The Broken Body and the Shed Blood
The Broken Body and The Shed Blood- Healing in the Holy Communion
Great numbers of Christians are suffering from lack
of strength and physical wholeness. Their lack of well-being
is in most instances due to either wrong teaching
or no teaching at all on the subject of this study. Most
Christians are thoroughly familiar with the meaning of
the shed blood but not with the broken body in the
communion ceremony. The broken body aspect of the
communion service deserves study and teaching.
The value of this study in abundant living depends
entirely upon what position you hold regarding the Word
of God. If you believe that the Bible is the Word of
God and that it is God’s answer to the needs of man,
then you will be able to manifest the results in your life.
According to Malachi 3:6, God says, “For I am the
Lord, I change not. . . .” He is the same all the time.
What He was once, He is always. What He did once,
He does always. The God whom I know, whom I teach
and preach, and for whom I labor is the same God as
the God of Abraham, David and Paul. God has not become
one bit weaker throughout these years.
The fruitfulness of this study, to a marked degree,
depends upon whether or not you are seeking deliverance
from sickness. If you are not seeking complete
deliverance for your life but an excuse for bondage, this
study will not be of profit to you. There are people who
believe that it is God’s will for them to be sick. There
are people who believe that God is the author of sickness,
suffering and all manner of evil to mankind. There
are people who believe that God makes them better
Christians by sending sickness and disease. All these
positions are out-and-out contradictions of the Word of
God. God does not send sickness, disease and sin into
anyone’s life in order to make him a more worthy or
holy Christian, nor does God send sickness and disease
to try people.
When the Corinthian church was manifesting sickness,
division and strife, Paul did not applaud them for
their sickness. He did not say, “It is a sign of God’s
love that you are sick.” Nor did Paul say, “Bear your
sickness patiently for God is trying you.” The Apostle
Paul, according to the Epistle to the Corinthians, rebuked
them and endeavored to correct them for being sick. He
rebuked them not as individuals but as a congregation,
as Christians, because they did not properly discern the
Lord’s body. They did not realize that Jesus, who was
sacrificed on the cross of Calvary, had accomplished
something for them in His body. Paul pointed out that it
was no longer necessary to suffer sickness and disease.
The age of Law was totally different from the age of
the Church. Deuteronomy 28:15–61 tells about the curse
of the law, those things which befell men who were
disobedient to the law.
Deuteronomy 28:15:
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken
unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to
do all his commandments and his statutes which I
command thee this day; that all these curses shall
come upon thee, and overtake thee.
Verse 22:
The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and
with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an
extreme burning. . . .
Verse 27:
The Lord will smite thee with the botch of
Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and
with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
Verse 28:
The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness,
and astonishment of heart.
Verse 35:
The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the
legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed. . .
Verse 60:
Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases
of Egypt. . . .
Verse 61:
Also every sickness, and every plague. . .them will
the Lord bring upon thee. . . .
The great portion of this whole section is concerned
with sickness and disease.
The Church, the body of believers, is no longer under
the curse of the law. By the grace of God through Jesus
Christ, we now are able to live the more abundant life.
Galatians 3:13:
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed
is every one that hangeth on a tree.
If we have been redeemed from the curse of the law
then we no longer have the curse upon us. “Christ hath
redeemed [past tease] us from the curse of the law. . . .”
That means He has redeemed us, not only from some of
the things mentioned in the curse, but from all of them,
which includes sickness and disease.
If the Church has been redeemed from sickness and
disease, why then was the Corinthian church sickly and
weak?
I Corinthians 11:29, 30:
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth
and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord’s body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among
you, and many sleep.
The Corinthian church was well aware of what the
blood of Christ meant, but they were failing to discern
the body of the Lord.
It is not stated how many members the Corinthian
church had, but the number in another group from the
Old Testament can be documented. Some scholars estimate
that two and one half million people left Egypt,
because there were 600,000 men plus their wives and
children.*
Psalm 105:37:
. . .there was not one feeble person among their
tribes.
There is always something obviously wrong when
members of the Church are weak and sickly and people
are dying prematurely. If God can take two and a half
million from Egypt without one feeble person among
them, then what is there He cannot do in the day in
which we live? Will God not do as much, if not more,
in this age of Grace than He did in the time of the Law?
This is a greater day to be alive than were the days of
Moses.** Jesus Christ arose from the dead, the holy
spirit is in the Christian people with great potential power.
The children of Israel had been in Egypt for four
hundred years and had been terribly mistreated by the
Egyptian slave masters.
