Expert: Dr. Ronald E. Shultz - 7/24/2004

Question

It seems to me that in Jesus' earthly ministry He was healing before He received His stripes (Isaiah 53:5), and forgiving sins before his Crucifixion & Resurrection (Matthew 9:2, Luke 7:48).

These people are NOT given a ticket for later action-- The blind, lame and dead are healed immediately. The forgiveness of sin seems also to be immediate-- "You're sins ARE forgiven," NOT "You're sins WILL BE forgiven after I am sacrificed."

Obviously, Jesus is fully God and can do whatever He wants. Don't you think that Jesus has always had the power to Heal and to Save, and His earthly suffering was less to "earn" this power, and more to fulfill the Levitical Law?


Otherwise, how could He do these works in advance of His suffering?

Answer
Yes, the diseases were healed immediately and so also is the forgiveness of sins.   

Jesus never had to earn anything because He was God from the beginning and had all power, omnipotence from eternity past.

Isa 53:5 is misunderstood by many.  He was wounded, why?  He was wounded for our transgressions.  The wounds He bore should have been ours and because he took our beating we are healed or made whole.

7495  rapha' (raw-faw');
or raphah (raw-faw'); a primitive root; properly, to mend (by stitching), i.e. (figuratively) to cure:
KJV-- cure, (cause to) heal, physician, repair, X thoroughly, make whole. See 7503.

The best way to illustrate this would to have a PowerPoint presentation that showed a man(us) with a beated, bruised and bloody back.  This would represent what our sins are doing to us and ultinately what judgement will do us and indeed, how God sees the unasved person since He sees the end from the beginning.  Then we would show Christ's back free of all this because He is innocent.  Then you could have it so that you could change the slides 39 times, which is often the amount of stripes given as punish since they felt 40 would kill you.  As each slide changes you would see Christ being wounded and a stripe or bruise coming off of us and on to Him so at the end our backs would be compeletly healed and His was be a bloody mess.

That is what that passage is illustrating not a guarantee of healing of cancer or MS because Christ died for us.  Misunderstanding this passage has caused no end of false teaching that has caused great heartache by giving people a false hope and then despair when they are not healed or a loved one dies.  They either think their loved one was unsaved or that somehow they caused that person to die from their lack of faith.  

God forgave sins from the first sin for He is the only one that can do so.  He provided a blood sacrifice for Adam and Eve. He instituted the law and its sacrifices to teach us that He would provide the ultimate sacrifice for sins in His Son.  Jesus did not have to die to personally forgive sins. He died so that justice and mercy can mix and He can righteously forgive a sinner without the sinner having to suffer the second death.  The sins forgiven before the Cross were done so because God always saw the Cross as done from eternity past.  The blood of animals was a training tool for us and a temporary covering of our sins until the actual perfect Lamb of God was sacrificied to erase them rather than just cover them as Leviticus atonement did.  

All sins ever committed or to be committed were covered at the Cross so that 2,000 years later Christ could righteously forgive a sinner because His blood had been shed once and for all.  As one man's sin brought in death and damnation so also did one "God-Man's righteousness bring life and justification to all who avail of the free gift.

I hope this helps you.  God bells you as you study His Word!  May He grant you much wisdom and power in the Holy Ghost!!!!