Jesus was healing us by his stripes

JESUS WAS HEALING US BY HIS STRIPES
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Isaiah53:5 5
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishmentthat
brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we
are healed.
Question: "What does it mean that 'by His stripes we are healed'?"
Answer: “Stripes,” (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24) in the language of the King James Version of the
Bible, and in some others, means “wounds,” as seen in more modern translations such as the
New International Version. These stripes were administered by whipping the bare backs of
prisoners whose hands and feet were bound, rendering them helpless. The phrase “by His stripes
we are healed” refers to the punishment Jesus Christ suffered—floggings and beatings with fists
that were followed by His agonizing death on a cross—to take upon Himself all of the sins of all
people who believe Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
The whips used were made of braided leather, with pottery shards and sharp stones affixed to the
ends, which tore open the flesh of the prisoner with each cruel swing of the whip. When we
picture this terrible, inhumane form of physical punishment we recoil in horror. Yet the physical
pain and agony were not all Jesus suffered. He also had to undergo the mental anguish brought
on by the wrath of His Father, who punished Him for the sinfulness of mankind—sin carried out
in spite of God’s repeated warnings, sin that Jesus willingly took upon Himself. He paid the total
price for all of our transgressions.
Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Peter wrote, “He Himself bore our sins in His
body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have
been healed.” In Isaiah 53, Jesus’ future life on earth was foretold in the clearest of terms, to
include his eventual torture and death: “But He was pierced for our transgressions, he was
crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His
wounds (stripes) we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24).
Although these two verses are central to the topic of healing, they are often misunderstood and
misapplied. The word “healed” as translated from both Hebrew and Greek, can mean either
spiritual or physical healing. However, the contexts of Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2 make it clear that
they are referring to spiritual healing, not physical. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the

tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been
healed” (1 Peter 2:24). The verse is referring to sin and righteousness, not sickness and disease.
Therefore, being “healed” in both these verses is speaking of being forgiven and saved, not being
physically healed.
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Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Divine Atonement
Isaiah 53:5
W.M. Statham But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. We
shall never understand the atonement. From Anselm's day to our own there have been ever-
changing theories of it. But the fact remains; and, mysterious as it is, we learn that there was a
Godward aspect of it, as well as a manward aspect. But into "the cup which my Father hath given
me to drink" no man, no angel, can look.
I. THIS IS THE REVELATION OF DIVINE SACRIFICE. "He gave himself." But he was more
than wounded by the treatment of his character, and by the contempt of his claims, and by the
forsakings of his own disciples. It is not enough to say that the pride of the Jew and the scorn of
the Greek and the power of the Roman crucified him. He was "delivered up for our offences." So
here "the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."
II. THIS IS THE SUBJECT OF ETERNAL SONG. Heaven rings with the grateful acclaim,
"Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,... to him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever." And the presence of the redeemed there at all is distinctly stated to
rest upon the sacrifice of Christ. Because "they have washed their robes, and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb, therefore are they before the throne of God." This, at all events, has been
the Catholic teaching of Christendom in all ages; and fill the hymnology of the Church in all its
various branches. Roman and Anglican, Lutheran and Puritan, have united in a common
adoration of the cross and passion, thus antedating the praises of eternity. - W.M.S.
Biblical Illustrator
But He was wounded for our transgressions.

Isaiah 53:5
The sufferings of Christ
L. D. Bevan, D. D.Three things suggest themselves as requiring explanation to one who
seriously contemplates the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ.
1. An innocent man suffers.
2. The death of Jesus is the apparent defeat and destruction of one who possessed extraordinary
and supernatural powers.
3. This apparent defeat and ruin, instead of hindering the progress of His work, became at once,
and in all the history of the progress of His doctrine has been emphatically, the instrument
whereby a world is conquered. The death of Jesus has not been mourned by His followers, has
never been concealed, but rather exulted in and prominently set forth as that to which all men
must chiefly look if they would regard Christ and His mission right. The shame and the failure
issue in glory and completest success. What is the philosophy of this? Has any ever been given
which approaches the Divinely revealed meaning supplied by our text? "He was wounded for our
transgressions," etc. We learn here —
I. THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS CHRIST RESULTED FROM OUR SINS.
II. THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS WHERE RELATED TO THE DIVINE LAW.
III. THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS BECAME REMEDIAL OF HUMAN SINFULNESS.
(L. D. Bevan, D. D.)
A short catechism
J. Durham.1. What is man's condition by nature?
(1)Under transgression.
(2)Under iniquities.
(3)At feud with God.
(4)Under wounds and most loathsome diseases of a sinful nature.
2. How are folks freed from this sinful and miserable condition?
(1)In general, before the quarrel can be taken away, and their peace can. be made, there must be
a satisfaction.
(2)More particularly there must be a satisfaction, because there is the justice of God that hath a
claim by a standing law; the holiness of God, that must be vindicated; the faith of God, that must
cause to come to pass what it hath pledged itself to, as well in reference to threatening as to
promise.
3. Who maketh this satisfaction? The text says, "He" and "Him." The Messiah.
4. How does He satisfy justice?
(1)He enters Himself in our room.
(2)Christ's performance and payment of the debt according to His undertaking, implies a
covenant and transaction on which the application is founded.

(3)Our Lord Jesus, in fulfilling the bargain, and satisfying justice, paid a dear price: He was
wounded, bruised, suffered stripes and punishment.
5. What are the benefits that come by these sufferings?
(1)The benefits are such that if He had not suffered for us, we should have suffered all that He
suffered ourselves.
(2)More particularly we have peace and pardon. Healing.
6. To whom hath Christ procured all these good things?
(1)The elect;
(2)who are guilty of heinous sins.
7. How are these benefits derived from Christ to the sinner?
(1)Justly and in a legal way;
(2)freely.
(J. Durham.)
Sin
B. J. Gibbon.Verses 5 and 6 are remarkable for the numerous and diversified references to sin
which they make. Within the short compass of two verses that sad fact is referred to no less than
six times, and on each occasion a different figure is used to describe it. It is transgression — the
crossing of a boundary and trespassing upon forbidden land. It is iniquity — the want of equity:
the absence of just dealing. It is the opposite of Peace — the root of discord and enmity between
us and God. It is a disease of the spirit — difficult to heal. It is a foolish and wilful wandering,
like that of a stray sheep. And it is a heavy burden, which crushes him on whom it lies. So many
and serious are the aspects of sin.
(B. J. Gibbon.)
The sufferings of Christ
D. Dickson, D.D.I. ATTEND TO THE SUFFERINGS OF THE SON OF GOD, as described in
the text. The sufferings of the Saviour are described in the Scriptures with simplicity and
grandeur combined. Nothing can add to the solemnity and force of the exhibition.
1. The prophet tells us that the Son of God was "wounded." The Hebrew word here translated
"wounded," signifies to run through with a sword or some sharp weapon, and, as here used,
seems to refer to those painful wounds which our Lord received at the time of His crucifixion.
2. The prophet tells us that the Son of God was "bruised." This expression seems to have a
reference to the labours, afflictions, and sorrows which our blessed Lord sustained, especially in
the last scenes of His life.
3. The prophet tells us that the Son of God bore chastisements and stripes.
II. CONSIDER THE PROCURING CAUSE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE SON OF GOD.
"Our transgressions." "Our iniquities."
III. ATTEND TO THE GRACIOUS DESIGN AND HAPPY EFFECTS OF THE SUFFERINGS
OF THE SON OF GOD. "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we
are healed."

1. One gracious design and blessed effect of the sufferings of the Son of God was to procure for
us reconciliation with God.
2. The renovating of our nature.
(D. Dickson, D.D.)
Substitution
C. Clemance, D. D.There is no more remarkable language than this in the whole of the Word of
God. It is so clear a statement of the doctrine of the substitution of the innocent for the guilty,
that we do not hesitate to say, no words could teach it if it be not taught here. We are distinctly
told —
I. THAT THERE BELONGS TO US A SAD AND GRIEVOUS WEIGHT OF SIN. There are
three terms expressive of what belong to us: "our transgressions," "our iniquities," "gone astray."
These three phrases have indeed a common feature; they all indicate what is wrong — even sin,
though they represent the wrong in different aspects.
1. "Transgressions." The word thus translated indicates sin in one or other of three forms —
either that of missing the mark through aimlessness, or carelessness, or a wrong aim; or of
coming short, when, though the work may be right in its direction, it does not come up to the
standard; or of crossing a boundary and going over to the wrong side of a line altogether. In all
these forms our sins have violated the holy law of God.
2. "Iniquities." This word also has reference to moral law as the standard of duty. The Hebrew
word is from a root which signifies "to bend," "to twist," and refers to the tortuous, crooked,
winding ways of men when they conform to no standard at all save that suggested by their own
fancies or conceits, and so walk "according to the course of this world."
3. The third phrase has reference rather to the God of Law, than to the law of God, and to Him in
His relation to us of Lord, Leader, Shepherd, and Guide. There is not only the infringement of
the great law of right, but also universal neglect and abandonment of Divine leadership and love;
and as the result of this, grievous mischief is sure to follow. "Like the sheep," they find their way
out easily enough; they go wandering over "the dark mountains," each one to "his own way," but
of themselves they can never find the way home again. And so far does this wandering
propensity increase in force, that men come to think there is no home for them; the loving
concern of God for the wanderers is disbelieved, and the Supreme Being is regarded in the light
of a terrible Judge eager to inflict retribution. And all this is a pressure on God. He misses the
wanderers. And through the prophet, the Spirit of God would let men know that the wanderings
of earth are the care of Heaven. Nor let us fail to note that in these verses there is an entirely
different aspect of human nature and action from that presented in the verse preceding. There,
the expressions were "our griefs," "our sorrows." Here, they are "our transgressions," etc. Griefs
and sorrows are not in themselves violations of moral law, though they may be the results of
them, and though every violation of moral law may lead to sorrow. Still they must not be
confounded, though inseparably connected. Grief may solicit pity: wrong incurs penalty. And the
sin is ours. The evil is wide as the race. Each one's sin is a personal one: "Every one to his own
way." Sin is thus at once collective and individual. No one can charge the guilt of his own sin on
any one else. On whom or on what will he cast the blame? On influences? But it was for him to
resist and not to yield. On temptation? But temptation cannot force. In the judgment of God each
one's sin is his own.