Exodus 2:23, 24:
And it came to pass in process of time, that the king
of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by
reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry
came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered
his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and
with Jacob.
For 80 years Israel had been waiting for her deliverer
to appear.
Exodus 3:10:
Come. . .and I will send thee [Moses] unto Pharaoh,
that thou mayest bring forth my people the children
of Israel out of Egypt.
And God brought them out under the leadership of a
man called Moses. Moses became God’s spokesman; and
in preparation for the freeing of the enslaved Israelites,
God instructed the people through His spokesman.
Exodus 12:3, 6-8, 11:
Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying
. . .take to them every man a lamb. . . .
. . .kill it in the evening.
And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on
the two side posts and on the upper door post of the
houses. . . .
And they shall eat the flesh in that night. . . .
. . .it is the Lord’s passover.
God gave His Word; the results followed those who
heard and believed.
God said to Moses that he should tell the people to
do two things: (1) take the blood of the lamb and sprinkle
it on the lintel and the side posts of the door and (2) eat
the flesh. The blood and the flesh were equally important,
equally significant, so far as the Word of God and
the people of Israel were concerned. It was the Lord’s
Passover.
I want you to note something else. When the Lord
passed over Egypt and the firstborn of the Egyptians
were slain, God protected the homes of the children of
Israel because of the blood they sprinkled on the lintel
and side posts. Only the blood protected them. The account
in Exodus does not mention anything about seeing
a carcass or the flesh of the lamb laying outside the door.
If any Hebrew father had said, “Oh, that Word of God
which Moses is speaking is nonsense; I don’t believe in
that kind of stuff. It’s foolish to kill a lamb and sprinkle
the blood on our door lintel, and then think the destroyer
will not come. I will not do it. I refuse to listen
to Moses; he cannot be God’s man.” If the father had
actually believed this, the eldest son of that family would
have died along with the firstborn of the unbelieving
Egyptians.
After affording protection to the children of Israel by
the shedding of blood, what was the purpose of the
command, “. . .Eat the flesh. . .”? God told them to eat
the flesh of the lamb so that their physical needs would
be met. Looking at those Hebrews that night in Egypt,
they did not appear changed on the outside. But something
had happened because the Israelites acted upon
God’s Word.
Believing is indicated by acting upon what God has
promised. The Hebrew people led by Moses demonstrated
believing. God gave them physical wholeness
when they ate the flesh of the lamb, and literally spared
their lives because they followed His directions by sprinkling
the blood. Not one second before they ate the lamb
did they receive wholeness. But, that evening when they
ate the flesh of the lamb, whose blood they had sprinkled
on the lintel and the door posts, they ate physical health
to themselves. The destroyer passed over without harming
the obedient Israelites, and the next morning everyone
was whole in every way.
These people acted upon the Word of God as it was
spoken by Moses. Some of you are saying, “Well if
there were a Moses today, I would believe.” Would you?
Whenever there is a man of God speaking the Word
of God, you have the absolute Word. When I am preaching
the gospel, I am God’s man with His power in me,
and everyone believing the words that I speak gets results
when he acts upon them. This The Word promises.
Just as the blood of the lamb was the covering for the
sins of the children of Israel, so the blood of Jesus Christ
was shed for sin. The body of Christ was offered for the
consequences of sin (that is, sickness, disease and want)
just as the eating of the flesh was the healing for the
physical needs of the children of Israel.
Matthew 8:17:
Himself [Jesus] took our infirmities [unwholeness],
and bare our sicknesses.
These two things Jesus did for us for he is our Passover.
I Corinthians 5:7:
. . .For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.
In the record of Exodus 12, Israel was beginning a
journey from the land of Egypt, the land of slavery, to
the promised land. In that journey one can find a true
comparison to the journey of every person today. It depicts
the journey a Christian may take from the time of
slavery, defeat and frustration to the more abundant life.
The only difference is that the children of Israel looked
forward to the time of the cross of Jesus, while we look
back to the accomplishments in the cross of Jesus.
How we have neglected to reach God’s people with
this truth about Jesus’ bearing our sickness. We have
taught that Jesus bore our sin but have neglected to
teach the other half—that he “. . .bare our sicknesses.”
The Word of God is clear regarding these two definite
parts in the death of Jesus. I am not preaching a new
doctrine, I am not teaching a new gospel; I am teaching
the gospel that Peter, Paul and the rest of the apostles
taught and preached which brought deliverance to the
believers. I believe in the complete work of Jesus Christ,
not only for salvation from sin but salvation from sickness
as well. If Peter can say, “. . .In the name of Jesus
Christ. . .rise up and walk,” so can I, so can your pastor,
so can you because The Word says so. We are only
limited to the extent that we limit the Word of God in
us. He, Jesus Christ, bore our sickness and our sin.
