Get a Revelation of the Cross

Knowing that Jesus took it for us, is an essential key to receiving anything from God, especially healing. If you are not certain that the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice on the Cross has provided for the promise you are claiming or the prayer you are praying, you will lack confidence in your prayer life. What’s more, you will become vulnerable to the enemy’s lies that produce doubt and unbelief in your heart and mind. 

Look at the central atonement passage in the Bible in Isaiah 53:4-5:

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.

This passage describes Jesus’ future suffering on the Cross, which was vicarious suffering—what He accomplished on our behalf. When we speak of the atonement of Jesus, we are talking about what He paid and suffered for us. In this passage, Isaiah prophesied what Jesus’ sacrifice would accomplish for us. It covered our sins, our iniquities (sin patterns and generational sins), mental anguish, and physical ills (sicknesses and pains). It wasn’t just spiritual healing that Isaiah was speaking of here. In fact, Matthew’s Gospel declares that Jesus fulfilled this Scripture in Isaiah by healing physically sick people.

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:16-17, NKJV).

Jesus could have died as an innocent sacrifice without all the additional suffering. The Hebrew words for “griefs” and “sorrows” that Isaiah 53:4 says He bore for us literally mean “sicknesses” and “pains.” Thank God that He bore our sins on the cross. But the fullness of the atonement included His bearing our sicknesses and pains as well!

Once we get a revelation of Jesus’ bearing our sicknesses as well as our sins through His atonement for us on the cross, receiving healing becomes no more difficult than receiving forgiveness of sins.

Jesus amplified this principle in Luke’s Gospel. Four men brought a paralyzed friend to Jesus to be healed. When they arrived at the house where Jesus was, they could not get to Him because of the crowd. They used their corporate ingenuity and found a way to achieve their objective by climbing up on the roof of the house, tearing a hole in the roof large enough for their friend to get through, and then letting him down through the roof. Jesus noted their faith and declared that this man’s sins were forgiven. The Scribes and Pharisees were indignant at Jesus’ claim to release this man from sin’s penalty. Jesus’ response to these religious legalists was:

Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Rise up and walk”? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins – He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house” (Luke 5:23-24).

The Bible says that immediately this man rose up and walked and all were amazed and glorified God for this miracle.

We can learn one very important lesson from this story on the truth about the full scope of Jesus’ atonement by answering the question He asked the Scribes and Pharisees, “Which is easier: to say ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’?” Which one is easier for God to provide for us today: forgiveness of sins or healing? The correct answer: neither! Why is that? They were both provided in the atonement!! The same sacrifice paid the price for our healing and forgiveness of sins. That is why whenever you confess your sins and ask for God’s forgiveness, you don’t have to wait in anxious concern about the answer. The answer already came on the Cross! He forgave all our sins—past, present, and future. The same is true regarding physical healing. Jesus already sacrificed and atoned for our healing once and for all.

Let me share with you an example that emphasizes the importance of recognizing and appropriating healing as part of the atonement. There is a real difference between these two situations: 1) going to a bank officer and requesting an unsecured loan that you are not sure will be granted; and 2) going to the same bank and presenting a check to the same bank officer to withdraw money that is already on deposit in your account. If you are requesting an unsecured loan from a bank, you have no assurance you will receive your request. However, if you are making a withdrawal from your account that has sufficient funds on deposit to cover your check, you can be absolutely confident of receiving your request.

Many Christians are praying for healing in the same way they approach that loan officer at the bank—with no assurance their request will be granted because they fail to see what they have on deposit in their spiritual account. Prayer for healing must come on the same basis as prayer for forgiveness of sins—Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for each of us that placed unlimited forgiveness, healing, and peace of mind into our spiritual account.

When we ask for forgiveness of sins, we know that we can receive it immediately because of the atonement of Jesus. The same is true for healing. It was provided for us by that same atonement. Understanding this truth helped my wife and me to enter into rest in our faith for our son’s healing. Once we saw it was already on deposit in our account—that Jesus’ sacrifice provided sufficient health for Michael—we had assurance of his recovery in our hearts before we saw it manifest with our eyes. What we had assurance of—and appropriated by faith—we received. Michael became whole. That is why Jesus could say, and we can say, “Man, your sins are forgiven you…Take up your bed and walk—your sicknesses and pains are released from you.”

Adapted from Greg Mohr’s book, Your Healing Door.