II. THIS SERVANT OF GOD BEING LADEN WITH OUR SINS, SHARES OUR HERITAGE
OF WOE. How remarkable is the antithesis here — Transgressions; iniquities; wanderings, are
ours. Wounds; bruises; chastisements; stripes, are His. There is also a word indicating the
connection between the two sides of the antithesis, "wounded for our transgressions" — on
account of them; but if this were all the explanation given, it might mean no more than that the
Messiah would feel so grieved at them that they would bruise or wound Him. But there is a far
fuller and clearer expression: "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." This expression
fixes the sense in which the Messiah was wounded and bruised on our account. In pondering
over this, let us work our way step by step.
1. The inflexibility of the moral law and the absolute righteousness and equity of the Lawgiver in
dealing with sin are thoughts underlying the whole of this chapter. The most high God is indeed
higher than law; and though He never violates law, He may, out of the exuberance of His own
love, do more than law requires, and may even cease to make law the rule of His action. But
even when that is the ease, and He acts χωρὶς νόμου ("apart from law," Romans 3:21), while He
manifests the infinite freedom of a God to do whatsoever he pleaseth, He will also show to the
world that His law must be honoured in the penalties inflicted for its violation. This is indicated
in the words, "The Lord hath laid on Him," etc. Nor ought any one for a moment to think of this
as "exaction." Exactness is not exactingness; it would not be called so, nor would the expression
be tolerated if applied to a judge who forbade the dishonouring of a national law, or to a father
who would not suffer the rules of his house to be broken with impunity.
2. It is revealed to us that in the mission of this servant of Jehovah, the Most High would act on
the principle of substitution. When a devout Hebrew read the words we are now expounding, the
image of the scapegoat would at once present itself to him.
3. The Messiah was altogether spotless; He fulfilled the ideal typified by the precept that the
sacrificial lamb was to be without blemish. Being the absolutely sinless One, He was fitted to
stand in a relation to sin and sinners which no being who was tainted with sin could possibly
have occupied.
4. The twofold nature of the Messiah — He being at once the Son of God and Son of man,
qualified Him to stand in a double relation; — as the Son of God, to be Heaven's representative
on earth — as the Son of man, to be earth's representative to Heaven. Thus, His offering of
Himself was God's own sacrifice (John 3:16; 1 John 4:10; Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:19), and
yet, in another sense, it was man's own sacrifice (2 Corinthians 5:14, 21; Galatians 3:13).
5. By His incarnation, Christ came and stood in such alliance with our race, that what belonged
to the race belonged to Him, as inserted into it, and representative of it. We need not use any
such expression as this — "Christ was punished for our sin." That would be wrong. But sin was
condemned in and through Christ, through His taking on Himself the liabilities of a world, as
their one representative Man who would stand in their stead; and by the self-abandonment of an
unparalleled love, would let the anguish of sin's burden fall on His devoted head. Paul, in his
Epistle to Philemon pleads for Onesimus thus, "If he hath wronged thee or oweth thee ought, put
that to my account." So the Son of God has accepted our liabilities. Only thus can we explain
either the strong language of the prophecy, or the mysterious sorrow of Christ depicted in the
Gospel history. On whatever grounds sin's punishment was necessary had there been no
atonement, on precisely those grounds was an atonement necessary to free the sinner from
deserved punishment. This gracious work was in accord with the appointment of the Father and
with the will of the Son.

6. Though the law is honoured in this substitution of another for us, yet the substitution itself
does not belong to law, but to love! Grace reigns; law is not trifled with; it is not infringed on:
nay, it is "established."
III. CHRIST HAVING ACCEPTED OUR HERITAGE OF WOE, WE RECEIVE THROUGH
HIM A HERITAGE OF PEACE.
(C. Clemance, D. D.)
Vicarious suffering
J. Stalker, D.D.In a large family of evil-doers, where the father and mother are drunkards, the
sons jail-birds and the daughters steeped in shame, there may be one, a daughter, pure, sensible,
sensitive, living in the home of sin like a lily among thorns. And she makes all the sin of the
family her own. The others do not mind it; the shame of their sin is nothing to them; it is the talk
of the town, but they do not care. Only in her heart their crimes and disgrace meet like a sheaf of
spears, piercing and mangling. The one innocent member of the family bears the guilt of all the
rest. Even their cruelty to herself she hides, as if all the shame of it were her own. Such a
position did Christ hold in the human family. He entered it voluntarily, becoming bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh; He identified Himself with it; He was the sensitive centre of the
whole. He gathered into His heart the shame and guilt of all the sin He saw. The perpetrators did
not feel it, but He felt it. It crushed Him; it broke His heart.
(J. Stalker, D.D.)
With His stripes we are healed
The disease of sinI. IT IS A WASTING DISEASE; it bringeth the soul into a languishing
condition, and wasteth the strength of it (Romans 5:6). Sin hath weakened the soul in all the
faculties of it, which all may discern and observe in themselves.
II. IT IS A PAINFUL DISEASE, it woundeth the spirit (Proverbs 18:14). Greatness of mind may
support us under a wounded body, but when there is a breach made upon the conscience, what
can relieve us then? But you will say, They that are most infected with sin feel little of this; how
is it then so painful a disease?
1. If they feel it not, the greater is their danger; for stupid diseases are the worst, and usually
most mortal.
2. The soul of a sinner never sits so easy but that he has his qualms and pangs of conscience, and
that sometimes in the midst of jollity; as was the case of Belshazzar, while carousing in the cups
of the temple.
3. Though they feel not the diseases now, they shall hereafter.
III. IT IS A LOATHSOME DISEASE.
IV. IT IS AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE. Sin cometh into the world by propagation rather than
imitation: yet imitation and example hath a great force upon the soul.
V. IT IS A MORTAL DISEASE, if we continue in it without repentance.
( T. Manton, D.D.)
Recovery by Christ's stripes1. None but Christ can cure us, for He is the Physician of souls.

2. Christ cureth us not by doctrine and example only, but by merit and suffering. We are healed
by "His stripes."
3. Christ's merit and sufferings do effect our cure, as they purchased the Spirit for us, who
reneweth and healeth our sick souls (Titus 3:5, 6).
( T. Manton, D.D.)
Healed by Christ's stripes
J. Benson, D.D."With His stripes we are healed." We are healed — of our inattention and
unconcern about Divine things. Of our ignorance and unbelief respecting these things. Of the
disease of self-righteousness and self-confidence. Of our love to sin, and commission of it. Of
our love to the riches, honours and pleasures of this world. Of our self-indulgence and self-
seeking. Of our lukewarmness and sloth. Of our cowardice and fear of suffering (1 Peter 4:1). Of
our diffidence and distrust, with respect to the mercy of God, and His pardoning and accepting
the penitent. Of an accusing conscience, and slavish fear of God, and of death and hell. Of our
general depravity and corruption of nature. Of our weakness and inability; His sufferings having
purchased for us "the Spirit of might." Of our distresses and misery, both present and future.
(J. Benson, D.D.)
His stripes
B. J. Gibbon.This chapter is not mainly an indictment. It is a Gospel. It declares in glad while
solemn language that, terrible as sin is, it has been dealt with. The prophet dwells purposely upon
the varied manifestations of the evil in order to emphasize the varied forms and absolute
completeness of its conquest. He prolongs the agony that he may prolong the rapture.
I. OUR NEED OF HEALING. There is no figure which more aptly represents the serious nature
and terrible consequences of sin than this one of bodily sickness. We know how it prostrates us,
takes the brightness out of life, and, unless attended to, cuts life short. Sickness in its acutest
form is a type in the body of sin in the soul. Sin is a mortal disease of the spirit. A common
Scriptural emblem for it, found in both Old and New Testaments, is leprosy — the most frightful
disease imaginable, loathsome to the observer and intolerably painful to the sufferer, attacking
successively and rotting every limb of the body, and issuing slowly but certainly in death.
1. It is complicated. It affects every part of the moral being. It is blindness to holiness, and
deafness to the appeals of God. There is a malady known as ossification of the heart, by which
the living and beating heart is slowly turned to a substance like bone. It is a type of the complaint
of the sinner. His heart is hard and impenitent. He suffers, too, from the fever of unhallowed
desire. The lethargy of spiritual indifference is one of his symptoms; a depraved appetite, by
which he tries to feed his immortal soul on husks, is another; while his whole condition is one of
extreme debility — absence of strength to do right. In another part .of the book our prophet
diagnoses more thoroughly the disease of which he here speaks (Isaiah 1:5, 6). No hospital
contains a spectacle so sickening and saddening as the unregenerate human heart.
2. The disease is universal. "There is none righteous; no, not one." What the Bible declares,
experience confirms. The ancient world, speaking through a noble literature that has come down
to us, confesses many times the condition expressed by Ovid, "I see and approve the better
things, while I follow those which are worse." Christendom finds its mouthpiece in the apostle
Paul, who, speaking of himself apart from the help of Christ, mournfully says, "When I would do
good, evil is present with me." And modern culture reveals its deepest consciousness in the

