Isaiah 53:4,5 - By His stripes you have been healed

Many, many things were achieved on the cross. First, Jesus took up our pain and suffering, or our griefs and sorrows, or . Now on the cross the crowds thought He was being punished by God. Now, of course, this is true, but He was not being punished for His own sin (He had none), but for our sins. 

Jesus was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. The fundamental and basic reason for the cross is Jesus taking the judgement that should have been ours. This is called "penal substitution" if you want a theological word for it. He suffered the death that I should have suffered.

This punishment brought us peace. It is through the cross that we have peace with God.

Now we come to one of the most misused verses in Charismatic circles, "by His stripes we are healed". This is most commonly quoted in the context of seeking physical healing for someone, or for ourselves. This is not the primary meaning of this verse. The wound we are healed of is the wound of sin and all its effects. Now this can include sickness, and I am not saying that the cross has nothing to do with healing (see later comment), but the primary problem that is being dealt with is sin. Throughout Isaiah the problem of Israel is her sinfulness. In Jeremiah God speaks of the wound of His people, and is referring to their sin (eg Jer 6:14).

Peter quotes this verse in 1 Peter 2:24. 

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

What is the context? Sin, and Jesus bearing our sins.

Let me make it clear that I absolutely believe that we should pray for healing, and should expect to see much more in the way of healing than we do, but physical healing is not the primary application of this verse.

Interestingly Matthew does quote from Isaiah 53 when he  talks about Jesus healing many people (Matthew 8:14-17), but it is 53:4 that Matthew refers to, not verse 5.

There is healing in the cross, but we do need to understand that the root problem is sin, and the primary target of the cross is dealing with our sin.