Really it’s in Jesus Christ that we have revealed the reality of Heaven as the possession of God in the beatific vision, for example, which there was no concept of that in the Old Testament. Well, why is that? Well, because there was very little revealed. If you notice in the Old Testament, there is very much a this world focus. If you read, especially much of the Old Testament, and we have to remember, the Kingdom of God in the Old Testament was almost entirely focused in this world. A lot of the scripture reads like the prosperity gospel, so it doesn’t seem entirely insane. The prosperity gospel is really big, and I do sometimes feel a pang of guilt that we don’t talk about it enough, because there is a cogent and very important Catholic response to it. And this is something that really is big. However, does Isaiah 53:5 teach that the cross of Christ is a promise of physical healing for us to claim in faith? Based on the interpretation of scripture itself, we can only conclude that it is a promise for one type of healing– the greatest kind of all– from our sin.I want to talk to you about the prosperity gospel. Is God able to heal the sick? Yes, and He often chooses to do so, although not always (Acts 5:16 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Should we pray for the sick? Yes, we are commanded to do so (Matthew 10:8 James 5:14). Remember this important principle: the best interpreter of scripture is other scripture, not a human preacher or teacher. He already said it twice: healing from our sins. It says Jesus “bore our sins in His own body…” It continues, “that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness.” After making reference to sin twice, Peter then quoted Isaiah 53:5: “by whose stripes you were healed.” There is no question what kind of healing Peter understood Isaiah to mean. If Isaiah 53:5 was intended to be a prophecy that Jesus’ cross would heal from sickness as well as sin, then when Peter quoted that very same verse, surely Peter would have mentioned the effect of the cross on sickness. “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.” Is Isaiah 53:5 directly quoted anywhere else in the Bible? Yes, it is, in 1 Peter 2:24. Many other scriptures talk about how the cross of Christ offers salvation from sin, but nowhere does the New Testament say that the cross of Christ brings healing from sickness. Colossians 1:20-22 says Jesus made peace through the blood of His cross, in order to present you “holy and blameless” before God. Ephesians 1:7 says His blood gives us forgiveness from our sin. Romans 3:24-25 speaks of how Jesus’ blood justifies us from sin, redeems us from sin, and presents Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin. The New Testament frequently discusses the effect of the cross of Jesus Christ. So what does the rest of the Bible say on this subject? Here is where we need to apply a very important but often neglected principle of Bible interpretation: scripture itself is the best interpreter of other scripture. But what if this is not Hebrew parallelism? If this is Hebrew parallelism, then the second part means the same thing as the first part, and the first part says the Messiah was wounded for our transgressions, not our sickness. We see this in many psalms, such as, “While I live I will praise the Lord I will sing praises to my God while I have being” (Psalm 146:2). That is, the Hebrew poet frequently says the same thing twice in slightly different ways, for emphasis. Is this really what Isaiah 53:5 is teaching? Does it teach a two-part effect of the cross: a healing from both sin and sickness? This interpretation fails to take into consideration the kind of Hebrew poetic writing used here, often called Hebrew parallelism. After all, they reason, didn’t Jesus say, “Your faith has made you well?” (Mark 5:34). Their logic is straightforward: the prophet said that the Messiah would be crucified for our sins, “and by His stripes we are healed.” Thus, they conclude, the verse is saying that Jesus’ cross has two effects: first, Christ paid for our sins, and second, He also heals our diseases, if we pray in faith. I often meet people praying for the sick who claim Isaiah 53:5 as a promise that God will heal any sickness if they pray for it in faith. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,Īnd by His stripes we are healed. (NOTE: This is the fifth blog post in a series on scriptures commonly misinterpreted.)īut He was wounded for our transgressions,
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