words of Lowell, the ambassador-poet, "In my own heart I find the worst man's mate." It is a
feature of the malady that the patient is often insensible to it. But from every lip there is at least
occasional confession of some of its symptoms. There is discomfort in the conscience; there is
dissatisfaction at the heart; and there is dread in the face of death and the unknown beyond. The
Scriptures are the Rontgen rays of God, and their searching light reveals behind an uneasy
conscience, behind a dissatisfied heart, behind the fear of death, behind all the sorrows and evils
of life, that which is their rimary cause — the malady of sin.
3. This disease is incurable — that is, apart from the healing described in the text. "The end of
these things is death" — spiritual death; insensibility to God, and absence of the life of
fellowship with Him which is life indeed — physical death, in so far as that natural process is
more than mere bodily dissolution, and is a fearful and hopeless leap into the dark; for "the sting
of death is sin" — and eternal death. Men are great at quack remedies, and the world is equally
flooded with nostrums for the disease of sin. And what is the result of these loudly-hawked
specifics? They are as useless as the charms which our grandmothers used to scare away
diseases. The Physician is He who gave His back to the smiters; the balm is the blood which
flowed from "His stripes."
II. OUR MEANS OF HEALING. "With His stripes." "Stripes" does not mean the lashes that fell
on His back, but the weals which they left. We remember how He "suffered under Pontius
Pilate" before He "was crucified, dead and buried." His back was bared, His hands were tied to a
low post, and a coarse, muscular giant flourished a whip above Him. It was a diabolical
instrument, that Roman whip — made of leather with many thongs, and in the end of each of
them a piece of iron, or bone, or stone. Every stroke fetched blood and ripped open the quivering
flesh. The Jewish law forbade more than forty stripes being given, but Christ was scourged by
Romans, who recognized no such merciful limit. But as we know that Pilate intended the
scourging to be a substitute for crucifixion, and hoped that its severity would so melt the Jews to
pity that they would not press for the worse punishment — which end, however, was not reached
— we may infer that He was scourged until He could bear no more, until He could not stand,
until He fell mangled and fainting at His torturer's feet. Nearly two thousand years have passed
since that awful affliction, but its significance is eternal. But how can the sufferings of one
alleviate the sufferings of another?
1. Because the sight of them moves us to sorrow. There are certain maladies of the mind and
heart for which there is hope if the emotions can be stirred and the patient made to laugh or cry.
There is hope for the sinner when the thought of his sin melts his heart to sorrow and his eyes to
tears. Sorrow for sin — repentance of wrong-doing — is the first stage in recovery. And there is
nothing that will cause penitence like a sight of the Saviour's wounds.
2. The sight of them relieves our consciences. For as we look at those livid weals we know He
did not deserve them. We know that we did merit punishment direr far. And we know that He
endured them, and more mysterious agonies of which they were the outward sign, in our stead.
Then, gradually, we draw the inference. If He suffered for us, we are free. If our load was laid on
Him, it is no longer upon us. Conscience accepts that logic.
3. The sight of them prevents further outbreaks. This cure is radical. It not only heals, it also
strengthens. It gradually raises the system above its tendency to sin. For the more we gaze upon
those livid stripes, the more intolerable and hateful sin, which caused them, appears, and the
more difficult it becomes for us to indulge in it. Our medicine is also a strong tonic, which
invigorates the spiritual nature and fortifies its weaknesses. Stanley, in one of his books on

African travel, tells of the crime of Uledi, his native coxswain, and what came of it. Ulodi was
deservedly popular for his ability and courage, but having robbed his master, a jury of his fellows
condemned him to receive "a terrible flogging." Then uprose his brother, Shumari, who said,
"Uledi has done very wrong; but no one can accuse me of wrong-doing. Now, mates, let me take
half the whipping. I will cheerfully endure it for the sake of my brother." Scarcely had he
finished when another arose, and said, "Uledi has been the father of the boat boys. He has many
times risked his life to save others; and he is my cousin; and yet he ought to be punished.
Shumari says he will take half the punishment; and now let me take the other half, and let Uledi
go free." Surely the heart of the guilty man must have been touched, and the willing submission
by others to the punishment he had merited must have restrained him from further outbreaks as
the strict infliction of the original penalty never could. By those stripes he would be healed. Even
so, the stripes of our Lord deliver us from the very tendency to sin. For the disease to be healed
the medicine must be taken. Our very words "recipe" and "receipt" remind, us of this. They are
related, and signify "to take." The selfsame word describes the means of cure, and commands
that it be used. Look upon His wounds! And let those of us who have looked for our cure, still
look for our strengthening. We should not have so many touches of the old complaint if we
thought oftener of the stripes by which we are healed. Look all through life, and you will grow
stronger and holier.
(B. J. Gibbon.)
The universal remedyNot merely His bleeding wounds, but even those blue bruises of His flesh
help to heal us. There are none quite free from spiritual diseases. One may be saying, "Mine is a
weak faith;" another may confess, "Mine is distracted thoughts;" another may exclaim, "Mine is
coldness of love;" and a fourth may have to lament his powerlessness in prayer. One remedy in
natural things will not suffice for all diseases; but there is a catholicon, a universal remedy,
provided in the Word of God for all spiritual sicknesses, and that is contained in the few words
— "With His stripes we are healed."
I. THE MEDICINE ITSELF WHICH IS HERE PRESCRIBED — the stripes of Our Saviour. By
the term "stripes," no doubt the prophet understood here, first, literally, those stripes which fell
upon our Lord's shoulders when He was beaten of the Jews, and afterwards scourged of the
Roman soldiery. But the words intend far more than this. No doubt with his prophetic eye Isaiah
saw the stripes from that unseen scourge held in the Father's hand which fell upon his nobler
inner nature when His soul was scourged for sin. It is by these that our souls are healed. "But
why?" First, then, because our Lord, as a sufferer, was not a private person, but suffered as a
public individual and an appointed representative. Our Lord was not merely man, or else his
sufferings could not have availed for the multitude who now are healed thereby. He was God as
well as man. Our Saviour's sufferings heal us of the curse by being presented before God as a
substitute for what we owe to His Divine law. But healing is a work that is carried on within, and
the text rather leads me to speak of the effect of the stripes of Christ upon our characters and
natures than upon the result prodeced in our position before God.
II. THE MATCHLESS CURES WROUGHT BY THIS REMARKABLE MEDICINE. Look at
two pictures. Look at man without the stricken Saviour; and then behold man with the Saviour,
healed by His stripes.
III. THE MALADIES WHICH THIS WONDROUS MEDICINE REMOVES.
1. The mania of despair.

2. The stony heart.
3. The paralysis of doubt.
4. A stiffness of the knee-joint of prayer.
5. Numbness of soul.
6. The fever of pride.
7. The leprosy of selfishness.
8. Anger.
9. The fretting consumption of worldliness.
10. The cancer of covetousness.
IV. THE CURATIVE PROPERTIES OF THE MEDICINE.
1. It arrests spiritual disorder.
2. It quickens all the powers of the spiritual man to resist the disease.
3. It restores to the man that which he lost in strength by sin.
4. It soothes the agony of conviction.
5. It has an eradicating power as to sin.
V. THE MODES OF THE WORKING OF THIS MEDICINE. The sinner hearing of the death of
the incarnate God is led by the force of truth and the power of the Holy Spirit to believe in the
incarnate God. The cure is already begun. After faith come gratitude, love, obedience.
VI. ITS REMARKABLY EASY APPLICATION.
VII. Since the medicine is so efficacious, since it is already prepared and freely presented, I do
beseech you TAKE IT. Take it, you who have known its power in years gone by. Let not
backslidings continue, but come to His stripes afresh. Take it, ye doubters, lest ye sink into
despair; come to His stripes anew. Take it, ye who are beginning to be self-confident and proud.
And, O ye who have never believed in Him, come and trust in Him, and you shall live.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
A simple remedyI. THESE ARE SAD WORDS. They are part of a mournful piece of music,
which might be called "the requiem of the Messiah."
1. These are sad words because they imply disease.
2. There is a second sorrow in the verse, and that is sorrow for the suffering by which we are
healed. There was a cruel process in the English navy, in which-men were made to run the
gauntlet all along the ship, with sailors on each side, each man being bound to give a stroke to
the poor victim as he ran along. Our Saviour's life was a running of the gauntlet between His
enemies and His friends, who all struck Him, one here and another there. Satan, too, struck at
him.
II. THESE ARE GLAD WORDS.
1. Because they speak of healing.
2. There is another joy in the text — joy in the honour which it brings to Christ.

III. THESE ARE SUGGESTIVE WORDS. Whenever a man is healed through the stripes of
Jesus, the instincts of his nature should make him say, "I will spend the strength I have, as a
healed man, for Him who healed me."
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
ChristopathyI. GOD HERE TREATS SIN AS A DISEASE. Sin is a disease —
1. Because it is not an essential part of man as he was created. It is something abnormal.
2. Because it puts all the faculties out of gear.
3. Because it weakens the moral energy, just as many diseases weaken the sick person's body.
4. Because it either causes great pain, or deadens all sensibility, as the case may be.
5. Because it frequently produces a manifest pollution.
6. Because it tends to increase in the man, and will one day prove fatal to him.
II. GOD HERE DECLARES THE REMEDY WHICH HE HAS PROVIDED.
1. Behold the heavenly medicine.
2. Remember that the sufferings of Christ were vicarious.
2. Accept this atonement and you are saved by it.
4. Let nothing of your own interfere with the Divine remedy. Prayer does not heal, but it asks for
the remedy. It is not trust that heals; that is man s application of the remedy. Repentance is not
what cures, it is a part of the cure, one of the first tokens that the blessed medicine has begun to
work in the soul. The healing of a sinner does not lie in himself, nor in what he is, nor in what he
feels, nor in what he does, nor in what he vows, nor in what he promises. It is in His stripes that
the healing lies.
III. THE REMEDY IS IMMEDIATELY EFFECTIVE. How are we healed?
1. Our conscience is healed of every smart.
2. Our heart is healed of its love of sin.
3. Our life is healed of its rebellion.
4. Our consciousness assures us that we are healed. If you are healed by His stripes you should
go and live like healthy men.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Healed by Christ's stripesMr. Mackay, of Hull, told of a person who was under very deep
concern of soul. Taking the Bible into his hand, he said to himself, "Eternal life is to be found
somewhere in this Word of God; and, if it be here, I will find it, for I will read the Book right
through, praying to God over every page of it, if perchance it may contain some saving message
for me." The earnest seeker read on through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and so on; and though
Christ is there very evidently, he could not find Him in the types and symbols. Neither did the
holy histories yield him comfort, nor the Book of Job. He passed through the Psalms, but did not
find his Saviour there; and the same was the case with the other books till he reached Isaiah. In
this prophet he read on till near the end, and then in the fifty-third chapter, these words arrested
his delighted attention, "With His stripes we are healed." Now I have found it, says he. Here is

