Rather, he endured the wrath of God that was provoked by our willful disobedience of the truth. I didn’t rebuke my older daughter for coming down with the chicken pox, and I certainly didn’t ask my younger daughter to ask for forgiveness when she caught it from her older sister. We do not repent for having kidney stones, nor do we come under conviction for catching the measles. But that is altogether different from saying that sickness is sin. Sickness is the effect of sin (just like tornadoes, weeds, and sadness). It does mean that had Adam not sinned, there would be no sickness. But that does not mean that every time we get sick it is because of some specific sin we have committed. Of course, ultimately all sickness is a result of sin, but only in the sense that Adam’s fall introduced corruption and death into the human race. ![]() The Bible never issues the command, “Thou shalt not commit cancer,” or “Flee the flu.” Nevertheless, many insist that Jesus “bore the penalty for our sins and sicknesses." But if sickness is not a sin, how can it incur a penalty? The Bible tells us to pray “forgive us our trespasses” and urges us “to confess our sins,” but nowhere does it say that we should pray “forgive us our arthritis” or “Lord, I confess that I have the flu.” Sickness is not sin. Having diabetes or a head cold is not sinful. There is no guilt in disease or sickness. But what can it possibly mean to say God made him “to be sick” on our behalf? We know what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that God “made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf." He was declaring that the guilt of our sins was imputed to Christ and that it was because of that guilt that he was punished in our place. Another once wrote that “Christ endured vicariously our diseases as well as our iniquities.” What is being said is that Christ bore our sicknesses in the very same way that he bore our sins. Everything that causes physical pain was laid on Jesus as the nails were driven into His hands and feet” (Colin Urquhart). ![]() It is as if one lash was for cancer, another for bone disease, another for heart disease, and so on. "When Jesus stood bearing the lashes from the Roman soldiers, all our physical pain and sicknesses were being heaped upon him. Word of Faith advocate Gloria Copeland once wrote: “Jesus bore your sicknesses and carried your diseases at the same time and in the same manner (emphasis mine) that he bore your sins.” Another author put it this way: Some believe that just as God the Father made Jesus to be “sin” for us on the cross he also made him to be “sick” for us on the cross. In order to understand what Peter had in mind in quoting this OT passage, I need to address a very controversial question: Is there healing in the atonement? But he was wounded for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Here in 1 Peter 2:24-25 the apostle is very clearly alluding to Isaiah 53:4-5. Is there healing in the atonement? Continue reading.
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