Divine Healing in the Atonement*

A.B. Simpson

Does the Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ cover the healing of these mortal bodies? Let us see.

    1. If sickness has come into the world through sin, which is conceded, it must be got out of the world through God’s great remedy for sin, the cross of Jesus Christ. If sickness is only a natural condition it may be met by natural means, but if it be abnormal, and but a stage of death, which has passed upon all because all have sinned, then its divinely appointed remedy is the atonement of Jesus Christ, which God has set over against all the effects of the fall. It is probably included in the comprehensive language of the apostle in his superb antithesis in Rom. v: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, For if by one man’s sin, death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” This “abundance of life” is no doubt the life of the body as well as the soul.

     2. The types of the Old Testament contain very remarkable foreshadowings of the healing of our bodies through the atonement of Jesus. Look at the cleansing of the leper for example, in Lev. xiv. It was through the sacrifice of two birds, one of which represented the death, the other the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look again at the deliverance of the people from the fearful plague that had fallen upon them because of their murmuring and lusting. How was it accomplished? By Aaron the high priest taking his censer full of burning coals off the altar of sacrifice and then filling it with sweet incense and standing between the living and the dead and making atonement (Num. xvi: 46-50). Look again at the story of the brazen serpent. It was a clear case of physical suffering through the sting of the serpent, representing the power of Satan in our bodies as well as our souls. The healing was accomplished by the uplifting of the brazen serpent, a direct type of Jesus in His Atonement. It is idle to spiritualize this. True Christ applies it to the salvation of the soul, the receiving of eternal life, but eternal life is life in all its fullness, and Christ constantly uses the term “life” in reference to the body as well as the soul. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” has exclusive reference to the body. “That the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh has also exclusive reference to the body. What right has any man to take a narrative, whose primary reference is to a case of physical healing through a look of faith to that which symbolized a crucified Redeemer, apply it exclusively to the spiritual aspect of salvation, and, although it belongs to the broader dispensation of the Gospel, actually narrow it down and make it mean less than in the days of Moses? Undoubtedly it includes the greater salvation of the soul, but certainly it does not exclude the salvation of the body and its deliverance from the venomed stroke of Satan through a look of faith at the crucified Redeemer.

     3. Other Old Testament references to Divine Healing through the Atonement. The thirty-third chapter of Job is the most profound discussion of God’s government and God’s chastenings, of any part of the Old Testament Scriptures. There Elihu, speaking as the voice of God, expounds the gracious and paternal purposes for which He sends us our afflictions. The philosophy of disease and healing is perfectly given. It is very simple. Sickness is God’s second voice to the man who will not hear His first. It is His loud and solemn call to the soul to draw back from some forbidden path or to step forth in some line of neglected duty. Its remedy is therefore, first, instruction. “If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man His unrightness.” Its next prescription is the atonement of Christ and confidence in the merciful deliverance of God on account of the great ransom. “Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom,'” or rather, as it is in the margin, “an atonement.” Surely this is all plain enough to a candid mind.

But we find it all still further emphasized by the strong language of David in the one-hundred-and-third psalm. “Bless the Lord O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Why does he use the word “redeem?” Simply because he is thinking the same thought that Elihu expressed. The healing of his diseases is through the redemption which his prophetical faith had already anticipated through the coming of the Messiah. True, he may not have taken it in all the depths of its meaning, but the Holy Spirit knew the meaning of the word which He was afterwards to explain, and doubtless he used it in its full significance through the mouth of the Psalmist.

     4. Allusions to the atonement in the later prophetic Scriptures. Of course the highest and boldest of these is Isaiah, and the central chapter of his sublime book and the entire Old Testament, is the fifty-third chapter. There we behold the atonement for sin and wickedness in the most vivid light, prefixed by God’s great “Amen,” “Surely,” or “Amen, He hath borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.” We need not now stop to prove, as no one can deny, that the word, “borne” means, as a substitute, to bear in the sense of atoning. It is simply enough to say it is the very same word used in the book of Leviticus to describe the atonement which the scape-goat made for the sins of the people, when he bore them away to a forgotten land, and it is the same word in this chapter when it is said that He bore the sins of men. But if anything more is needed it is supplied in the next verse where the great catalogue of the blessings of the redemption of Christ is crowned by the last clause, “By His stripes we are healed.” The only retreat left for those who question this simple teaching is to apply the healing here mentioned in a spiritual sense. This would make the verse a weak and unworthy tautology. The spiritual healing has already been described in three clauses, covering the whole field in detail. Our transgressions are first specified, that is, our acts of sin; our iniquities, that is our more inward sin; our peace, that is, our positive spiritual blessings. What more is left except our bodies, and what more natural than to add another literal reference to them, “by His stripes we are healed.” If it mean anything else it is simply a weak repetition of the same idea already expressed in the previous clauses without any necessity or reason. To strain a passage from its literal or natural meaning simply to prove a passage or a doctrine is unworthy of true exegesis, and will soon smother the possibility of faith in anything on the part of the man or woman who does it. The Lord give us all a simple-hearted readiness to take Him at His word and to take His word to mean what it says.