the healing that I need for my sin-sick soul, and I see how it comes to me through the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be His name, I am healed!"
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Self-sufficiency prevents healingI saw a pedlar one day, as I was walking out; he was selling
walkingsticks. He followed me, and offered me one of the sticks. I showed him mine — a far
better one than any he had to sell — and he withdrew at once. He could see that I was not likely
to be a purchaser. I have often thought of that when I have been preaching: I show men the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus, but they show me their own, and all hope of dealing with them
is gone. Unless I can prove that their righteousness is worthless, they will not seek the
righteousness which is of God by faith. Oh, that the Lord would show you your disease, and then
you would desire the remedy!
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sin deadens sensibilityIt frequently happens that, the more sinful a man is, the less he is
conscious of it. It was remarked of a certain notorious criminal that many thought him innocent
because, when he was charged with murder, he did not betray the least emotion. In that wretched
self-possession there was to my mind presumptive proof of his great familiarity with trims; if an
innocent person is charged with a great offence, the mere charge horrifies him.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
COMMENTARIES
EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) He was wounded . . .—Bruised. Both words refer
to the death which crowned the sufferings of the Servant. That also was vicarious.
The chastisement of our peace—i.e., the punishment which leads to peace, that word including,
as elsewhere, every form of blessing. (Comp. the “reproof of life” in Proverbs 15:31.) In
Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 5:8-9, we have the thought which is the complement of this, that the
chastisement was also an essential condition of the perfection of the sufferer.
With his stripes we are healed.—The words stretch wide and deep. Perhaps the most touching
application is St. Peter’s use of them as a thought of comfort for the slaves who were scourged as
He, their Lord, had been (1Peter 2:24).
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary53:4-9 In these verses is an account of the sufferings of
Christ; also of the design of his sufferings. It was for our sins, and in our stead, that our Lord
Jesus suffered. We have all sinned, and have come short of the glory of God. Sinners have their
beloved sin, their own evil way, of which they are fond. Our sins deserve all griefs and sorrows,
even the most severe. We are saved from the ruin, to which by sin we become liable, by laying

our sins on Christ. This atonement was to be made for our sins. And this is the only way of
salvation. Our sins were the thorns in Christ's head, the nails in his hands and feet, the spear in
his side. He was delivered to death for our offences. By his sufferings he purchased for us the
Spirit and grace of God, to mortify our corruptions, which are the distempers of our souls. We
may well endure our lighter sufferings, if He has taught us to esteem all things but loss for him,
and to love him who has first loved us.
Barnes' Notes on the BibleBut he was wounded - Margin, 'Tormented.' Jerome and the
Septuagint also render this, 'He was wounded.' Junius and Tremellius, 'He was affected with
grief.' The Chaldee has given a singular paraphrase of it, showing how confused was the view of
the whole passage in the mind of that interpreter. 'And he shall build the house of the sanctuary
which was defiled on account of our sins, and which was delivered on account of our iniquities.
And in his doctrine, peace shall be multiplied to us. And when we obey his words, our sins shall
be remitted to us.' The Syriac renders it in a remarkable manner, 'He is slain on account of our
sins,' thus showing that it was a common belief that the Messiah would be violently put to death.
The word rendered 'wounded' (‫ללממ‬ mecholâl), is a Pual participle, from ‫לממ‬ châlal, to bore
through, to perforate, to pierce; hence, to wound 1 Samuel 31:3; 1 Chronicles 10:3; Ezekiel 28:9.
There is probably the idea of painful piercing, and it refers to some infliction of positive wounds
on the body, and not to mere mental sorrows, or to general humiliation. The obvious idea would
be that there would be some act of piercing, some penetrating wound that would endanger or
take life. Applied to the actual sufferings of the Messiah, it refers undoubtedly to the piercing of
his hands, his feet, and his side. The word 'tormented,' in the margin, was added by our
translators because the Hebrew word might be regarded as derived from ‫לומ‬ chûl, to writhe, to be
tormented, to be pained - a word not unfrequently applied to the pains of parturition. But it is
probable that it is rather to be regarded as derived from ‫לממ‬ châlal, "to pierce, or to wound."
For our transgressions - The prophet here places himself among the people for whom the
Messiah suffered these things, and says that he was not suffering for his own sins, but on account
of theirs. The preposition 'for' (‫ןל‬ min) here answers to the Greek διά dia, on account of, and
denotes the cause for which he suffered and means, even according to Gesenius (Lex.), here, 'the
ground or motive on account of, or because of which anything is done.' Compare Deuteronomy
7:7; Judges 5:11; Esther 5:9; Psalm 68:30; Sol 3:8. It is strikingly parallel to the passage in
Romans 4:25 : 'Who was delivered for (διά dia) our offences.' Compare 2 Corinthians 5:21;
Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 2:24. Here the sense is, that the reason why he thus suffered was, that we
were transgressors. All along the prophet keeps up the idea that it was not on account of any sin
of which he was guilty that he thus suffered, but it was for the sins of others - an idea which is
everywhere exhibited in the New Testament.
He was bruised - The word used here (‫אכד‬ dâkâ') means properly to be broken to pieces, to be
bruised, to be crushed Job 6:9; Psalm 72:4. Applied to mind, it means to break down or crush by
calamities and trials; and by the use of the word here, no doubt, the most severe inward and
outward sufferings are designated. The Septuagint renders it, Μεμαλάκιστα Memalakista - 'He
was rendered languid,' or feeble. The same idea occurs in the Syriac translation. The meaning is,
that he was under such a weight of sorrows on account of our sins, that he was, as it were,
crushed to the earth. How true this was of the Lord Jesus it is not necessary here to pause to
show.
The chastisement of our peace - That is, the chastisement by which our peace is effected or
secured was laid upon him; or, he took it upon himself,' and bore it, in order that we might have

peace. Each word here is exceedingly important, in order to a proper estimate of the nature of the
work performed by the Redeemer. The word 'chastisement' (‫לסּומ‬ mûsâr), properly denotes the
correction, chastisement, or punishment inflicted by parents on their children, designed to amend
their faults Proverbs 22:15; Proverbs 23:13. It is applied also to the discipline and authority of
kings Job 22:18; and to the discipline or correction of God Job 5:17; Hosea 5:2. Sometimes it
means admonition or instruction, such as parents give to children, or God to human beings. It is
well rendered by the Septuagint by Παιδεία Paideia; by Jerome, Disciplina. The word does not of
necessity denote punishment, though it is often used in that sense.
It is properly that which corrects, whether it be by admonition, counsel, punishment, or suffering.
Here it cannot properly mean punishment - for there is no punishment where there is no guilt,
and the Redeemer had done no sin; but it means that he took upon himself the sufferings which
would secure the peace of those for whom he died - those which, if they could have been
endured by themselves, would have effected their peace with God. The word peace means
evidently their peace with God; reconciliation with their Creator. The work of religion in the soul
is often represented as peace; and the Redeemer is spoken of as the great agent by whom that is
secured. 'For he is our peace' (Ephesians 2:14-15, Ephesians 2:17; compare Acts 10:36; Romans
5:1; Romans 10:15). The phrase 'upon him,' means that the burden by which the peace of people
was effected was laid upon him, and that he bore it. It is parallel with the expressions which
speak of his bearing it, carrying it, etc. And the sense of the whole is, that he endured the
sorrows, whatever they were, which were needful to secure our peace with God.
And with his stripes - Margin, 'Bruise.' The word used here in Hebrew (‫לרומח‬ chabbûrâh) means
properly stripe, weal, bruise, that is, the mark or print of blows on the skin. Greek Μώλωπι
Mōlōpi; Vulgate, Livore. On the meaning of the Hebrew word, see the notes at Isaiah 1:6. It
occurs in the following places, and is translated by stripe, and stripes (Exodus 21:25, bis); bruises
Isaiah 1:6; hurt Genesis 4:23; blueness Proverbs 20:30; wounds Psalm 38:5; and spots, as of a
leopard Jeremiah 13:23. The proper idea is the weal or wound made by bruising; the mark
designated by us when we speak of its being 'black and blue.' It is not a flesh wound; it does not
draw blood; but the blood and other humors are collected under the skin. The obvious and
natural idea conveyed by the word here is, that the individual referred to would be subjected to
some treatment that would cause such a weal or stripe; that is, that he would be beaten, or
scourged. How literally this was applicable to the Lord Jesus, it is unnecessary to attempt to
prove (see Matthew 27:26). It may be remarked here, that this could not be mere conjecture How
could Isaiah, seven hundred years before it occurred, conjecture that the Messiah would be
scourged and bruised? It is this particularity of prediction, compared with the literal fulfillment,
which furnishes the fullest demonstration that the prophet was inspired. In the prediction nothing
is vague and general. All is particular and minute, as if he saw what was done, and the
description is as minutely accurate as if he was describing what was actually occurring before his
eyes.
We are healed - literally, it is healed to us; or healing has happened to us. The healing here
referred to, is spiritual healing, or healing from sin. Pardon of sin, and restoration to the favor of
God, are not unfrequently represented as an act of healing. The figure is derived from the fact
that awakened and convicted sinners are often represented as crushed, broken, bruised by the
weight of their transgressions, and the removal of the load of sin is repesented as an act of
healing. 'I said, O Lord, be merciful unto me; heal my soul, for I have sinned againt thee' Psalm
41:4. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed'

Psalm 6:2. 'Who forgiveth all thine, iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases Psalm 103:3. The
idea here is, that the Messiah would be scourged; and that it would be by that scourging that
health would be imparted to our souls.
It would be in our place, and in our stead; and it would be designed to have the same effect in
recovering us, as though it had been inflicted on ourselves. And will it not do it? Is it not a fact
that it has such an effect? Is not a man as likely to be recovered from a course of sin and folly,
who sees another suffer in his place what he ought himself to suffer, as though he was punished
himself? Is not a wayward and dissipated son quite as likely to be recovered to a course of virtue
by seeing the sufferings which his career of vice causes to a father, a mother, or a sister, as
though he himself When subjected to severe punishment? When such a son sees that he is
bringing down the gray hairs of his father with sorrow to the grave; when he sees that he is
breaking the heart of the mother that bore him; when he sees a sister bathed in tears, or in danger
of being reduced to poverty or shame by his course, it will be far more likely to reclaim him than
would be personal suffering, or the prospect of poverty, want, and an early death. And it is on
this principle that the plan of salvation is founded. We shall be more certainly reclaimed by the
voluntary sufferings of the innocent in our behalf, than we should be by being personally
punished. Punishment would make no atonement, and would bring back no sinner to God. But
the suffering of the Redeemer in behalf of mankind is adapted to save the world, and will in fact
arrest, reclaim, and redeem all who shall ever enter into heaven.
(Sin is not only a crime for which we were condemned to die, and which Christ purchased for us
the pardon of, but it is a disease which tends directly to the death of our souls, and which Christ
provided for the cure of. By his stripes, that is, the sufferings he underwent, he purchased for us
the Spirit and grace of God, to mortify our corruptions, which are the distempers of our souls;
and to put our souls in a good state of health, that they may be fit to serve God, and prepare to
enjoy him. And by the doctrine of Christ's cross, and the powerful arguments it furnisheth us
with against sin, the dominion of sin is broken in us, and we are fortified against that which feeds
the disease - Henry.)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary5. wounded—a bodily wound; not mere mental
sorrow; literally, "pierced"; minutely appropriate to Messiah, whose hands, feet, and side were
pierced (Ps 22:16). The Margin, wrongly, from a Hebrew root, translates, "tormented."
for … for—(Ro 4:25; 2Co 5:21; Heb 9:28; 1Pe 2:24; 3:18)—the cause for which He suffered not
His own, but our sins.
bruised—crushing inward and outward suffering (see on [853]Isa 53:10).
chastisement—literally, the correction inflicted by a parent on children for their good (Heb 12:5-
8, 10, 11). Not punishment strictly; for this can have place only where there is guilt, which He
had not; but He took on Himself the chastisement whereby the peace (reconciliation with our
Father; Ro 5:1; Eph 2:14, 15, 17) of the children of God was to be effected (Heb 2:14).
upon him—as a burden; parallel to "hath borne" and "carried."
stripes—minutely prophetical of His being scourged (Mt 27:26; 1Pe 2:24).
healed—spiritually (Ps 41:4; Jer 8:22).
Matthew Poole's CommentaryBut; but this was a most false and unrighteous sentence.
He was wounded; which word comprehends all his pains and punishments, and his death among

