Double Curse Double Cure
Double Curse Double Cure
by Annette Capps
When it comes to sickness and disease there are so many Christians that are confused about where it comes from and what is the purpose of it in their lives. Some have even been taught that everything that happens to them in life is the will of God for them. But nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s look at it from this angle using the Word of God as our benchmark. If sickness was the will of God for you, then why did James say, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up...” (James 5:14-15)
Then we have the words of Jesus in Mark chapter 16 revealing that believers shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. The apostle Peter wrote in I Peter 2:24, “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.” These three witnesses affirm healing for those who are ill.
The scriptures reveal that there was no sickness nor disease on this planet until satan showed up in the form of a serpent and deceived Eve into eating of the forbidden fruit and Adam went along with it. It’s obvious that sickness and disease came through sin and the temptation to sin came through satan. There was no sickness or disease on planet earth until satan came and sin entered into the earth.
Then if you study the book of Revelation you will find that when satan is removed from the earth, there will be no sickness nor disease here. But in the meantime, God made abundant provision even under the Old Covenant for healing and deliverance from sickness. As long as Israel obeyed the Covenant, there was no sickness among them.
Under the New Covenant the scriptures reveal that by the stripes and bruises that were placed upon Jesus’ back, “we were healed.” We need to emphasize the fact that our salvation and our healing were accomplished at the very same time. Sin and sickness are the double curse!
When Adam sinned, he received the curse of spiritual death. Spiritual death cut off his life force from God, and physical death began. Adam’s sin also brought about the curse of sickness. Sickness is an attack to weaken and kill the body.
The Word of God reveals that your healing was bought and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ at the very same time that your salvation was. I want you to grasp this great truth. If you need healing in your body, please don’t read this half-heartedly. If a doctor was talking to you and said, “Now, I have something that will make you totally well,” you would give your full attention to what that doctor said. That doctor cannot reverse the curse – but the Word of God can. So pay attention with everything you have to grasp these truths.
“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.” (Isaiah 53:3)
Isaiah was prophesying about Jesus. “He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows.” If you look into the Hebrew, you will find that this was mistranslated into modern English. When we think of “sorrow” today, we think of someone who is upset over a friend or a loved one, or is sorrowful about something. The word “sorrow” is actually the word “pain.” Why was Jesus a man of pain? Because He bore our pain. He took it upon Himself. “And acquainted with grief.” The word “grief” is another unfortunate translation. It does not mean grief as we know it. It means, “He was acquainted with sickness and disease.” Why was Jesus acquainted with sickness and disease? It was not because He was sickly, but because He took our sickness and disease upon Himself.
“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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 53:4-5)
What did Jesus bear? The Word says He bore our pain! Is there any question in your mind that the Word of God is an established fact? It is forever established in the heavens, and it is the basis for our Christian belief. Right here, on the printed page, the Word of God says, “He hath borne our sickness and diseases.”
The Double Curse Carried Away
The Word “borne” means, “to lift up, bear away, and remove to a distance.” Just as the scapegoat went into the wilderness, carrying sin, never to be seen again, so Jesus has “carried away, borne away, our sickness and our disease. He has carried them away.” You may be thinking: “yes, but I’m still sick.”
Is the Word of God true or not? If it is true – and I believe with all my heart it is true: “Jesus carried away our sicknesses and our diseases, and our pain.” He removed them from us. “Yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions...”
What are “transgressions”? Sins, right? “He was wounded for our transgressions, or sins. He was bruised for our iniquities, or sins.” Do you believe that part of the Scripture? If we went to some churches, they would definitely believe that Scripture, and even preach on it every Sunday of the year, but many would not preach the rest of it.
Yes, He bore our transgressions and our iniquities, but read the rest of the verse: “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Some will quote that as, “With His stripes some are healed. Some occasionally will be healed. Some have been healed.” No! This is a settled, established fact: “With His stripes we are (present tense) healed.” As far as God is concerned it is a finished work.
“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. 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.” (Isaiah 53:10-11)
The word “bear” is the same word that is brought out in verse four and serves as a theme for the rest of this chapter: “He hath borne our griefs (or pain).” Jesus bore our sins, our iniquities. At the very same time, He also bore our sicknesses, our diseases, and our pain. Throughout the Word of God there is no separation of the two in the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Jesus bore our sins to make it possible for us to be saved and be a new creature in Christ Jesus, He also bore in His body our sicknesses and diseases so we might be whole, well, and healed. At the same moment that He was bruised for our sins, He took the stripes on His back for our healing.
Sick Christians
Some say, “But you know there are a lot of sick Christians!” It is obvious there are many sick in the Body of Christ. I cannot give you only one reason for the number of sick Christians, but I can tell you why many in the Body of Christ are sick. I believe Paul gave us the answer in I Corinthians 11:29-30, “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.”
Paul said it was from “not discerning the Lord’s body.” And he said, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you. What does that mean? He did not say it was from not discerning the Lord’s blood. They were discerning that the blood washed away their sins, but they were not discerning the fact that His body was broken for us, so we might be healed.
We have emphasized salvation in the blood of Jesus, but how many times, in comparison, have we emphasized that Jesus bore our sicknesses and diseases at the very same time? How often have we been taught that salvation of the soul and physical healing of the body happened at the same time? How many times have we heard that? Not enough, obviously, and many have not heard it once.
If it is true that Jesus bore our sicknesses at the same time that He bore our sins, why are many sitting in church born again, but sick? It’s because we have not had enough repetition of these Scriptures to establish confidence in our hearts. We need as much confidence (faith) in healing as we have in salvation. When we arrive at that point, we will see people who come to be born again instantly healed. They will be healed just as they are saved, because they will be taught, “Come and accept Jesus as your Savior and you will be healed.” We do not expect that now, but we should.
Look at the argument, “If Jesus bore away sickness and disease at Calvary, why aren’t all Christians healed?” Let’s turn it around: “If Jesus bore away sin and iniquity at Calvary, why are people still unsaved?” Why is everyone not born again? It is because they do not receive and accept salvation. Isn’t that true? All it takes to receive forgiveness of your sins is to accept and receive what Jesus did on your behalf. Isn’t that true?
Yet all Christians don’t accept Jesus as their Healer when they are born again. As a matter of fact, many Christians never accept the fact that the stripes placed on Jesus’ back were for their healing. This is the same basic reason people die and go to hell: They refuse to believe what Jesus did on the cross, or they don’t understand what Jesus suffered to bring salvation. To keep Christians from being sick they must have a better understanding of how to make a demand on God’s provision for healing. (I Peter 2:24, Isaiah 53:5-6)
You will never hear me say, “Well, the reason you didn’t receive your healing is because you don’t have enough faith.” If you believe God’s Word you will have faith. If you don’t have enough faith, it’s because of a lack of knowledge of the Word coupled with the fact that God’s Word doesn’t abide in you. Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” (John 15:7)
When the Word of God abides in your heart in abundance; that is faith.
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