Cyrus Ministries International (CMI)

Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. God punished Him for our sins. He was separated from God for our sins. He allowed the powers of darkness to reign over Him, while carrying our sins. He did not give in to the desires of our sins and our sinful ways when He had them upon Himself. He overcame our sinful ways and desires. Now He lives to give us a new life. He lives to impart His holy life into us, so that we can receive and live in a holy life and live above the ways of our sinful nature and above the ways of Satan and the people of this world.

We can enter into all that Jesus has done and has provided for us. By faith, we can be crucified with Christ and be brought into His death for us and with us. By faith, we can receive His new life and have access to His life that has overcome our sinful ways. By faith, we can receive a life that desires to do the will of God, a life that wants to do what is right and to live in righteousness. This life of Christ that we can receive by faith reminds us of the beatings and stripes Jesus bore on the way to the cross. That life of Christ is perfect, holy, without sin and without sickness. That life can bring healing to all of our being.

In Galatians 2:20, the Apostle Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ." He says, "We were buried with Him (Christ)" (Romans 6:4). He reminds us that we were raised with Him (Colossians 3:1). He states that we are seated with Him in the heavenlies, far above the spiritual powers of this world (Ephesians 2:5-6). He tells his followers to think of themselves as dead to sin but alive to the ways of Christ (Romans 6:11). He tells his people to yield themselves and the various functional parts of their beings to God, so that they come out of being a slave to sin, but become "slaves" of righteousness (Romans 6:13, 18). He testifies that the life of Jesus in him compels him to go on preaching the good news of God’s provision for the world, even though it meant much personal hardship (2 Corinthians 5:14).

The Bible says that the new life we are receiving through Jesus living in us is holy -- that this life hates evil but loves all people. The Bible says that this life of Jesus in us will lead us to become like Him, that it will reproduce the character and nature of Christ in us. The Bible says that the life and power of the Holy Spirit in us will reveal these truths to us and make them a part of us and will therefore accomplish this work (John 16:8-11,13).

As I identify with the physical pain that Jesus experienced when He was beaten while on the way to His death on the cross, I will remember that MY sin brings physical pain to others. I will remember that a person who was totally good was beaten unmercifully by sinful people. I will be able to feel His pain and identify with His stripes. The Bible says that stripes or blows that hurt cleanse away evil. We spank our children so they will experience the connection between doing evil and suffering pain. Satan lies to us and makes us think that there is no direct result of doing evil. He told Eve in the garden that if she ate of the tree she would not die as God had said. Satan makes us think that God will not allow suffering to result from evil. Perhaps Satan, in this perverted way, thinks that he might be able to escape the wrath of God, even though he has inflicted much evil on God’s people. If he can convince us that God will not punish evil, and we are to rule the world, he might think he has hope of escaping God’s wrath.

Jesus has always had a hatred of evil. When the demons saw Him they often cried out, "Have you come to destroy us before the time?" (Mark 3:11) They knew that Jesus knew of their eternal destiny to suffer in hell and were afraid that He might send them there immediately. Jesus had a hatred of evil and knew evil must be punished. That is why He took our evil ways upon Himself and brought them into hell, which is their destined place.

We have a sense that evil must be punished. This is what God has given to all people. Our bodies have this sense of needing to be punished. Children are often happier after being punished, because now they know their bad actions have reaped their just reward. Sickness is a way God uses to remind His people of the connection between evil and its consequences. He wants us to make this connection now, before it is too late and, thinking we can get away with evil, we end up living eternally in evil with Satan in his hellish place.

When the children of Israel murmured against God in the wilderness, God sent poisonous snakes to bite them, and many died. When the children of Israel made the connection and cried out for forgiveness, God had Moses make a large serpent and put it on a pole. When the children of Israel looked at the serpent lifted up on the pole, they were healed.

We can receive from Jesus a life that is dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11). This is God’s gift for us. This is the nature of the very life and being of God. This life is in His Son. God made us to receive this life into our being and to become one with this life of His. Man was offered to receive of the tree of life in the garden when created, but he was deceived by Satan and now is suffering the consequences. However, God has provided a way back, a way for us to be freed from the sinful life of Satan and made partakers of the life and nature of God. That way is through His Son. Jesus is the One through whom the old life can be removed, through whom we can be forgiven, and through whom we can receive a holy life that hates evil and loves and does what is right. God no longer has to send sickness to His people; instead He offers them His Son.

Sickness is also something Satan uses to oppress people and to keep them in pain or misery. When healing the sick, Jesus would often rebuke a demonic spirit or cast out a spirit of infirmity that had been operating under Satan’s authority to hold the person in oppression. Satan does not have the right to do this to the people of God. We can exercise the authority Jesus gives us over the powers of the enemy. All authority has been given to Jesus, who reigns over all the evil spirits. His hatred of the evil spirits can cause them to flee from us as they did from Him.

Jesus was beaten for us so that we do not have to be sick to remind our body of the painful results of doing evil, now and in eternity. Therefore we can say to our body, "BY HIS STRIPES WE WERE HEALED."

Jesus was beaten by people under satanic dominion so that Satan no longer has the right to inflict us with sickness, even though we have given in to his ways by listening to and following him. He has no right to punish us for our sins by inflicting us with sickness, because Jesus was punished for us. Therefore we can say to Satan, "BY HIS STRIPES WE WERE HEALED."