Big Healing Book - Did Jesus Literally Bear ALL Our Diseases or Just Representative Samples of

Did Jesus Literally Bear ALL Our Diseases or Just Representative Samples of Each One?

Did Jesus actually suffer EVERYONE’S specific cancer, or did He just have one case of cancer that sufficed for everyone who would ever have cancer?

This is similar to asking whether Jesus literally bore ALL our sins (which He did) or just a representative sample of each sin. In other words, was He punished for Sam’s sin when he had lustful fantasies involving Dave’s wife AND punished for Eric’s sin when he had lustful fantasies involving a character on the TV show “Beautiful Immoral Beach Babes” AND punished for Tom’s sin when he had lustful fantasies involving the scantily-clad singer of the pop tune “It’s So Good, It’s So Right, Fornicate with Me Tonight” – or was He just punished in general for the sin of having lustful fantasies?

The answer to the second question should be quite clear – Jesus bore OUR sins in His body (1 Peter 2:24). He was wounded for OUR transgressions and bruised for OUR iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). The punishment He endured was for ALL sins ever committed by anyone, including you. He was punished for YOUR specific sins as well as everyone else’s specific sins. Your sins could not be “borne away” from you any other way.

I have established in another discussion that forgiven people can be healed. Because Jesus had to be punished BODILY for our sins (remember, He bore our sins in His own BODY on the tree – wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities); He took away sickness from us as well because sickness is called a curse and it is clearly a punishment for sin. Before there was sin, there was no sickness, and on the new earth in which righteousness dwells, there will be no sin and no sickness. They always go together.

The “curse of the Law” made clear that ALL sickness, whether specifically enumerated or not, was punishment for failure to keep the entire Law (Deuteronomy 28:61). The fact that Christ has (past tense) redeemed us from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13) shows that He redeemed us from ALL sicknesses, including ALL sicknesses you have ever had, have now, or ever will have. Any sickness you could have is one you technically deserved for failure to keep the whole Law. Jesus took your sin and gave you the gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17) so that you no longer “deserve” any sickness.

The word “bare” – meaning in this case “bare away” or “take in another’s place to remove it from the other” – is used to describe what Jesus did to our sins in Isaiah 53:12. This is the same Hebrew word used for “hath borne” in Isaiah 53:4 – He “bare” our sicknesses and carried our pains. The meaning must be the same in both instances. Jesus bore our individual sins Himself to remove those sins from us. Therefore, He bore our individual sicknesses and pains to remove them from us as well.

It is truly mind-boggling how He could have had that many sicknesses in His body on the cross, but I don’t consider it any more mind-boggling than how He could have had that many sins attributed to Himself for punishment on the cross and how He could have suffered punishment for every single one of them. I don’t know the mechanics of exactly how God did either of these, but I believe that He did both because His Word says so.

Isaiah’s use of the word “our” makes clear that it is OUR sicknesses and pains that He bore, not just “representative” sicknesses and pains belonging to no one in particular. It would not really make sense for Him to suffer something that no one else had suffered – He could not “bear it away” from anyone if that were the case.

Coupled with the spiritual punishment for sin, it is beyond human comprehension what Jesus went through on the cross. Fortunately, we have never been commanded to mentally comprehend the gospel, only to believe it!