3:13 (B) What is the curse of the law from which Christ died to redeem us?
3:13 (B) What is the curse of the law from which Christ died to redeem us?
The curse of the law from which Christ died to redeem us was that which the law pronounced upon those who did not perfectly obey its commands (cp V10 with Pr 3:33; Dan 9:11 and Mal 2:2 with Deut 28:15-68). There are 54 verses relating to the curse in Deut 28:15-68 and everything listed in them is what Christ died to redeem us from: poverty, sickness and spiritual death etc. This proves there is bodily healing in the atonement (cp Isa 53:4-5). We see here that Christ not only became a sin offering on the cross so that we could be forgiven our sins, but that he also bore our sicknesses and our pains, so that we could be healed of them. Griefs and sorrows in V4 means sicknesses and pains. Griefs is from a Hebrew word which means malady, so it should have been translated sickness here too as it is everywhere else in the Old Testament (cp Deut 7:15; 28:59, 61; 1Ki 17:17; 2Ki 1:2; 8:29; 13:14; 2Chr 16:12; 21:15, 18-19; Job 30:18; Psa 38:7; 41:1-3; Ec 5:17; 6:2; Isa 38:9, 12).
In Mt 8:17 the griefs and sorrows of Isa 53:4 are correctly translated as infirmities and sicknesses (cp Mt 8:16-17).
Here we have infirmities as the consequence of sickness, as well as sickness itself. Matthew asserts here that Isaiah's prophecy was being fulfilled in the healings Jesus rendered to the sick ....that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah saying, Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.
This is not teaching that Jesus completely fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy before the cross and therefore there is no bodily healing in the atonement as so many in the church believe.
It teaches simply that by healing the sick during His earthly ministry Jesus was demonstrating that bodily healing is an integral part of the atonement.
Sadly though, there are a great many Christians today who do not recognize this truth and cannot obtain their healing as a result.
They do not believe that Jesus' healings in His earthly ministry simply foreshadowed the healing in His atoning death (cp 1Pe 2:24).
Peter affirms here that Jesus bore the punishment for our sins on the cross so that as our souls are saved, our bodies are healed. Peter is attesting to this as being an established fact accomplished by Jesus' stripes
The word borne in Isa 53:4 means to lift, bear, carry away, erase, take away.
The idea is that of one person taking the burden of another and placing it on himself.
If Christ bore our sicknesses then they were taken away in the same sense as sins are taken away, or borne (cp V11 with He 9:28 and 1Jn 3:5).
One can be rid of sickness as well as sin on the same basis of prayer and faith in the atonement. We must believe in the provision of bodily healing in the atonement to experience the benefits. All we have to do is believe what the scriptures teach and claim our healing by faith (cp Jn 19:28-30).
When Jesus said "it is finished," just before he died here, he signified that the complete redemptive plan of God which included bodily healing, was fulfilled in His death (cp Mt 9:1-8).
Here we see that bodily healing and forgiveness of sins go hand in hand.
They are mutually exclusive benefits in Christ's atoning death. This is irrefutable proof of bodily healing in the atonement.
Christ's atoning death was not only for Christians to be contemporaneously forgiven and healed in bible times, but throughout every dispensation since then too, until He comes again. This is the ongoing ministry of the church (cp Mk 16:18; Jas 5:14-16).
See also comments on Mt 8:16-17, 9:1-8 and 1Pe 2:24.