Way Bigger

"It's way bigger than we've said."

IN TWO PLACES in the Word of God, it says, “and with his stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24. Jesus’ mangled body was buried in a known location, the tomb sealed with a huge stone and a guard. Dead means dead, and He was dead. He’d had a sword thrust in His side, and blood and water had flowed out. His heart had stopped beating. There was no breath in His lungs. In fact, crucifixion typically caused suffocation. His hands and his feet were destroyed by the nails that hung Him there. His brow was torn by the crown of thorns. And His back … His back was mutilated by the lashes, some say to the point, His organs were exposed.

Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews, as He was labeled by the Romans, was very, very dead. There was no fixing Him.

Isaiah 52:14 says, “Just as many were appalled at Him — His appearance was disfigured beyond that of any man, and His form was marred beyond human likeness (BSB).”

Isaiah 53:3 says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not (BSB).”

People wouldn’t look upon Him. It was that ugly. Yet, three days later, with no witnesses, no crowds, no fanfare, He walked out of the tomb. Philippians 3:21 says He has a “glorious body,” that word “glorious” meaning “splendour, brightness” and “magnificence, excellence.” God took His dead, destroyed flesh and not only brought it back to life, but perfected it.

A dead man did not walk out of the tomb, whole, in that generation.

There are post-Resurrection references we should note. The disciples He talked to on the road to Emmaus did not recognize Him. In other words, He didn’t look like one who’d been crucified (Luke 24:16), nor did they see Him as Jesus. Also, Mary, spoke to Him in the garden, by the tomb, and she thought He was the gardener (John 20:15). She didn’t recognize Him either.

Though He’d told them He’d rise in three days, seeing Him, hearing His voice, they didn’t know Him. He looked that different.

It isn’t just that “by his stripes” we were healed. It is that by what men destroyed, what three days in the tomb began to decay, by what crucifixion crushed, BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE, and God did all that, we are healed. It’s way bigger than we’ve said.

I asked the Spirit how He created water. I mean, God spoke, “Light be!” and Light was. The Spirit replied to my question that it was with barely a breath. That’s all it took to create oceans. We read creation and think of all the land formations that came out of the water. We read of the creatures God made in a day. God, the Word. John 1. But to separate the water from the water, Genesis 1:7, He had to make the water. What a simple thing, then, to raise a dead man, and promise all who trust in Him, because of it, complete health.

For God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and the Power that would resurrect Him, and so He went about doing good and healing all those who were afflicted, damaged, and oppressed of the devil and in fear of death (Acts 10:38; Hebrews 2:15). Entire multitudes were healed. Lame people walked. Blind people saw. The deaf and the mute heard and spoke. Whatever the illness was, Jesus healed them. You will find every part of the body mentioned in the Gospels, including the mind, and the spirit. No one was ignored. No one seeking Him was pushed aside. Salvation was of the Jews (John 4:22), but He healed those of any nation who sought Him. The greatest faith He saw was that of a Roman centurion (Matthew 8:10).

I’m not dead. The doctor said I would be. I have two dear friends who are whole of cancer for over a decade now. I know a father who commanded his unborn daughter back to life, and she lives. There are those stories, again, of miraculous healings from the blessings of the Jewish rabbis. A little girl, who’d never spoken, spoke within minutes. A mother, thousands of miles away, who was at death’s door, was made whole when her son sought the blessing. A non-Jewish man was healed of addiction when he cried out for deliverance at the door of synagogue.

God healed His Son, so He heals anyone who asks Him.

There’s no Truth to the line, “God uses pain to teach you something.” Sometimes it’s phrased as, “God will make something out of nothing,” and though there is Scripture for that, it is meant as encouragement. Jesus rose from death, glorious, so our life would be easy. And here’s a thought: He has to hear about what He suffered every minute of the day, yet has no mental anxiety, is not crushed by it. He’s happy. Joyful. That’s what God wants for me and you.

James 1:13 RIV
"Let no one ever say or even dare to suggest when he is going through really difficult times or crushing ordeals that, 'I am being subjected to these difficult ordeals and hardships by the permissive will of God. Working behind the scenes, remotely and from a distance, God is permitting all these hard things to happen to me.' For the fact is that God is evil-free, has no capacity for anything evil, foul, or destructive. There is no evil in God, which means He never deliberately puts anyone through difficult and grueling experiences to test him or her. You see, it's just not within the realm of possibility for an evil-free God to be behind anything that brings destruction to a person's life."

James 1:17 RIV
"I want you to know that everything given by God is always good, beneficial, and profitable. Make no mistake — that is what God always habitually and perpetually gives. Even more, absolutely, everything bestowed on us by Him never subtracts from our lives; rather, what he gives adds to our lives. It advances us, completes us, matures us, and perfects us. This is categorically, what comes from Heaven — and it comes pouring down from the life-giving Father, whose specialty is light that dispels death and darkness. I want you to know that if you draw near to Him, you'll discover that with Him, there is absolutely no inconsistency on the question of what He gives and what He never gives. For on this issue, He never changes. God is not like the shadow on a sundial that's constantly changing because the sun's position is always changing and moving. On the contrary, on the question of what God gives and what He never gives, His position is so fixed that it never even budges."


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com