices by the translators. (All statements made regarding the Hebrew are fully documented in this program.)

Verse 3 calls Jesus, "A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." The words used here would correctly have been translated "A man of sickness, and acquainted with pain," or something similar. Likewise, in verse 4, "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" should read "Surely he hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our pains." For absolute, unshakable, definitive proof of this, see the reply to the objection, Jesus bore our sorrows and griefs, not our sicknesses and pains.... If you don't feel like reading that, just read Matthew 8:16-17 and see what the Holy Spirit thought he meant in Isaiah 53! The verses are plainly connected with healing. You can argue with my translation, but you can't argue with God's!


Clearly, Jesus bore our sicknesses at Calvary because verse 4 says that he bore our sicknesses and pains, YET we considered him smitten of God and afflicted. This is all one sentence. The only time Jesus was "smitten" and "afflicted" was at Calvary, therefore, his bearing of our sicknesses and our diseases MUST have been at Calvary. Since the subject of the entire chapter is Christ's atonement for us, his bearing of our sicknesses and pains must have been part of that atonement.

Once you see this, the rest of the chapter becomes clearer. In verse 5, we read that Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and that with his stripes we are healed. Jesus' body was torn up so that our bodies would not have to be torn up. He was our substitute.


How do we know that he bore sickness as our substitute? Because Isaiah said that surely he bore our sicknesses and our pains. He was not bearing his own; he was bearing ours. He was never sick until he was "made sick" for our sins. ("Made sick" is the literal translation of "put to grief" in verse 10.) He was made sick with our sicknesses. He was "smitten of God" and "afflicted" as punishment for our sins, not his own. Isaiah said that we are healed. We must refer to the same people referred to by us and ours in this chapter. The people who are healed are the people whose sins were borne. In other words, YOU are healed. What good would it do for Jesus to bear your sicknesses if God would still require you to bear them? That would be stupid. Every part of the punishment Jesus endured was what we rightfully deserved for our sins, and he took that punishment to relieve us from having to bear it ourselves. Surely, he did not leave any part of the punishment for us to bear ourselves.


The bearing of sickness was required by Deuteronomy 28:15-68, Leviticus 26:14-39, and other passages that explain the "curse" for not keeping God's law. Although Jesus kept the law himself, he had to be punished by receiving the curse for sin himself. Gal 3:13 says that he was made a curse for us to redeem us from the curse. He had to accept the curse as punishment for our sins. Part of this curse was sickness -- every sickness and disease that there is (Deut. 28:61). To bear the curse, he had to bear the sicknesses.

This is why you cannot possibly be an exception to God's will to heal ALL. He carried OUR sicknesses and OUR pains, and this includes YOUR sicknesses and YOUR pains. Despite modern theology to the contrary, God could not justly ask you to bear a punishment that Jesus Christ already bore in your place. That would be like condemning two criminals for a crime committed by only one. Jesus already served the sentence. No human court ever asks anyone to serve a sentence for a crime when someone else has already fully served that sentence. The courts may have their problems, but they are not as warped as modern theology yet.


Notice the blessed fact that our healing was not a one-time thing, but an ongoing thing to last through our lifetimes, based on a one-time act by Jesus Christ. Read the tenses carefully: "Surely he hath borne [past tense] our sicknesses and carried [past tense] our pains: yet we did esteem [past tense] him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded [past tense] for our transgressions, he was bruised [past tense] for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was [past tense] upon him; and with his stripes we are [present tense] healed."

This is important to notice, because eventually you will meet someone who objects that Matthew 8:16-17 refers only to Jesus' earthly ministry and not to his atonement. But the true fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, which clearly paints healing as being part of Christ's atonement for sin, must involve healing for all. In fact, the reason Matthew says that the healings were that Isaiah's prophecy "might be fulfilled" is that Christ's healing of the sick in his earthly ministry was done on the basis of his future atonement. Aside from the fact that there is no other adequate explanation of what Matthew meant, you can find further proof of this in the reply to Objection: Isaiah 53:4 (Matthew 8:17) was fulfilled in Jesus' earth ministry and cannot be claimed as a promise by Christians today.


Isaiah said clearly that the Messiah would be made sick in our place to bring healing to us. Jesus Christ was made sick with your sicknesses so that you would not have to bear them.

See also:

Healing and atonement