'By His Stripes We Are Healed' - Meaning and Importance of Isaiah 53:5

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." ~ Isaiah 53:5 NKJV

Video Explanation of Isaiah 53:5 by Chris DeRoco

The Meaning of "By His Stripes We Are Healed"

The following is a transcript of the video above featuring Chris DeRoco explaining the true meaning of "By his stripes we are healed":

I think one of the most damaging, I guess, scriptures that have been used within the church is, "By his stripes we have been healed" And this is coming out of Isaiah 53:5. And people have used that phrase to claim that because Jesus died on the cross, therefore we can expect to be healed in this life and that Jesus actually died for our physical healing in this life. And therefore what's left is us for then to just appropriate what Jesus has promised us.

Well, we don't need to get into what Jesus has and hasn't promised us, but we can look at this phrase in context and it's clear that Isaiah was talking about the wound of sin being healed of sin. It just says, "But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. That with his stripes, we are healed."

What we need to be healed from, Isaiah is saying, is our sin, not our physical ailments, which is how this verse is often applied. So our promise here, is that because Jesus died on the cross, we can be healed from our sins. I mean, Jesus's death on the cross healed us from the, or really delivered us or freed us from the punishment of our sin in the past. He's now in the process of delivering us from the power of sin in the present. And one day when he returns, he will save us from the presence of sin. And that's really what Isaiah was getting at here. Being healed by his stripes.

Isaiah 53 (NKJV) Bible Text

1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 

5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 

9 And they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.