and above the rest.
For our transgressions; not by them, which is expressed by another particle, not by the
wickedness of the Jews; but for or because of them, as this particle commonly signifies, for the
guilt of their sins, which he had voluntarily taken upon himself, and for the expiation of their
sins, which was hereby purchased and procured of God for men. Which interpretation is
confirmed,
1. By the opposition of this truth to the false opinion mentioned in the foregoing clause, that he
was smitten of God for the guilt of his own sins.
2. By the following clause, as we shall see.
3. By the nature of the thing; this being evident from scriptures both from the Old and New
Testament, that Christ was not to suffer for his own, but for other men’s sins. See Daniel 9:24,26.
The chastisement of our peace; those punishments by which our peace, i.e. our reconciliation to
God, and salvation, or happiness, was to be purchased.
Was upon him; was laid upon him by God’s justice with his own consent.
With his stripes we are healed; by his sufferings we are saved from our sins, and from the
dreadful effects thereof.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleBut he was wounded for our transgressions,.... Not for any
sins of his own, but for ours, for our rebellions against God, and transgressions of his law, in
order to make atonement and satisfaction for them; these were the procuring and meritorious
causes of his sufferings and death, as they were taken upon him by him to answer for them to
divine justice, which are meant by his being wounded; for not merely the wounds he received in
his hands, feet, and side, made by the nails and spear, are meant, but the whole of his sufferings,
and especially his being wounded to death, and which was occasionally by bearing the sins of his
people; and hereby he removed the guilt from them, and freed them from the punishment due
unto them:
he was bruised for our iniquities; as bread corn is bruised by threshing it, or by its being ground
in the mill, as the manna was; or as spice is bruised in a mortar, he being broken and crushed to
pieces under the weight of sin, and the punishment of it. The ancient Jews understood this of the
Messiah; in one place they say (o),
"chastisements are divided into three parts, one to David and the fathers, one to our generation,
and one to the King Messiah; as it is written, "he was wounded for our transgressions; and
bruised for our iniquities":''
and in another place (p),
"at that time they shall declare to the Messiah the troubles of Israel in captivity, and the wicked
which are among them, that do not mind to know the Lord; he shall lift up his voice, and weep
over the wicked among them; as it is said, "he was wounded for our transgressions", &c.''

the chastisement of our peace was upon him; that is, the punishment of our sins was inflicted on
him, whereby our peace and reconciliation with God was made by him; for chastisement here
does not design the chastisement of a father, and in love, such as the Lord chastises his people
with; but an act of vindictive justice, and in wrath, taking vengeance on our sins, of our surety,
whereby divine wrath is appeased, justice is satisfied, and peace is made:
and with his stripes we are healed; or "by his stripe" (q), or "bruise": properly the black and blue
mark of it, so called from the gathering and settling of the blood where the blow is given. Sin is a
disease belonging to all men, a natural, hereditary, nauseous, and incurable one, but by the blood
of Christ; forgiving sin is a healing of this disease; and this is to be had, and in no other way,
than through the stripes and wounds, the blood and sacrifice, of the Son of God. Christ is a
wonderful physician; he heals by taking the sicknesses of his people upon himself, by bearing
their sins, and being wounded and bruised for them, and by his enduring blows, and suffering
death itself for them. The Targum is,
"when we obey his words, our sins will be forgiven us;''
but forgiveness is not through our obedience, but the blood of Christ.
(o) Mechilta apud Yalkut, par. 2. fol 90. 1.((p) Zohar in Exod. fol. 85. 2. See also Midrash Ruth,
fol. 33. 2. and Zohar in Deut. fol. 117. 3. and R. Moses Hadarsan apud Galatia de Arcan. Cath.
Ver. I. 8. c. 15 p. 586. and in I. 6. c. 2. p. 436. (q) "per livorem ejus", Munster; "livore ejus", V.
L. Montanus, Vatablus; "tumice ejus", Junius & Tremellius; "vibico ejus", Cocceius; "vibicibus
ejus" Vitringa.
Geneva Study BibleBut he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities: the {h} chastisement for our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
(h) He was chastised for our reconciliation, 1Co 15:3.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges5. In Isaiah 53:4 the people confess that the Servant
was their substitute in his endurance of pains and sicknesses; here they penetrate more deeply
into the meaning of his sufferings, perceiving the connexion between his passion and their own
sin. The connexion is twofold; in the first place the Servant’s suffering was the penalty due to the
people’s transgressions, and in the second place it was the remedy by which they were restored
to spiritual health.
But he was pierced because of our rebellions,
Crushed because of our iniquities.
The strong verbs “pierced” (see ch. Isaiah 51:9) and “crushed” (Job 6:9) are probably metaphors
expressing the fatal ravages of leprosy.
the chastisement of our peace] i.e. the chastisement needful to procure peace or well-being for
us. “Chastisement” is pain inflicted for moral ends and with remedial intent (Proverbs 3:11 f.
&c.). Cheyne’s assertion that the notion of punishment is the primary one in this word is not
borne out by O.T. usage.
with his stripes] lit. weals (see ch. Isaiah 1:6).

That the people themselves had suffered for their sins is not excluded, but is apparently implied
in the last words (“we are healed”), and is expressly said in other parts of the book (ch. Isaiah
40:2, Isaiah 42:24 f. &c.). What the verse teaches is that the people could not be healed by their
own suffering; it was only through the Servant’s voluntary submission to the divine chastisement
(Isaiah 53:7), and his bearing it in an extraordinary degree, that an atonement was effected
between Jehovah and Israel (see on ch. Isaiah 40:2).
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - But he was wounded for our transgressions. This verse contains
four asseverations of the great truth that all Christ's sufferings were for us, and constituted the
atonement for our sins. The form is varied, but the truth is one. Christ was "wounded" or
"pierced"
(1) by the thorns;
(2) by the nails; and
(3) by the spear of the soldier.
The wounds inflicted by the nails caused his death, He was bruised; or, crushed (comp. Isaiah
3:15; Isaiah 19:10; Isaiah 57:15. Psalm 72:4). "No stronger expression could be found in Hebrew
to denote severity of suffering - suffering unto death" (Urwick). The chastisement of our peace
was upon him; i.e. "the chastisement which brought us peace," which put a stop to the enmity
between fallen man and an offended God - which made them once more at one (comp. Ephesians
2:15-17, "Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the Law of commandments contained in
ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and
preached peace to you which were afar off;" Colossians 1:20, "Having made peace through the
blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself"). With his stripes we are healed;
rather, we were healed (comp. 1 Peter 2:24, "By whose stripes ye were healed"). Besides the
blows inflicted on him with the hand (Matthew 26:27) and with the reed (Matthew 27:30), our
Lord was judicially scourged (Matthew 27:26). Such scourging would leave the "stripe-marks"
which are here spoken of.
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old TestamentThe prophecy concerning him
passes now into an address to him, as in Isaiah 49:8 (cf., Isaiah 49:7), which sinks again
immediately into an objective tone. "Just as many were astonished at thee: so disfigured, his
appearance was not human, and his form not like that of the children of men: so will he make
many nations to tremble; kings will shut their mouth at him: for they see what has not been told
them, and discover what they have not heard." Both Oehler and Hahn suppose that the first
clause is addressed to Israel, and that it is here pointed away from its own degradation, which
excited such astonishment, to the depth of suffering endured by the One man. Hahn's principal
reason, which Oehler adopts, is the sudden leap that we should otherwise have to assume from
the second person to the third - an example of "negligence" which we can hardly impute to the
prophet. But a single glance at Isaiah 42:20 and Isaiah 1:29 is sufficient to show how little force
there is in this principal argument. We should no doubt expect ‫םכימע‬ or ‫ךימע‬ after what has gone
before, if the nation were addressed; but it is difficult to see what end a comparison between the
sufferings of the nation and those of the One man, which merely places the sufferings of the two

