Healing: The Lost Gospel is an in-depth look at Isaiah 53: 4-5. It is certain that the gospel of salvation of the soul is founded on this scripture but there is one other gospel founded on this passage as well. This Lost Gospel was alive and well in the first centuries of the Church but has waned in prominence where it is barely mentioned in many churches today. This series address how this loss came about and how it can be resurrected again.

Chapter 1

Isaiah 53:4-5 forecasts a dual gospel that is exhibited in the early New Testament Church. This chapter sets the backdrop for Isaiah 53:4-5 and concludes with substantiating redemptive healing of the soul and body through the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Privilege

The first man Adam walked and communed with God on a daily basis. He ate from the Tree of Life that extended wholeness to his body intended for an eternity.

The Warning

Of course, with any good setup there are rules to preserve it. The only caution given Adam was that he could eat from all the trees in the garden except that of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was a caution that came with a consequence of separation and death, affecting both soul and body.

Genesis 2:15-17 ESV

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 

¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 

¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The Fall and The Judgment

Despite the warning, Eve then Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Judgment came in two parts.

Genesis 3:19, 22-23 ESV

¹⁹ By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever

²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden denying them access to God and the Tree of Life. Judgment banished their soul from God’s presence and their body from eternal sustainability.

Reconciliation

God’s plan of reconciliation with mankind was redemption by atonement. This means God had a plan to redeem (buy back) mankind into relationship with him. Adam’s sin sold mankind into slavery to the kingdom of this world. You are servants of whom you obey (Romans 6:16). Thus, to save us from eternal separation from God, we needed to be bought back into the kingdom of God. God is righteous and his nature abhors sin. Adam and Eve’s nakedness, rather their awareness of their nakedness brought on by their sin of disobedience, enlightened their consciousness of the knowledge of good and evil.

The first thing God did to make Adam and Eve tolerable was to cover their sin. This He did by shedding the blood of an animal to make skins to cover their nakedness. This was the first blood of many animal sacrifices that would be made. This was an interim atonement until the final atonement was made through the death of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice would not cover sin, but would absolve the sin of all mankind that lived before and after him.

Redemption Promised

Since there was a two-part judgment hence redemption came in two-parts.

Two Judgments

• Separation from the Presence of God
• Separation from health sustaining Tree of Life

Two Redemptions

• Gospel of Salvation
• Gospel of Healing

Isaiah 53:4 ESV

⁴ Surely, he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

The Hebrew word translated as “griefs” is “sicknesses” in Hebrew. To verify, let’s look at the verse in the Complete Jewish Bible.

Isaiah 53:4

⁴ In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered;
yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God.

We know it was by the blood of Jesus our redemption was purchased. It is clear in this verse that the first judgment Jesus bore was our diseases.

Now let’s look at the verse 5 which addresses Jesus bearing the second judgment, our sins.

Isaiah 53:5 ESV

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Jesus took upon himself the punishment for our sicknesses and transgressions. With the shedding of his blood we are healed, both in the physical body and the soul.

Healed!

Notice “healed” applies to sin and disease. The word “heal” in Strong’s Concordance is rapha – to cure, to thoroughly make whole. Rapha applies to both body and mind (soul). The New Testament word for “heal” is therapév̱o̱. This is where the word “therapy” is derived which is an applied healing process for the body or the mind (soul).

Today we more commonly say “saved” from sin implying it is an immediate act. However, the only immediate act about being saved is that God instantly blots out all record of sin and uses disappearing ink to record any future sin. After being saved, we go through a process of deliverance from sin.  It is a time-sensitive transformation of the old man into the new man (2 Corinthians 5:17).  

Promise Fulfilled

Isaiah 53:4-5 was fulfilled in Matthew 8:16-17 (ESV),

¹⁶ That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 

¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.

We can see as evidenced by this scripture that by his wounds believers are healed from disease of body and spirit.

So, the redemptive proclamations in Isaiah 53:4-5 gave us not only the Gospel (Good News) of restoration of the soul through salvation by the blood of Christ, it also gave us the Gospel of restoration of the physical body through healing by the blood of Christ.

I conclude this chapter with a question.

“If redemption of the soul and body were through the same act of reconciliation, then why does the Church proclaim one and whisper the other?”

Chapter 2 of Healing: The Lost Gospel will describe the commission that rests on all believers to carry the duality of the gospel to the world. However, execution of this commission has eroded over the centuries, reasons of which are discussed.