Objection: By Jesus’ Stripes We Were Spiritually, Not Physically, Healed
This objection is flawed for MANY reasons, despite the fact that it is used so often to “disprove” your right to divine healing! Any one of the sections below would be enough to disprove the objection, but let’s look at a number of different “disproofs” and put this old lie to rest once and for all.
You Were Not Spiritually Healed by Jesus’ Stripes!
Your spirit was not healed when you were saved! When you were born again, you received a new spirit and become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15) – the old passed away and all things became new (2 Corinthians 5:17 again)! This is speaking of your spirit – you have the same soul and body you had before you were born again.
Jesus told Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:3-7). In verse 6, He explained, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” In other words, the first birth is a natural birth, but the second birth is a spiritual birth. Your spirit is born of the Holy Spirit when you are born again. Your spirit is not “healed” – a new spirit is born inside you, replacing the old, sinful one. Spiritually, you are a new creation – one that never existed before you were saved!
Read what Ezekiel prophesied that God would do:
Ezekiel 11:19-20:
And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezekiel 36:26-27:
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
When you are born again, your spirit is not healed – you get a new spirit. It’s the difference between having an old beat-up car and having someone “heal” it so that it rides like a newer car, versus trading in your beat-up car for a nice brand-new one!
A sinner does not have to cry, “Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit.” (His response would probably be, “Actually your spirit doesn’t need to be healed; it needs to be replaced. But I’m merciful and I know what you mean. I won’t cast you out on a technicality because you did come to Me.”)
People talk about going to a lost and dying world, but that is inaccurate – anyone who isn’t in Christ is already dead! We go to lost and DEAD people who need to be spiritually made alive in Christ.
The Context of the Verse Itself Refers to Physical, Not Spiritual Healing
1 Peter 2:24 opens with the statement, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree…” Jesus did bear our sins in His spirit as well, but that isn’t what Peter discusses in this verse! Jesus bore the punishment for our sins in His BODY. That punishment had to include sickness because He was cursed in our place. Part of “the curse of the Law” included every sickness in the world (Deuteronomy 28:61). His body had to be racked with pain to redeem us from that pain. Peter reminds us of Jesus’ bodily suffering, not His spiritual suffering, in this verse. This is further evident when you consider that Peter quoted Isaiah, as we will see below.
Peter Quoted Isaiah’s Prophecy, Where Physical Healing Is the Context
To say that Peter only meant spiritual healing is tantamount to saying that Peter misquoted what the Holy Spirit said in Isaiah 53. Isaiah speaks of Jesus’ physical suffering for us before announcing that with His stripes we are healed. He was wounded (that’s physical) for our transgressions. He was bruised (that’s physical) for our iniquities. He literally has “borne our sicknesses and carried our pains” (that’s physical, see Isaiah’s Prophecy of Redemption for proof). Isaiah said that in the verse just before the one where he said that we are healed with the Messiah’s stripes. Literally Isaiah says (in verse 10 of the passage) that God “made Him sick” (that’s what the Hebrew word translated “put to grief” means in that verse). Isaiah announces that with His stripes (again, that’s talking about physical, not spiritual punishment) we are healed. Isaiah makes it clear that Jesus was punished physically with pain and sickness to redeem us from the physical punishments of pain and sickness that sin deserves – OUR sicknesses and OUR pains. We must conclude that all the physical torture that He endured for sin was done to provide physical healing for us. That is what Isaiah says. Peter quotes Isaiah, so Peter must also refer to physical healing as a benefit that Christ suffered for before the cross.
We enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, not by the stripes of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19). His shed blood was enough to buy access to God for us. The cross bought us incalculable benefits. However, it was His bodily suffering that gave us the right to bodily healing. That’s why He had to go to the flogging station before He went to the cross. It was a separate, but very important, act. This is especially evident when you consider the context of what Isaiah said. When Isaiah said that Jesus was bruised, it would seem that he must have referred to the flogging station, not the cross. Jesus had already been bruised at the flogging station before He was nailed to the cross. We don’t see any evidence that He acquired any further bruises while hanging on the cross; He was out of reach to anyone who would want to bruise Him anyway! He could be considered “wounded” or “pierced” on the cross, but it’s hard to see where bruising would come in. He was bruised for our iniquities when the Romans lashed Him before He went to the cross. The Lord’s Supper celebrates His body that was broken for us as well as His blood that was shed for us.
In case, for some unfathomable reason, you’re still not convinced that Peter referred to Isaiah’s prophecy, consider that the very next words he said continued with Isaiah’s theme. Right after he said, “by whose stripes ye were healed” he said, “For ye were as sheep going astray…” That’s what Isaiah said in the same passage that we’ve been dealing with! Right after Isaiah said “with his stripes we are healed” he said, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” It couldn’t be clearer that Peter referred to Isaiah’s prophecy!
