The Lord for the Body: Discovering God's Plan for Divine Health and Healing by A. B. Simpson

Author:A. B. Simpson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Body, Prayer & Spiritual, Health & Fitness, General, Healing, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9780875096247
Publisher: WingSpread Publishers
Published: 1995-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER X

THE GREAT ATONEMENT

Isaiah 53: 4.

Let us consider some reasons for applying this standard and cardinal passage, in this greatest chapter of the greatest of the prophets, to the subject of divine healing.

SICKNESS

The first reason here that we may apply this without any doubt as a ground for the Lord's healing, is the use of the word "griefs" in this text, "He hath borne our griefs." The original word is found about one hundred times in the Old Testament, and every time but this it is translated "sickness." This is the only instance where it is translated "griefs," and this must be because the translator could not quite understand the sense of using "sickness" here. It might have been on the principle of trying to make the Bible sound more rational that this word was inserted. "Griefs" is not altogether a mistranslation, but the word really means "disease." This verse covers the atonement of Christ for our bodies, the provision of His redemption for these mortal attacks.

BORNE

2. The next reason for applying this verse in the Bible is the word "borne." "He hath borne our sicknesses." This word is also a kind of technical term. It has a theological meaning which is most clearly defined in many of the passages in which we find it. It is applied to the scapegoat that bore away the sins of the people. It is used in this chapter where we are told that He bore the sins of many. It is found in John where we are told that the Lamb of God "beareth away the sins of the world." So it means not mere sympathy or mere relief, but it means substitution, one bearing another's death. Christ literally substituted His body for our body. That is the meaning of the words, "Surely He hath borne our sicknesses." He took them upon Himself and relieved us of the load by His atonement.

CHRIST'S DEATH

3. The third reason why we apply this passage to divine healing is the use of the word for sickness later in the chapter, in the tenth verse, where we are told that it pleased the Lord to make Him sick. "He hath put Him to grief," or literally, as Dr. Young has translated it, "He hath made Him sick in smiting Him."

We are told by physicians who have explained the causes of the death of Christ, that He died from rupture of the heart. He did not die from the ordinary causes incident to crucifixion, but He died from a spasm that caused His heart to burst, and when they came to Him He was dead, while the others who were crucified with Him were still alive. He died from the disease which He bore for us. So there is a sense in which Christ was really sick, but it was in our place, for it is added in the next verse, "And with His stripes we are healed."

MATTHEW'S TRANSLATION

4. Here is the fourth one. Matthew 8: 16, 17 confirms its application to physical healing.

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