in an external relation to one another, could be intended to answer; whilst the second kēn (so),
which evidently introduces an antithesis, is altogether unexplained. The words are certainly
addressed to the servant of Jehovah; and the meaning of the sicut (just as) in Isaiah 52:14, and of
the sic (so) which introduces the principal sentence in Isaiah 52:15, is, that just as His
degradation was the deepest degradation possible, so His glorification would be of the loftiest
kind. The height of the exaltation is held up as presenting a perfect contrast to the depth of the
degradation. The words, "so distorted was his face, more than that of a man," form, as has been
almost unanimously admitted since the time of Vitringa, a parenthesis, containing the reason for
the astonishment excited by the servant of Jehovah. Stier is wrong in supposing that this first
"so" (kēn) refers to ka'ăsher (just as), in the sense of "If men were astonished at thee, there was
ground for the astonishment." Isaiah 52:15 would not stand out as an antithesis, if we adopted
this explanation; moreover, the thought that the fact corresponded to the impression which men
received, is a very tame and unnecessary one; and the change of persons in sentences related to
one another in this manner is intolerably harsh; whereas, with our view of the relation in which
the sentences stand to one another, the parenthesis prepares the way for the sudden change from
a direct address to a declaration. Hitherto many had been astonished at the servant of Jehovah:
shâmēm, to be desolate or waste, to be thrown by anything into a desolate or benumbed
condition, to be startled, confused, as it were petrified, by paralyzing astonishment (Leviticus
26:32; Ezekiel 26:16). To such a degree (kēn, adeo) was his appearance mishchath mē'ı̄sh, and
his form mibbenē 'âdâm (sc., mishchath). We might take mishchath as the construct of
mishchâth, as Hitzig does, since this connecting form is sometimes used (e.g., Isaiah 33:6) even
without any genitive relation; but it may also be the absolute, syncopated from ‫לתלׁשמ‬ equals
‫לתלׁשׁש‬ (Hvernick and Stier), like moshchath in Malachi 1:14, or, what we prefer, after the form
mirmas (Isaiah 10:6), with the original ă, without the usual lengthening (Ewald, 160, c, Anm. 4).
His appearance and his form were altogether distortion (stronger than moshchâth, distorted),
away from men, out beyond men, i.e., a distortion that destroys all likeness to a man;
(Note: The church before the time of Constantine pictured to itself the Lord, as He walked on
earth, as repulsive in His appearance; whereas the church after Constantine pictured Him as
having quite an ideal beauty (see my tract, Jesus and Hillel, 1865, p. 4). They were both right:
unattractive in appearance, though not deformed, He no doubt was in the days of His flesh; but
He is ideally beautiful in His glorification. The body in which He was born of Mary was no royal
form, though faith could see the doxa shining through. It was no royal form, for the suffering of
death was the portion of the Lamb of God, even from His mother's womb; but the glorified One
is infinitely exalted above all the idea of art.)
'ı̄sh does not signify man as distinguished from woman here, but a human being generally.
The antithesis follows in Isaiah 52:15 : viz., the state of glory in which this form of wretchedness
has passed away. As a parallel to the "many" in Isaiah 52:14, we have here "many nations,"
indicating the excess of the glory by the greater fulness of the expression; and as a parallel to
"were astonished at thee," "he shall make to tremble" (yazzeh), in other words, the effect which
He produces by what He does to the effect produced by what He suffers. The hiphil hizzâh
generally means to spirt or sprinkle (adspergere), and is applied to the sprinkling of the blood
with the finger, more especially upon the capporeth and altar of incense on the day of atonement
(differing in this respect from zâraq, the swinging of the blood out of a bowl), also to the
sprinkling of the water of purification upon a leper with the bunch of hyssop (Leviticus 14:7),
and of the ashes of the red heifer upon those defiled through touching a corpse (Numbers 19:18);

in fact, generally, to sprinkling for the purpose of expiation and sanctification. And Vitringa,
Hengstenberg, and others, accordingly follow the Syriac and Vulgate in adopting the rendering
adsperget (he will sprinkle). They have the usage of the language in their favour; and this
explanation also commends itself from a reference to ‫עּוסע‬ in Isaiah 53:4, and ‫ע‬ ni ‫ּוע‬Isaiah 53:8
(words which are generally used of leprosy, and on account of which the suffering Messiah is
called in b. Sanhedrin 98b by an emblematical name adopted from the old synagogue, "the leper
of Rabbi's school"), since it yields the significant antithesis, that he who was himself regarded as
unclean, even as a second Job, would sprinkle and sanctify whole nations, and thus abolish the
wall of partition between Israel and the heathen, and gather together into one holy church with
Israel those who had hitherto been pronounced "unclean" (Isaiah 52:1). But, on the other hand,
this explanation has so far the usage of the language against it, that hizzâh is never construed
with the accusative of the person or thing sprinkled (like adspergere aliqua re aliquem; since 'eth
in Leviticus 4:6, Leviticus 4:17 is a preposition like ‛al, ‛el elsewhere); moreover, there would be
something very abrupt in this sudden representation of the servant as a priest. Such explanations
as "he will scatter asunder" (disperget, Targum, etc.), or "he will spill" (sc., their blood), are
altogether out of the question; such thoughts as these would be quite out of place in a spiritual
picture of salvation and glory, painted upon the dark ground we have here. The verb nâzâh
signified primarily to leap or spring; hence hizzâh, with the causative meaning to sprinkle. The
kal combines the intransitive and transitive meanings of the word "spirt," and is used in the
former sense in Isaiah 63:3, to signify the springing up or sprouting up of any liquid scattered
about in drops. The Arabic nazâ (see Ges. Thes.) shows that this verb may also be applied to the
springing or leaping of living beings, caused by excess of emotion. And accordingly we follow
the majority of the commentators in adopting the rendering exsilire faciet. The fact that whole
nations are the object, and not merely individuals, proves nothing to the contrary, as Habakkuk
3:6 clearly shows. The reference is to their leaping up in amazement (lxx θαυμάσονται); and the
verb denotes less an external than an internal movement. They will tremble with astonishment
within themselves (cf., pâchădū verâgezū in Jeremiah 33:9), being electrified, as it were, by the
surprising change that has taken place in the servant of Jehovah. The reason why kings "shut
their mouths at him" is expressly stated, viz., what was never related they see, and what was
never heard of they perceive; i.e., it was something going far beyond all that had ever been
reported to them outside the world of nations, or come to their knowledge within it. Hitzig's
explanation, that they do not trust themselves to begin to speak before him or along with him,
gives too feeble a sense, and would lead us rather to expect ‫ויעפמ‬ than eht fo gnittuhs ehT .‫עמיו‬
mouth is the involuntary effect of the overpowering impression, or the manifestation of their
extreme amazement at one so suddenly brought out of the depths, and lifted up to so great a
height. The strongest emotion is that which remains shut up within ourselves, because, from its
very intensity, it throws the whole nature into a suffering state, and drowns all reflection in
emotion (cf., yachărı̄sh in Zephaniah 3:17). The parallel in Isaiah 49:7 is not opposed to this; the
speechless astonishment, at what is unheard and inconceivable, changes into adoring homage, as
soon as they have become to some extent familiar with it. The first turn in the prophecy closes
here: The servant of Jehovah, whose inhuman sufferings excite such astonishment, is exalted on
high; so that from utter amazement the nations tremble, and their kings are struck dumb.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES

CHRISTOPATHYNO. 2499
A SERMON INTENDEDFOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, JANUARY 10,
1897. DELIVERED BYC. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN
TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 30,
1885.
“With His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah53:5.
Brothers and sisters, whenever we come to talk about the passionof our
Lord—and that subjectis clearlybrought before us, here, by the two words,
“His stripes”—ourfeelings should be deeply solemn, and our attention
intensely earnest. Take offyour shoes when you draw near to this burning
bush, for God is in it! If ever the spirit should be deeply penitential, and yet
humbly confident, it ought to be when we hear the lash falling upon the divine
and human personof our blessedMaster, and see Him wounded for our
transgressions, andbruised for our iniquities. Stand still, then, and see your
Lord and Masterfastenedto the Roman column, and cruelly scourged!hear
the terrible strokes. Mark the bleeding wounds, and see how He becomes a
mass of pain even as to His blessedbody! Then note how His soul, also, is
flagellated. Hark how the whips fall upon His spirit till His inmost heart is
wounded with the tortures, all but unbearable, which He endures for us! I
charge my own heart to meditate upon this solemntheme without a single
wandering thought—and I pray that you and I may be able to think together
upon the matchless sufferings of incarnate Love until our hearts melt within
us in grateful love to Him. Remember, brothers and sisters, that we were
practically there when Jesus sufferedthose terrible stripes— “‘Twas you, my
sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were! Eachof my crimes became a
nail, And unbelief the spear.” We certainlyhad a share in His sorrows. Oh,
that we were equally certain that “with His stripes we are healed.” You smote

Him, dear friend, and you wounded Him—therefore do not restuntil you can
say, “with His stripes I am healed.” We must have a personalinterest in this
suffering One if we are to be healedby His stripes. We must lay our own
hands upon this greatsacrifice, and so acceptit as being made on our behalf,
for it would be a wretched thing to know that Christ was stricken, but not to
know that, “with His stripes we are healed.” I would to God that no one
should go out from this service without being able to say to himself as he
retired, “Yes, blessedbe His name, ‘with His stripes I am healed.’The disease
of sin is put awayby the sacredbalsamwhich drops from the side of the
Crucified. From that mortal disease whichotherwise would surely have
destroyedme, I am restoredby His sufferings, His grief, His death.” And
then, all together, may we be able to say, “with His stripes we are healed.” I.
Observe, dear friends, first of all, that GOD HERE TREATS SIN AS A
DISEASE. There would be no need to talk about healing if sin had not been
regardedby God as a disease. Itis a greatdeal more than a disease—itis a
willful crime—but it is still a disease. It is often very difficult to separate the
part in a crime which disease ofthe mind may have, and that portion which is
distinctly willful. We need not make this separationourselves. If we were to do
so in order to excuse ourselves, thatwould only be increasing the evil! And if
we do it for any other reason, we are so apt to be partial that I am afraid we
should ultimately make some kind of excuse for our sin which would not bear
the testof the Day of Judgment. It is only because ofGod’s sovereignty, His
infinite grace, andHis strong resolve to have mercy upon men that, in this
instance, He wills to look upon sin as a disease. He does
2 Christopathy Sermon#2499
2 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 43
not concealfromHimself, or from us, that it is a great and grievous fault. He
calls it a trespass, a transgression, iniquity, and other terms that setforth its
true character. Neverin Scripture do we find any excuse for sin, or lessening
of its heinousness, but in order that He might have mercy upon us, and deal
graciouslywith us, the Lord is pleasedto regard it as a disease—andthen to
come and treat us as a physician treats his patients, that He may cure us of the
evil. Sin is a disease,first, because it is not an essentialpart of man as he was

