By His Stripes

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1Peter 2:24-25 NKJV).

If you are a follower of Jesus yet identify as a sinner and not the righteousness of God in Christ, you will have difficulty walking in healing, prosperity, joy, deliverance, and all the other things His grace provides. The above verse declares three very important realities that people who have a sin consciousness seldom understand. We have died to sin, we now live for righteousness, and by His stripes we are healed. Because Jesus bore our sin in His own body, we are right now, dead to sin and all of its consequences, as we were crucified with Him. (Galatians 2:20)

“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them. (Deuteronomy 7:9-11 NKJV)

And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2 NKJV)

The context for “who sinned” came from what God said in Deuteronomy 7:9-11. They had knowledge of the law or what God said but lacked the understanding of it being a covenant of mercy. Mercy is not to be looked on as cause and effect, but not getting what is deserved.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5:12 NKJV).

God is good and His covenant of mercy is more than just words, but sin consciousness can steal the knowledge and confidence of His promises. We only suffer loss when we know something of ours is taken from us. Deception makes us dull and unable to comprehend what was taken. When we don’t understand what is ours in God’s word, loss seems natural.

The effect of Adam’s sin was a conscience, that spread to all mankind, is similar to what we call a pandemic. A sacrifice for sin that permeated all mankind was the only remedy which Jesus fulfilled on the cross. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NKJV)

Not just any man on earth could be a perfect sacrifice. Jesus’ Father was God, and Jesus was born in the flesh through a woman, lived a sinless life in His earthly body, and made it clear who His Father was. Jesus performed miracles, demonstrated the Father’s heart through many unarguable proofs. The unescapable reminder of all falling short of God’s glory left faithless mankind to pacify their own conscience. Trying self-atonement, religion, and many other human constructs left them ultimately dying in their own sin. Jesus became our substitute, once for all mankind. People forget the need, the why, and grew accustomed to the hole in their hearts. The hole was our need for relationship with God, but many people choose the intellectual sophisticated approach, where man inadvertently became his own god. Reconciliation for our relationship with God comes through Jesus His son. Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19 NKJV) Jesus perfectly represented the Father’s will for mankind, but mankind rejected the truth and lived with shame, failure, and sin consciousness.
Jesus became our substitute for the penalty of sin, but partial substitution is not enough. He made the way for us to die but still live through His life when we are born again. Jesus translates us into the realm of the Spirit at conversion, but most people never understand. Just as Adam and Eve did not realize anything but shame for their disobedience, death did not immediately occur as we know it. “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17 NKJV) Certainly and die is the same as saying die die. They did not die physically at that time but were escorted out of the Eden of paradise.
We often become philosophical, religious, and ignorant of our new birth transformation. When we are born again and fail to embrace the eternal and true life in our Spirit, we relegate ourselves to a low standard of Christianity. Signs and wonders, miracles, healing are scarce and often explained away. We are new creations in Christ Jesus, if you will receive it. The life we now live is by the faith of the son of God where there is no lack.

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4 NKJV)

The Church has allowed subtle changes to infiltrate their doctrine, altering what Jesus taught. These truths have everything to do with our covenant rights for healing, prosperity, deliverance, and His perfect peace.

There is a war for our minds where lies try to draw us away from the truth in 1Peter 2:24, and the empty tomb which included us.

Jesus' physical stripes and the sin that He willingly took on Himself made the way for us to be free from sin, and live in His righteousness. Because of the past tense of what Jesus accomplished, our present tense is learning to live in the reality of I Peter 2:24,25.

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (I Peter 2:24,25 NKJV)

© 2026 Mark Rossback