Isaiah 53:5 Meaning — With His Stripes We Are Healed

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 is the heart of the Bible's most astonishing prophecy — written seven centuries before the cross it describes.

Every phrase carries substitution. Wounded for our transgressions: the wrongs were ours, the wounds were his. The chastisement of our peace — the punishment that purchases our peace — was laid on him rather than us. Christians have always read this chapter and seen Calvary in photographic detail.

With his stripes we are healed: the deepest healing in view is the mending of our broken standing with God — sin forgiven, peace restored. Many have also brought their bodies to this verse; every kind of wholeness we will ever know traces back to those wounds.

Isaiah 53 answers the question the cross raises — why? — with the plainest possible grammar: for our, for us. Read the verse slowly and put yourself in its pronouns. That is where it has always meant you to stand.