     5. New Testament references. It is an easy step from Isaiah to Matthew viii: 17, for this is but a translation of the Old Testament verse. Happily it is a translation by the mouth of the Holy Ghost, and leaves no doubt of the meaning of Isaiah. The meaning of sickness and infirmities, especially when taken in connection with the context and the healing of human bodies in which He was at the time engaged, which this verse was quoted to explain, is beyond the possibility of a question; and the verbs employed–“took” and “carried”–are even stronger than those used in the Old Testament. But, some may say, this passage may refer, not to Christ’s death, but rather to His earthly ministry and benevolent works of healing, that thus He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses by healing, with His touch and power, and that it has no reference whatever to His cross, which had not yet been erected and endured. We are glad, therefore, to have another passage with which to sum up this series of biblical foundations, and which admits of no shadow of a question. It is the clear, strong statement of Paul in Galatians iii: 13: “Christ had redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.'” Here it is absolutely certain that it is the death of Christ on the accursed tree that is the ground and price of redemption. Whatever the curse is, it is removed by the death of the cross, the atonement of Jesus, direct substitution of His life for ours.

Now what is the curse that is removed? It is the curse of the law. All that is necessary, therefore, is to find from the Old Testament what the curse of the law was. Of course we know that it was a far-reaching and eternal curse, but it was also a temporal curse, a physical curse, a curse involving sickness, suffering, infirmity, disease, pain. If this can be explicitly shown, it is as certain as the truth of inspiration that the death of Christ has removed all cause for such sickness, disease, infirmity, pain, in so far as it comes on account of sin. Now “to the law and to the testimony.” How was the curse of the Old Testament actually specified? It is simply wonderful how exact the correspondence is to the very terms we have been using. Read Deut. xxviii: 15-22. Therefore it is perfectly scriptural to say Christ has redeemed us from consumption, fever, inflammation, having been made curse for us.

Beloved, what solid ground we are getting beneath our feet. It is in this connection that Isaiah uses the literal words respecting Christ’s suffering on the cross, “Thou hast made Him sick in smiting Him.” Our dear Lord actually bore, in His dying agonies, our sicknesses, and physicians tell us that He, who was never sick in His life-time, really died of a ruptured heart through the awful pressure of His woe.

Have we not then in these Scripture passages a sure foundation for the simple, glorious statement on which faith may stand, nay, may lie down in everlasting rest, that the atonement of Jesus Christ covers our sicknesses, and furnishes solid ground for claiming, in His name, divine healing through simple faith, and when we are walking in holy obedience, which, of course, is the indispensable element within which we can continue to receive any of the blessings of the Gospel?

Let us remember in conclusion a few simple inferences that will necessarily follow this great truth.

1. If our healing is provided for by Jesus Christ, then it is a redemption right which we may humbly yet boldly claim while walking obediently with the Lord.
2. That it is a gift of grace, as all that Christ’s blood has purchased will ever be, and therefore cannot be mixed up with our own works or the use of human means, but must be received wholly in His name, and in such a manner that He shall have all the glory.
3. That it must be by faith, through which alone all the blessings of the Gospel can be claimed.
4. That it is not the exceptional privilege of a few favored ones, the occasional special and sovereign gift of God where He is pleased to manifest His healing power for some exceptional cause or special end, but that it is the heritage of all the children of faith and holy obedience.
5. If our healing be the purchase of Christ’s blood, and cost us His stripes and agonizing death, how sacred a thing it is! How costly a gift! How lovingly and entirely it should be returned to the Giver in living sacrifice, and how devotedly His gift of healing should be consecrated to His service and glory alone! So may the Lord help us to receive and to use this precious birthright of faith and purchase of Christ’s redeeming blood.

* Christian and Missionary Alliance Weekly, (August 1890): 122-124.

Source of Information: A.B. Simpson, Divine Healing in the Atonement