BY HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED

1 Peter 2:24-25 Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

The lesson contained in these few words of Peter would be difficult to understand without prophesies concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that are found in the Old Testament. The book of Isaiah has many references to Jesus, which foretell His coming as the promised Messiah, including His birth, life, death, and the fulfilling of His mission while here on earth. Peter, directly references the 53rd chapter of Isaiah in particular. A brief look at these prophesies is certainly in order, that we may better understand the lesson text.

Isaiah tells us that the prophecy contained in his writings (53rd Chapter), as well as other prophets, for the most part, would be rejected by those to whom it was revealed (Vs.1). In other passages of the bible, we know the Jewish people, as a whole, expected the Messiah to be of royal birth and to come as an earthly King to lead their nation, with magnificent, regal pomp and grandeur. Verse 2 tells us one reason they rejected Jesus as the Messiah was because He did not fit their expectations. He was from common parentage, and, as Isaiah wrote, He hath no form of comeliness, and in Him there is no beauty that we should desire him. For this reason, He was rejected, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not (Vs. 3). Even though despised and rejected, Jesus assumed His assigned task as our Savior and Redeemer. He bore our greifs, and carried our sorrows (Vs. 4). He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities (Vs. 5a). The reason for all of the pain and suffering described in this prophecy, Isaiah sums up by saying, and with His stripes we are healed (Vs. 5b). It would be beneficial to give diligent study to the rest of this chapter of Isaiah, because it continues to foretell God's Son as our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In our lesson text, Peter confirms the prophecy of Isaiah. He tells us that it was Jesus, who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. Jesus was hanged on the tree, the cross of Calvary, because of sin. Although Jesus was sinless, the justification for His execution was due to false accusations that He was guilty of sin, and worthy of death. The sin which he carried to the cross was not his own, but the sins of the world. It was the sinners of the world that should have been crucified, but Christ Jesus died in their stead. He put Himself in the place of all people of the world, that accept Him as their Savior. By His death, He atoned for their transgressions, allowing them to have a righteous, reconciled relationship with God, and, ultimately, enjoy eternal salvation in heaven. Paul confirms Jesus Christ as the Messiah in his second letter to the Corinthian brethren by telling them, For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).

Peter continues in verse 25: For ye were as sheep going astray. Here, he again confirms the prophecy of Isaiah which said, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). The sheep, in this passage, represents all mankind. All, like sheep without a shepherd, go astray, wandering aimlessly in this world in which we live. We are not driven away, but stray voluntarily of our own will. And, through giving into the temptations of life, are living in sin, and estranged from God and His plan of salvation. It is God's desire that all of His sheep find their way back into the fold of His divine protection and comfort. For this purpose, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to serve as a sacrificial Lamb to cleanse us from our sins. Jesus is also our Shepherd. As such, He takes the responsibility to seek and save lost sheep, that have gone astray, and bring them back into the fold of God. As the Bishop of our souls, Jesus reigns over His kingdom on earth, which is His body, the church of Christ.

Through obedience to the will of God, and by the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ, we become dead to sins, and made alive to righteousness, when we enter the sheepfold (His church), through baptism into His body. Because of this, all Christians can say, "We were once lost, but now found; once in sin, now in righteousness: we heard, and obeyed, the voice of our Savior, and by His stripes we are healed."