By His Wounds

When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities
    and bore our diseases.” ^{[Isa 53:4]}

Matthew 8:16-17

Jesus was able to set the demonized people free from the demonic spirits that afflicted them with just a word. He was able to heal all the sicknesses that people had. Matthew tells us that this ministry of healing and deliverance was the fulfillment of a prophecy about the Messiah from Isaiah 53.

This is the passage in Isaiah that we normally view as a prophecy about what Jesus would do for us on the cross.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:3-6

So you see, what Jesus did on the cross was more than just pay the price for our sin. He also paid the price for our healing and deliverance.

This is really important because some people don’t feel “worthy” to be healed physically or to be set free from the demonic. But we have to understand that healing and deliverance aren’t things we earn. They are things that were earned for us by Jesus on the cross.

When we get healed or delivered, it isn’t even primarily about us! Yes, our Father loves us and wants us set free. But our healing is primarily Jesus’s reward. Our healing is Jesus getting what He paid for on the cross. When we get set free from demonic oppression in our life, it is Jesus’s reward. Our deliverance is Jesus getting what He paid for on the cross. These things were the “joy set before Him” as He endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). It’s all about Him and the fact that He is worthy, not about us and whether we’ve earned it.

I want to pray for people–for their healing and deliverance–all the time. But this desire isn’t about me thinking I am someone special (although God sees all of His children as special). This desire comes partially from compassion for the person, but only partially. The deeper root of this desire is to see Jesus get His reward! It is to return to Jesus the very things for which He paid so high a price!

This is why testimonies of healing are so important to share. If we get healed, we don’t share that testimony because we are saying that we are special. We share that testimony because we are declaring that Jesus is worthy! We also share a testimony of healing because it increases faith for people to believe that what God did for that person He can do for me. People have experienced their own healing just by hearing the testimony of someone else’s healing!

Do you need physical healing? Do you need freedom from darkness? Jesus already paid the price for it!