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A healing only our Savior can provide
When Peter tells us “By His wounds you have been healed” in 1 Peter 2:24, he speaks of a healing no doctor could perform. If you have an infection you might be prescribed antibiotics and after a week or two you will be just fine. If you have cancer you may have to undergo chemotherapy or surgery and have a chance to survive as a result of these procedures. There are numerous medications for a multitude of ailments that either help or eliminate physical problems we experience. Here, in the latter part of 1 Peter 2:24, we read of a healing that cannot be performed or helped by drugs, surgeries or therapy. It is the healing of the fatal disease of sin we are all born with. Some have compared the condition we all enter the world with to cancer as if we are slowly dying as a result of it. The scripture does not paint such a rosy picture of our innate condition. Death is the diagnosis given to us by Paul in Ephesians 2:1, which is about as dire as you can get.
The only remedy for our condition is for someone else to take the lethal toxin and fatal consequence of it. That is what our Savior did and in the first part of 1 Peter 2:24 we read “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” When Christ died on the cross He bore our sins and the penalty for our sins, removing both in the process. Jesus tells how to receive this cure, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24) JC Ryle, the great 19th century Anglican bishop, said regarding this verse, “The man who ‘hears Christ's word,’ and believes that God the Father sent Him to save sinners ‘has everlasting life.’ Such ‘hearing’ of course is something more than mere listening. It is hearing as a humble learner--hearing as an obedient disciple--hearing with faith and love--hearing with a heart ready to do Christ's will--this is the hearing that saves.” We must come listening to and humbly believing in Jesus, the Son of God - the one who spoke the truth and died on the cross in our place. He bore our sins and our penalty so we might live! This is the everlasting cure that goes to a problem more serious than physical sickness and bodily ailments, and more glorious than any cure modern science can discover. It resurrects our dead souls, infuses new life and most importantly heals our relationship with God. Have we experienced the healing power of God through the blood of Jesus?
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