With His Stripes

The words on the merch are these: with his stripes we are healed. The small label under them is the Message Merch™ logo.

Those words are from the Bible, in the King James Version. They are not a slogan we made up.

Who wrote it

The prophet Isaiah wrote them, hundreds of years before Jesus was born. You can find the line in Isaiah, chapter 53, verse 5.

Isaiah wrote about a servant of God who would suffer. People call this passage the Suffering Servant. It runs from the end of chapter 52 through chapter 53.

The servant is “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” People look at him and think God is punishing him. But he is suffering for them:

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 (KJV)

The next verse says why he had to: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

What “stripes” means

Stripes are the wounds a whip leaves on a person’s back. Before Jesus was crucified, Pilate had him scourged, which means whipped. Those wounds are the stripes.

How Peter uses it

The apostle Peter quoted Isaiah in a letter to believers who were being treated unfairly. He told them to look at Jesus, who suffered without sin and did not strike back. Then he wrote:

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 (KJV)

So Peter says plainly who the servant is. It is Jesus. The wounds are his, and the cross is where he carried our sins.

What it means

We are the sick ones in this line, and the sickness is sin. We went our own way. The servant took the punishment, and we get the healing. We get peace with God that we could not earn.

Peter says what the healing is for: that we would be dead to sins and live unto righteousness. It is forgiveness, and it is a new life.

What it does not mean

This line is first of all about healing from sin. That is how Peter reads it.

It does not promise that every sickness will be cured right now. Faithful people get sick. Faithful people die. Paul himself prayed three times for a hardship to be taken away, and it was not.

It does not mean a sick person lacks faith. If you are ill and someone has told you that, this verse does not say it.

It does not mean God has stopped caring about your body. Jesus healed many sick people, and the Bible promises a day when there will be no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. Some healing comes now. All of it comes then.

If you are sick and reading this, you are not being blamed. The one who took those stripes did it for you.

What to say if someone asks

Start with the cross.

“It’s from the Bible. Jesus was whipped before he was crucified. Those wounds are the stripes. He took what we had coming, and we are healed.”

If they ask what “healed” means:

“Mostly healed from sin, made right with God. It’s not a promise that nobody gets sick. It’s a promise that Jesus carried our sins, and one day he makes everything right.”

If they want the place: Isaiah 53:5. Peter quotes it in 1 Peter 2:24.

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