Isaiah, Whom Peter Quoted, Said That Jesus Bore Our Sickness and Our Pains
It is clear from Isaiah’s prophecy that Jesus took OUR sickness and OUR pains, not just those of certain people back in His days on earth. He bore them as our substitute so that we would be redeemed from having to bear them ourselves. WE are healed. Peter’s audience (YOU, and all other readers of his epistle today) were healed. No reasonable conclusion exists other than the plain fact that His stripes were for OUR physical healing. Physical healing is the obvious context when Matthew quotes this passage. Perhaps people can misapply Scripture, but surely Matthew, writing Scripture under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, could not have misinterpreted Isaiah’s prophecy! If anyone knows what Isaiah meant, God does! It is clear from God’s own quotation and context of the prophecy in Matthew 8:16-17 that Isaiah’s prophecy of Jesus taking our sicknesses and pains meant that we could have physical healing. Because Peter quoted Isaiah, if Isaiah meant physical healing, so did Peter! (See “Healed” Defined if you’re still not convinced that both Isaiah and Peter spoke of physical healing.)
Jesus’ Bruising Did Not Buy Us the New Birth
Scripture is clear that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). So the wounds that Jesus acquired when the Romans flogged Him COULD NOT have caused us to be “spiritually healed!” We could only be spiritually redeemed to God by the shedding of innocent blood. While it seems obvious that Jesus probably shed some blood while He was being whipped, we are not told so specifically in Scripture. The Bible emphasizes that we have peace with God through the blood of His cross as opposed to blood that may have been shed while He was being whipped:
Colossians 1:20:
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
It should be clear that there would be no spiritual reconciliation to God without His bloodshed on the cross. Without the cross no one would have the ability to receive the new birth. Isaiah mentions being healed by His stripes (not by His crucifixion). So we must conclude that healing was purchased for us in a separate act from the cross. Our spiritual relationship with God was reconciled by what He did on the cross, so that CANNOT be what Isaiah meant when he said that we are “healed” by Jesus’ stripes.
Because Peter quotes Isaiah, we know that because Isaiah referred to physical healing, Peter must also have referred to physical healing.
The Greek Word healed (iaomai) Refers to Physical Healing
The Greek verb iaomai (conjugated as iathete) used in 1 Peter 2:24 is used in other places in the New Testament to refer to obviously physical healing. Thus, we would be wrong to conclude that the word means something different in 1 Peter 2:24 than it means all over the New Testament. For further proof of this, I have provided a separate subsection, “Healed” Defined, in which you can see for yourself all the passages in the New Testament where the word iaomai appears so that you may verify my claim for yourself.
This word is similar to the Greek word iatros, which means doctor. Jesus did for you what a doctor would try to do for you – get you healed physically.
Saying that you were “healed” by being born again is unsupportable in light of the fact that iaomai is used to describe many people whom Jesus healed. Not one of them was born again while Jesus walked the earth, so that can’t be what Peter was talking about!
Peter Quoted Isaiah’s Prophecy, Where the Hebrew Word rapha Also Denotes Physical Healing
While the Greek word iaomai is similar to the Greek word for physician (iatros), the Hebrew word rapha used by Isaiah and quoted by Peter (“with his stripes we are healed”) actually IS the Hebrew word for physician, and it is translated physician at times! This word also refers to physical healing, a fact that you can verify for yourself in the “Healed” Defined section.
Peter Believed In, Taught and Practiced Physical Healing
There is no question that Peter believed that physical healing was part of the gospel. His shadow alone brought healing to the masses (Acts 5:12-16). He was used in notable miracles of healing. Of course, he had been there in person when Jesus said that His disciples would lay hands on the sick in His name and they would recover (Mark 16:18). (It is generally accepted, though not proved in Scripture, that Mark’s gospel was based on Peter’s recollections of Jesus’ life and teaching.) God used Peter during Jesus’ ministry to bring healing where he preached the gospel.
In Acts 3:1-16 and Acts 4:7-10, Peter (with John) healed a crippled beggar and attributed the act to faith in the name of Jesus Christ and to Jesus Christ personally. Peter was obviously convinced that he had the authority to heal in the name of Jesus.
In Acts 4:29-33, the apostles, including Peter, clearly knowing that miracles and healings are the will of God, prayed for them and for boldness to preach the Word.
In Acts 5:12-16, people were healed when even Peter’s shadow fell on them. The people of Jerusalem laid the sick in the streets so that they would be healed through the anointing that was on Peter!
In Acts 9:32-35, Peter raised up a man who had been paralyzed for eight years, attributing the healing to Jesus Christ.
In Acts 9:36-42, Peter raised Tabitha from the dead.
In Acts 10:38, Peter preached how Jesus Christ healed all who were oppressed of the devil. This was Peter’s doctrine on the matter.
It should be indisputable that Peter believed in, taught, and practiced physical healing through Jesus Christ. It should not be a surprise that Peter would include a statement about “by whose stripes (bruise) you were healed.” Peter, who wrote 1 Peter 2:24, obviously understood that physical healing was part of the gospel of Christ.
Some related “sub-objections” are refuted in the following sections:
Objection: Vine’s Expository Dictionary Says That 1 Peter 2:24 Is Figurative of Spiritual Healing
Objection: 1 Peter 2:24 Means That You Were Healed from the Disease of Sin
Objection: 1 Peter 2:25 Proves That 1 Peter 2:24 Just Means That You’re Forgiven
Objection: Healing Is Not in the Context of the Entire Chapter in 1 Peter 2
Objection: Strong’s Concordance Proves That the Word for “Healed” in 1 Peter 2:24 Can Be Figurative
Objection: Isaiah and Peter Meant That We Were Healed from Sin