Objection: Jesus Bore Our Sins in His Own Body So That We Could Be Dead to Sins, Not So That We Could Be Physically Healed

This particular objection from a certain Bible teacher takes the first (but not last!) part of 1 Peter 2:24 to try to prove that Jesus’ bodily bearing of our sins was so that we could be dead to sins, quoting this part of the verse:

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness…”

The argument is that this snippet mentions being dead to sins (and living to righteousness) as the sole purpose of Christ’s bodily suffering.

Without finishing the verse, one could argue that Peter did not say, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we might be healed by His stripes.”  We all know that the verse ends with “by whose stripes ye were healed” but this is not one of the purposes stated immediately after mentioning His bodily bearing of our sins, which is the objector’s point.

However, if you’re going to quote Scripture, you should at least finish the sentence!  This verse does end with the statement “by whose stripes ye were healed.”  Therefore, you can’t get around the fact that “healing” was purchased by Jesus’ stripes.  “Stripes” refers to the physical punishment that was laid on Jesus – the same thing referred to in the beginning of the verse where He bore our sins in His own body.  His body bore the brunt of God’s punishment for our sins.  He wasn’t allowed to just suffer spiritually; He had to be tortured physically.  Otherwise, there was no need for the cross, which was a physical torture device.

The verse starts with the statement that Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the cross.  The next phrase emphasizes the reason for the “bore our sins” part of this phrase – so that we, being dead to sins, might live for righteousness.  The final phrase emphasizes the reason for the “in His own body” part of this phrase – so that by His stripes we were healed.  This whole sentence goes together, so trying to chop it up is unreasonable, as is trying to chop out the last part of the sentence and append it to the start of the next sentence as some objectors have done.

Thus, the entire verse, not just the healing part, shows what Jesus purchased for us when His body was tortured.

Therefore, the only way to avoid the conclusion that physical healing was not purchased by Jesus’ stripes is to claim that “healing” in this verse really doesn’t mean physical healing, but rather that you’re forgiven, have your salvation brought about, are restored to divine fellowship or are spiritually healed.  These objections are handled elsewhere and you may follow the links above to see the disproofs of those arguments.