“His wounds are healing mine” is a phrase that Dr. Chris Green used in his message “The Longing” at Sanctuary Tulsa. He was quoting Malcolm Guite’s poem “St. Thomas the Apostle” which ends with this phrase.

“The wounded God whose wounds are healing mine.”

I am healed by His wounds

In the Zoe Fellowship post “The Skinny on Divine Healing”, I used the Young’s Literal Translation of the classic verses in Isaiah 54:4-5. Note that Young accurately renders these words “sicknesses” and “pains”. If you’ve never concluded the weight of these two Hebrew words, may I encourage you to seek them out? Compare this to what you’ve always read in the KJV and let His wounds heal yours. Our sicknesses and our pains, He has borne and carried. Why? So you would not be burdened with them. Surely, why of course, He has borne and lifted them up from you in order to carry them far from you!

Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains — he hath carried them, And we — we have esteemed him plagued, Smitten of God, and afflicted. And he is pierced for our transgressions, Bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace [is] on him, And by his bruise there is healing to us. Isa54:4-5 YLT

By His bruise there is healing to us. Fascinating to me that the rare, costly, and completely unique blood of our Lord Jesus was shed for our Spirit, Soul, and Body. And isn’t it true that we’ve been wounded in all three realms? And as we have been saved (spirit), we are being saved (soul), and we shall be saved (body)? Spirit, soul, body – three realms of salvation, all by His blood.

Saved in our Spirit

Certainly by Adam’s transgression in the Garden, we were all made sinners, as we were “in Adam” when it happened. And just as our sin began in a Garden, our redemption began in another Garden, when our Lord Jesus sweat as it were – drops of blood. And so, when His unique blood poured out on the Cross, our sins were completely paid for, without any of our own merit. In other words, our “works” cannot and do not earn the salvation of our spirit His blood alone paid for our salvation. Certainly our works validate our faith and prove our faith. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of having a Pharisical pride about how well we’re performing, instead of a humble smiting of the chest. By His grace alone, we are redeemed in our spirit. I love how Lewis Sperry Chafer concludes so beautifully, “That God now saves sinners by grace alone and apart from every human merit.”

Saved in our Soul

Now to that Garden we spoke of. As He agonized, His precious blood came forth (His sweat was as it were great drops of blood Lk22:44). Note this was just after the Supper when He told us to remember Him by drinking His blood and eating His flesh. When the Master said “My soul is exceeding sorrowful”, I believe this was a substitutionary blood coming forth on our behalf. The just One for the unjust. The One known as the Prince of Peace (perfect peace) who became troubled so we could have peace.

Sorrow, heaviness, distress, grief, pain, anguish are all thoughts from various references to being sorrowful. I would add fear, anxiety, worry, and even the concept of abandonment. Perhaps this is what the Father had in mind redemptively when Jeremiah was inspired to write “For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.” Jer 31:25. Can you believe to receive healing from wounds of the past and every distress of the present. He shed blood in His great love for us, to bear all the mental and soulish sorrow.

Saved in our Body

Yes, one day we shall be saved in our Body with our glorified body. And even though the head of the serpent has been crushed — as Jesus triumphed over him at the Cross — he still nips at our heel. How does he do this? Our enemy is the one Jesus declared a sick woman had been bound by. He said this as He loosed her from her bonds, her disease. This woman – who satan has bound – ought to be loosed. And He healed her. That’s love in action, and only He could do that.

So divine healing is ours, by His precious blood that evidenced itself in wounds, bruises, stripes. Again, back to the Passover meal. The bread (matzah) they baked was pierced and striped, as was the Savior. Similar to grill marks for the modern day grillmaster, the bread was striped as it cooked. And at the scourging, He was bruised in a substitutionary way. By the wounds that cut Him, His precious blood came forth as stripes. And by those stripes, there is healing for us. I am healed by His wounds.

Back to the Eucharist, the giving of thanks. As we remember what He has done for us, it is quite powerful to worship our Lord Jesus by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And giving Him thanks. Again, with the words of Guite, “The wounded God whose wounds are healing mine.”