by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n
I was reading in Matthew and this caught my attention and my mind began to chase the rabbit down the hole. Maybe others have made this point:<\/p>\n
“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. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases”<\/em>” (Matthew 8:16-17).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This quote from Isaiah 53:4 is interesting because we normally think of this in the context of Jesus bearing our sins. Many assume that Jesus’ “bearing” sins involve taking upon Himself all the guilt that belongs to us, and consequently all the punishment we deserve. However, Matthew 8 shows that Jesus’ bearing of illness and diseases did not involve His becoming sick with those same diseases. Rather, it involved Him healing the sick of those diseases. He took hold of the illness, not to become sick Himself, but to cure it.<\/p>\n
Matthew quoted from Isaiah 53, and perhaps this informs us of something important. Jesus bore our sins in His body (I Peter 2:24; Hebrews 9:28-10:10). Does that mean He became sick with sin? It did not mean that in Matthew’s use of it, so I see no need to force that meaning into the text.<\/p>\n
Jesus’ bearing of our sins, then, does not mean that He became guilty of our sins. Rather, it means that He heals us of our sins. He took hold of our sins in such a way as to forgive them. Doing so did cause Him great anguish, as Isaiah 53 shows, because He became a sacrifice for sin. He did indeed suffer in order to free us from eternal suffering. He died so that we don’t need to suffer eternal death. Even so, His bearing of our sins does not mean He became guilty of those sins; it rather refers to His ability to take our illness and heal us. Why else would Matthew quote this passage in the context of Jesus’ healing diseases? Jesus did not have to become sick Himself to bear their illnesses. He need not become guilty of our sins to bear our sins. He need only heal us through forgiveness, and doing that required a perfect sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Doy Moyer I was reading in Matthew and this caught my attention and my mind began to chase the rabbit down the hole. Maybe others have made this point: “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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[73,179],"class_list":["post-54054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-jesus","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":62237,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bearing-fruit\/","url_meta":{"origin":54054,"position":0},"title":"Bearing Fruit","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Jesus spoke these well-known words to His disciples shortly before going to the cross: \"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Grapes-Ripening-on-the-Vine-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":56856,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-with-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":54054,"position":1},"title":"God with Us","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer The coming of Jesus into this world, with all it entails, is more important than any or all events in this world combined. The light has come into a world of darkness, and darkness could not comprehend it. God is with us. Consider that Joseph was told\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37922,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-god-forsook-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":54054,"position":2},"title":"When God Forsook Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Matthew 27:33-54 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Assumptions can lead to wrong conclusions \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As Jesus was dying on the cross, he cried out - Matthew 27:46 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some claim that God abandoned Jesus because Jesus took on the world\u2019s sins: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMy answer is that it was Jesus, the Man\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39069,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-i-believe-in-jesus-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":54054,"position":3},"title":"Why I Believe in Jesus Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bobby Witherington via Truth Magazine Vol. XLIV: 7 p3, April 6, 2000 More Than Just A Historical Being The fact that a man called \"Jesus of Nazareth\" actually lived upon this earth and died upon a cross is a matter of historical record. If we can believe that such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66879,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-kind-of-soil-are-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":54054,"position":4},"title":"What Kind of Soil Are You?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Mark 4 presents what we call the parable of the sower. What has recently struck me is how the entire chapter stays with the same essential point concerning the power of God's word. Here are a few thoughts: The parable's point is not whether we are sowing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92630,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-will-remove-its-hedge\/","url_meta":{"origin":54054,"position":5},"title":"I Will Remove Its Hedge","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Joe Hickman via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 2, February 2015 I recently had the opportunity to travel to Mozambique. While there, I noticed an abundance of bushes covered with enormous thorns. Sometimes these thorn bushes were just sitting in no particular place, as though waiting to give a big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}