A complete work
1 Peter 2:24 He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. (NLT)
As we have already seen, Jesus sacrifice and death on the cross was more than just symbolic. i.e. He was not just the symbol of the necessary sacrifice, He WAS the sacrifice. He took our sins, sorrow, and diseases on HIMSELF. He did not send an animal as a substitution this time. The blood of bulls and goats had to be offered each year because the shedding of their blood would NEVER completely satisfy the penalty for our sin!
A perfect sacrifice was needed to accomplish a complete work! There could be no other than the Son of God Himself – the spotless Lamb. In fact, so complete is the work that Jesus did on the cross, that the concept conveyed in the Greek literally means to be separated from our sin so that it no longer influences our standing with God. Where once sin was our master, now we are to be ruled by righteousness because of what Jesus suffered on our behalf.
Healing is inherent in the finished work of Calvary! The phrase, “by His stripes we are healed” is a very graphic picture in the original language. Peter was there when Jesus was scourged and he saw the welts came up and the skin break and bleed as the whip came down across His back. The effects of sickness and disease would be reversed because of what He took on Himself that day.
Hebrews 1:3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high