created. It is something abnormal. It was not in human nature at the first.
“Godmade man upright.” Our first parent, as he came fresh from the hand of
his Maker, was withouttaint or speck ofsin—he had a healthy body inhabited
by a healthy soul. There was about him no tendency to evil. He was created
pure and perfect—andsin does not enter into the constitution of man, per se,
as God made it. It is a something which has come into us from outside. Satan
came with his temptation, and sin entered into us, and death by sin.
Therefore, let no man, in any sense whatever, attribute sin to God as the
Creator. Let him look upon sin as being a something extraneous to a man,
something which ought never to have a locus standi within our nature at all, a
something that is disturbing and destructive, a poisoneddart that is sticking
in our flesh, abiding in our nature—and that has to be extractedby divine and
sovereigngrace. And, secondly, sin is like a disease because itputs all the
faculties out of gear, and breaks the equilibrium of the life-forces, just as
disease disturbs all our bodily functions. When a man is sick and ill, nothing
about him works as it ought to do. There are some particular symptoms
which, first of all, betray the existence of the virus of disease,but you cannot
injure any one powerof the body without the restbeing, in their measure, put
out of order! Thus has sin come into the soul of man, and put him altogether
out of gear. Sometimes a certain passionbecomes predominant in a person
quite out of proportion to the restof his manhood. Things that might have
been right in themselves, grow by indulgence into positive evils, while other
things which ought to have had an open existence are suppresseduntil the
suppressionbecomes a crime. It is sin that makes us wrong, and makes
everything about us wrong—and makes us suffer, we know not how much!
The worstof the matter is that we do not, ourselves, readilyperceive that we
are the evil-doers, and we begin, perhaps, to judge others who are right. And
because they are not preciselyin the same condition as ourselves, we make our
sinful selves to be the standard of equity, and considerthat they are wrong,
when all the while the evil is in ourselves!As long as a man is under the power
of sin, his soul is under the powerof a disease whichhas disturbed all his
faculties, and takenawaythe correctactionfrom every part of his being.
Hence, God sees sinto be a disease, andwe ought to thank Him that, in His
gracious condescension, He deals with it in that way, instead of calling it what
it really is—a crime deserving instant punishment! Further, my friends, sin is

a disease becauseit weakens the moral energy, just as many diseases weaken
the sick person’s body. A man under the influence of some particular disease
becomes quite incapacitatedfor his ordinary work. There was a time when he
was strong and athletic, but disease has enteredhis system, and so his nerves
have lost their former force, and he, who would be the helper of others,
becomes impotent, and needs to be waitedupon, himself. How often is a
strong man brought down to utter helplessness!He who used to run like a
hare must now be led out if he is to breathe the fresh air of heaven. He who
once could cut with the axe, or pound with the hammer, must now be lifted
and carried like a child! You all know how greatly the body is weakenedby
disease—andjust so is it with sin and the spirit. Sin takes awayfrom the soul
all power. Does notthe apostle speak ofus as being, “without strength” when,
“in due time Christ died for the ungodly”? The man has not the power or the
will to believe in Christ, but yet he canbelieve a lie most readily! And he has
no difficulty in cheating himself into self-conceit. The man has not the
strength to quit his sin, though he has powerto pursue it with yet greater
energy! He is weak in the knees, so that he cannotpray. He is weak in the
eyes, so that he cannot see Jesus as his Savior. He is weak in the feet, so that he
cannot draw near to God. He has withered hands, dumb lips, deaf ears, and
he is palsied in his whole system! O sin, you take awayfrom man the strength
he needs with which to make the pilgrimage to heaven, or to go forth to warin
the name of the Lord of hosts!Sin does all this, and yet men love it, and will
not turn from it to Him who alone can destroyits deadly power! I know that I
am speaking to some who are wellaware that sin has thrown their whole
nature out of order, and takenaway all their powerto do that which is right.
You, my friend, have come into this place, which is like the poolof Bethesda
with its five porches, and you have said in your heart, “Oh, that
Sermon #2499 Christopathy3
Volume 43 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 3
the greatPhysicianwould come and healme! I cannot step into the pool of His
infinite mercy and love, though I would gladly lie there waiting upon the
means of grace. ButI know that I shall find no benefit in the means of grace
unless the Lord, who is the Giver of grace, shallcome to me, and say, as He

said to the man at the pool, ‘Rise, take up your bed, and walk.’” Oh, what an
awful mass of disease there is all round us in these streets, and in these
myriads of houses!Sin has done for mankind the most dreadful deeds—itis
the direst of all calamities, the worst of all infections! And, further, sin is like
a disease becauseit either causes greatpain, or deadens all sensibility, as the
case may be. I do not know which one I might rather choose,whetherto be so
diseasedas to be full of pain, or to be suddenly smitten by a paralytic stroke,
so as not to be able to feelat all. In spiritual things, the latter is the worse of
the two evils! There are some sinners who appear to feel nothing. They sin,
but their conscience does notaccuse them concerning it! They purpose to go
yet further into sin—and they reject Christ, and turn aside from Him even
when the Spirit of God is striving with them—for they are insensible to the
wrong they are doing. They do not feel. They cannotfeel. And, alas, they do
not even want to feel—theyare callous and obdurate, and, as the apostle
says—“pastfeeling.” Whenthey read or hear of the judgment to come, they
do not tremble. When they are told about the love of Christ, they do not yield
to Him. They can hear about His suffering, and remain altogetherunmoved—
they have no fellowship with His suffering and scarcelyknow what the
expressionmeans!Sin is dear to them, even though it slew the Lord of glory,
Himself! This paralysis, this deadening of the powers is a very terrible phase
of the disease ofsin. In some others, sin causesconstantmisery. I do not mean
that godly sorrow which leads to penitence, for sin never brings its own
repentance, but by wayof remorse, or of ungratified desire, or restlessness
such as is natural to men who try to fill their immortal spirits with the empty
joys of this poor world. Are there not many who, if they had all they have ever
wished for, would still wish for more? If they could, at this moment, gratify
every desire they have, they would but be as men who drink of the brine of the
sea—whosethirst is not thereby quenched, but only increased!Oh, believe
me, you will never be content with the pleasures ofthis world if your mind is
at all awakenedconcerning your state in the sight of God! If you are given
over to spiritual paralysis, you may be without feeling, and that is a deadly
sign, indeed. But if there is any sortof spiritual life within you, the more you
sin, the more uneasy you will become!There is no way of peace by plunging
more deeply into sin, as some think they will do—drowning dull care in the
flowing bowl, or endeavoring to show their hardihood by rushing into still

viler forms of lust in order that they may, somehow or other, be satisfiedand
content. No, this disease breeds a hunger which increasesas you feed it! It
engenders a thirst which becomes the more intense the more you try to satisfy
it! Sin is also like a disease becauseit frequently produces a manifest
pollution. All disease in the body pollutes it in some way or other. Turn the
microscope upon the affectedpart, and you will soondiscoverthat there is
something obnoxious there! But sin in the soul pollutes terribly in the sight of
God. There are quiet, respectable sins which men can concealfrom their
fellow creatures so that they cankeeptheir place in society and seemto be all
that they ought to be. But there are other sins which, like the leprosy of old,
are white upon their brows! There are sins that are to be seenin the outward
appearance ofthe man—his speechbetrays him—his walk and conversation
indicate what is going on within his heart. It is a dreadful thing for the sinner
to remember that he is a polluted being—until he is washedin Christ’s
precious blood, he is a being with whom God can have no sort of communion!
Men have to put infected persons awayfrom the societyofother people.
Under the Jewishlaw, when men were in a certain stage ofdisease, they had
to be isolatedaltogetherfrom their fellow men, and certainly could not come
into the house of the Lord. O my hearers, there are some of you, who, if your
bodies were as diseasedas your souls are, would not dare to show your faces
in the streets!And some of us who have been washedin the blood of Jesus
have felt ourselves to be so foul, so vile, and so filthy, that if we could have
ceasedto exist, we would have welcomedannihilation as a gift! I remember
the time when, under a sense ofsin, I was afraid to pray. I did groanout a
prayer of a sort, but I felt as if the very earth must be wearyof bearing up
such a sinner—and that the stars in their courses must be anxious to shoot
ominous fires upon the one who was so defiled! Perhaps some of you have felt
as I did, and now you join me in saying, “But we are washed!But we are
sanctified! But we are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the
Spirit of our God!” The disease thatwas upon us was worse than the foulest
leprosy, more infectious than the

most terrible fever—causing greaterdeformity than the dropsy, and working
in us worse ills than the most foul disease thatcan ever fall upon the bodies of
men! I would to God that men did but see that although the picture I have
tried to draw is terrible, indeed, yet it is most gracious on God’s part to treat
them as diseasedpersons needing to be cured, rather than as criminals
waiting to be executed! Once more, sin is like disease because ittends to
increase in the man, and will, one day, prove fatal to him. You cannotsay to a
disease, “Tohere shall you come, but no further.” There are some diseases
that seemto come very gradually, but they come very surely. There is the
hectic flush, the trying cough, the painful breathing—and we begin to feelthat
consumption is coming. And very soon—terribly soonto those who love
them—those who were once hale and hearty, to all appearance, becomelike
walking skeletons,forthe fell disease has laid its cruel hand upon them, and
will not let them go. So, my friend, as long as sin is in you, you need not
deceive yourself and think you can get rid of it when you will, for you cannot.
It must be driven out by a higher powerthan your own—this disease must be
cured by the greatPhysician, or else it will keepon increasing until, at last,
you die! Sin will grow upon you till, “when it is finished, it brings forth
death.” God grant that before that awful ending is reached, the Lord Jesus
Christ may come and cure you, so that you may be able to say, “With His
stripes we are healed.” Sinis a contagious diseasewhichpasses from one to
another. It is hereditary. It is universal. It is incurable. It is a mortal malady.
It is a disease whichno human physician can heal. Death, which ends all
bodily pain, cannot cure this disease—itdisplays its utmost power in eternity,
after the sealof perpetuity has been setupon it by the mandate—“He that is
filthy, let him be filthy still.” It is, in fact, such a disease thatyou were born
with it, and you will bear it with you foreverand ever, unless this wondrous
prescription, of which we are now to speak, shallbe acceptedby you, and shall
work in you the divine goodpleasure, so that you shall be able to say, “With
His stripes we are healed.” II. Now, secondly, we see from our text that GOD
HERE DECLARES THE REMEDYWHICH HE HAS PROVIDED. Jesus
Christ, His dear Son, has takenupon Himself our nature, and suffered on the
cross in our place—andGod the Father has delivered Him up for us all—that
we might be able to say, “With His stripes we are healed.” First, dear friends,
behold the heavenly medicine—the stripes of Jesus in body and in soul!

Picture Him before your mind’s eyes. He is scourgedby the rough Roman
soldiers till the sacredstreamrolls down His back in a crimson tide. And He is
scourgedwithin as well as outside till He cries, in utmost agony, “My God, My
God, why have You forsakenMe?” He is fastenedto the cruel cross—His
hands and feet and brow are all bleeding, and His inmost soul is poured out
even unto death—whateverthat wonderful expressionmay mean. He bears
the sin of many, the chastisementoftheir peace is upon Him. He is bruised for
their iniquities, and wounded for their transgressions. Ifyou would be healed
of sin’s sickness,here is the medicine! Is it not amazing surgery? Surgeons
usually give us pain while trying to cure us, but here is a Physician who bears
the pain, Himself, and thereby heals us! Here is no medicine for us to take, for
it has all been takenby Him! He suffers, He groans, He dies—and it is by His
grief and agonies thatwe are healed! Then, next, remember that the
sufferings of Christ were vicarious. He stoodin our place that we might stand
in His place. He took our sin upon Himself and, being found with that sin
upon Him, He was made to bear the penalty that was due to it! And He did
bear it—and this is the way whereby we are healed—by Jesus Christ, Himself,
taking our infirmities, and bearing our sicknesses.This doctrine of
substitution is the grandestof all truths, and though all these years I have
continued to preachnothing else but this, what better news canI tell a poor
sinner than that the Saviorhas takenhis sins and borne his sorrows for him?
Take awaythe doctrine of the substitutionary sacrifice ofChrist, and you
have torn out the very heart of the gospel!“The blood is the life thereof” and
you have no living gospelto preach if atonement by blood is once put into the
background!But, O poor soul, if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that
Christ took your sins, and bore them in His own body on the tree where He
died, “the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God,” you are saved, and saved
forever! This is how it is that “with His stripes we are healed.” Acceptthis
atonement, and you are saved by it. Does someoneinquire, “How am I to get
this atonementapplied to my soul?” Well, first, the patient shows his wounds,
and exhibits the progress of the disease. Then, prayer begs for the divine
surgery. Next, belief in Christ is the linen cloth which binds on the plaster. If
you believe on Jesus Christ—if you will acceptthe testimony of God
concerning His Sonwhom He has setforth to be the propitiation for

Volume 43 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 5
sin—and rely upon Him, alone, for salvation, you shall be saved! Faith, that is,
trust, is the hand that brings the plaster to the wound, and holds it there till
the blessedbalsamhas destroyedthe venom that is within us. Trust yourself
with Him who died for you, and you are saved!And, continuing to trust Him,
you shall daily feel the power of His expiation, the marvelous healing that
comes by His stripes! Repentance is the first symptom of that healing. When
the proud flesh begins to yield; when the wretchedgathering commences to
break, and the soul that was formerly swollenthrough trying to concealits sin
bursts with confessionand acknowledgmentof its transgression, then is it
being healed by the stripes of Jesus!This is God’s wondrous remedy for the
soul-sickness ofsin! But let me beg you to notice that you must let nothing of
your own interfere with this divine remedy—“With His stripes we are
healed.” You see where prayer comes in—it does not heal, but it asks forthe
remedy. You see where trust comes in—it is not trust that heals—thatis
man’s application of the greatremedy. You see where repentance comes in—
that is not what cures, it is a part of the cure, one of the first tokens that the
blessedmedicine has begun to work in the soul. “With His stripes we are
healed.” Will you notice that fact? The healing of a sinner does not lie in
himself, nor in what he is, nor in what he feels, nor in what he does, nor in
what he vows, nor in what he promises. It is not in himself at all, but there, at
Gabbatha, where the pavement is stained with the blood of the Son of God,
and there at Golgotha, where the place of a skull beholds the agonies of
Christ! It is in His stripes that the healing lies!I beseechyou, do not scourge
yourself—“WithHis stripes we are healed.” I beg you, do not think that by
some kind of spiritual mortification, or terror, or horror, into which you are
to force yourself, you shall be healed—your healing is in His stripes, not in
your own! In His grief, not in your grief! Come to Christ, and even if you are
tempted to trust in your repentance, I implore you, do not make your
repentance a rival of the stripes of Jesus, for so it would become an antichrist!
When your eyes are full of tears, look through them to Christ on the cross, for
it is not weteyes that will save you, but the Christ whom you may see, whether
your eyes are wet or dry! In the Christ upon the cross there are five wounds,

but you have not to add even another one of your own to them! In Him and in
Him, alone, is all your healing! In Him who, from head to foot, becomes a
mass of suffering, that you, diseasedfrom head to foot, might, from the crown
of your head to the soles ofyour feet be made perfectly whole! III. Now I
must close with the third reflection, which is this—THE DIVINE REMEDY
IS IMMEDIATELY EFFECTIVE. “WithHis stripes we are healed.” To the
carnalmind it does not seemas if the sufferings of Christ could touch the case
at all, but those who have believed in the stripes of Jesus are witnessesto the
instant and perfect efficacyof the medicine! We can, many of us, speak from
experience, since we can saythat “we are healed.” HOW are we healed? Well,
first, our conscienceis healed of every smart. God is satisfiedwith Christ, and
so are we. If, for Christ’s sake, He has put awaysin without dishonor to
Himself, then are we, also, perfectly content, and full of rejoicing in the
atonement, and we need nothing else to keepour consciencequiet. By these
same wounds of Christ our heart is healedof its love of sin. It was once in love
with sin, but now it hates all iniquity. If our Redeemerdied because ofour sin,
how can we live any longer therein? All our past thoughts concerning sin are
turned upside down or reversed. Sin once gave us pleasure, but now it gives us
the utmost pain, and we desire to be free from it, and to be perfectly holy—
there is no evil that we would harbor in our bosoms!It did seeman amazing
thing that we should look to Christ, and so find pardon, and that at that same
moment we should be totally changedin our nature as to our view of sin, yet it
did so happen! While sin was on us, we felt as if we had no hope and therefore
we went on in sin. But when sin was pardoned, then we felt greatjoy and,
consequently, gratitude and love to God. A sinner repents of his sins much
more after they are pardoned than he does before, and so he sings— “I know
they are forgiven, But still their pain to me Is all the grief and anguish They
laid, my Lord, on Thee.” Our cry is, “Deathto sin, now that Christ has died
for sin!” “If the One died for all, then the all died,” and as in Christ we died to
sin, how shall we live any longertherein? You may preach mere morality till
there shall be no morality left—but preach the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and
the pardoning love of the

Father—andthen the immoral will be changed, and follow after holiness with
a greatereagernessthan ever possessedthem while they followedafter sin!
By this divine remedy our life is healedof its rebellion. This medicine has
workedwithin the heart, and it has also workedoutside in the life. Now has
the drunk become sober, and he hates the cup he used to love. Now has the
swearer’s foulmouth been washed, and his lips, once so polluted, are like lilies
dropping sweet, smelling myrrh! Now has the cruel and unkind one become
tender, gentle and loving— the false has become true, the proud bends his
neck in humility, the idle has become a diligent servantof Christ! The
transformation is wonderful, and this is the secret, “WithHis stripes we are
healed.” Yet again, our consciousnessassuresus that we are healed. We know
that we are healed, and we rejoice in the fact—andwe are not to be argued
out of it. There seems to be a theory, held by some people, to the effectthat we
cannot tell whether we are saved or not. When we have had a disease in our
body, we can tell whether we have been healed or not, and the marks and
evidences of the supernatural change that takes place within the spirit are as
apparent, as a usual rule, and certainly as positive, and sure as the changes
workedin the body by healing medicine! We know that we are healed. I am
not talking to you of a thing which I do not know personally for myself. When
the text says, “We,” my heart says, “I,” and I am longing that everybody here
should be able to put his own sealto it and say, “That is true! With His stripes
we are healed! With His stripes we are healed! With His stripes we are
healed!” I will not go into the stories of some who are here—stories that I
know of the marvelous change that grace has made in your characters and
lives—but you can bear witness, as canall the saints in heaven, that, “with His
stripes we are healed.” Mylast word is, if you are healedby His stripes, you
should go and live like healthy men. When a man is healed of disease,he does
not continue to lie in bed! So, dear friends, do not any of you be lazy
Christians! When a man is healed, he does not sit down and groanabout the
disease that is gone. So do not any of you be continually groaning and
croaking and sighing. When a man is healed, he likes to go and tell about the
remedy to others. So, dear friends, do not keepto yourselves the news of this
blessedheavenly balsam, but go and tell the tidings everywhere, “With His
stripes we are healed.” When a man is healed, he is joyful, and begins to sing
with gladness. So, go and sing, and praise and bless the Lord all your days!

When Christ heals, you know, people do not getthe sicknessagain. His cures
are cures for life—and cures for eternity! If the devil goes out of a man of his
own accord, he always comes back, and brings sevenothers with him. But if
Christ turns him out, I guarantee you that he will never be allowedto come
back!When the strong Man armed has dislodgedthe devil, He keeps the
house that He has won, and takes goodcare that neither by the front door nor
by the back, shall the old enemy ever come back again! Having by His own
right hand and His holy arm gotten the victory, He challenges the foemanto
take back his spoil, crying, “Shall the prey be takenfrom the mighty, or the
lawful captive delivered?” No, that shall never be! So you may go on your way
rejoicing, and sing as you go, “With His stripes we are healed.” This is not a
temporary remedy—it is a medicine which, when it once gets into the soul,
breeds therein health that shall make that soul perfectly whole, so that at last,
among the holy ones before the throne of God on high, that man shall sing
with all his fellows—“WithHis stripes we are healed.” Glory be to the
bleeding Christ! All honor, majesty, dominion, and praise be unto Him
forever and ever!” And let all the healed ones say, “Amen, and Amen.”
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:ISAIAH 53:1-9.
We will read, this evening, the 53rd chapter of “the Gospelaccording to
Isaiah,” as we may very properly call it. [Remember, the Exposition was
preachedbefore the sermon.] Verse 1. Who has believed our report? All the
prophets reported that which had been revealed to them concerning Christ.
They testified what they knew with regard to Jesus of Nazareth, the suffering
Savior. Yet how few, comparatively, of the Jewishpeople—how few, indeed,
of any people, compared with the greatmass of mankind—acceptedtheir
testimony, and believed their report? No blessing can come through that
report if it is not believed! And this is the sorrow of the Lord’s servants in
every age—thatso many refuse to believe it. “Who has believed our report?”

Jesus was healing us by his stripes

Jesus was healing us by his stripes

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