The elements of the Passover for Israel are equivalent
to Holy Communion for the Church. The Passover lamb
had two important parts: blood and flesh. So also, the
death of the lamb of God had two elements: blood and
flesh, symbolized in Holy Communion by the cup and
the bread.
I Corinthians 10:16:
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the
communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which
we break, is it not the communion of the body of
Christ?
I Corinthians 10:16 has the two elements so clearly
depicted; yet for years I missed the great physical healing
power in Holy Communion. I always believed that
“the celebration of the Lord’s Supper has ever been
regarded by the church as the innermost sanctuary of
the whole Christian worship,” as set forth in our Communion
liturgy. But I had not been taught in the churches
or seminaries I attended that the body of Jesus was given
for my physical wholeness, although the Bible says it is
so. Sickness has come upon the Church even though we
partake of both elements because we have failed to properly
discern the Lord’s body.
Psalms 103:3:
Who [God] forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth
all thy diseases.
There are two parts: sin and disease, one is removed
by the blood of the lamb and the other by the flesh of
the lamb.
Isaiah 53:5:
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.
This passage prophesies the accomplishments of the
promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. Again, note the two elements:
forgiveness and healing. Wholeness has two parts:
spiritual and physical.
There are seven different names for God depicting
His nature in the Old Testament. One of the seven is
Jehovah Rapha which is Hebrew, meaning, “. . .I am
the Lord that healeth thee,” as given in Exodus 15:26.
An integral part of the nature of God is physical healing.
The Lord, at the time the children of Israel marched
out of Egypt, gave them the promise, “I am the Lord that
healeth thee.” He is still the same Lord today. Satan
causes sickness and disease. God made available salvation
and healing.
I Peter 2:24:
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on
the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto
righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
While Jesus had walked here upon earth demonstrating
the will of God, the time came for the fulfillment of
that which is recorded in II Corinthians.
II Corinthians 5:21:
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew
no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him.
Jesus who was without sin, was made sin for you and
for me, “that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him.”
When describing the love shown at the crucifixion of
Jesus, words fail. Jesus, the Son of God, without any
sin—who did nothing but good for people, healing their
broken bodies and giving them God’s Word—now was
to be crucified by them. They beat Him and platted a
crown of thorns to put on His head. They spit in His
face and struck Him. Finally, they led Him up that rugged
road to Calvary.
John 19:17:
And he bearing his cross went forth into a place
called the place of a skull. . . .***
The cross Jesus bore was composed of everything
that was against us.
Colossians 2:14:
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us, which was contrary to us, and took it
out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
It was that physical punishment which He went through
that bought our healing. In Isaiah 53:5 we read, “with
[by] his stripes we are healed,” and in I Peter 2:24, “by
whose stripes we were healed.” looking forward to the
cross, Isaiah said that “we are healed.” Peter looking back
said, “by whose stripes we were healed [past tense].”
At the end of His earthly life when they were beating
Him and scourging Him, Jesus in His physical body was
paying the price for the physical wholeness of mankind.
When He allowed His body to be beaten and scourged,
Jesus was redeeming us from sickness and disease. Not
His body, but His blood was spilled at Calvary for the
remission of sin.
Matthew 26:28:
For this is my blood of the new testament, which is
shed for many for the remission of sins.
The term “shed blood” is a figure of speech and does
not mean literally “to bleed,” but that the life has gone
from the blood. Jesus’ blood was shed—He died—for
the remission of sin, not for sickness.
Jesus was our complete substitute. He was our Passover.
He was slain for us. Instead of having to live under
the curse of the law, we now are free from that curse.
We now live by grace through believing in the finished
work of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
When you and I believe and know our sonship rights
in Christ, and when we know and believe in the total
significance of Holy Communion, we will no longer
tolerate sickness. Sickness and sin lose their power over
us when we properly discern the Lord’s body and blood.
The cup in Holy Communion represents the blood of
Jesus Christ; the bread represents the body of Christ.
Since Jesus bore my sin and sickness on Calvary’s cross,
then when I come to the Communion remembrance of
Him and eat of that bread and drink of that cup I have
healing and forgiveness of sins because “his own self
bare our sins in his own body on the tree . . .by whose
stripes ye were healed.”
The Lord Jesus first instituted this new covenant of
Holy Communion in symbolizing His blood and His
body.
I Corinthians 11:23-25:
. . .That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he
was betrayed took bread:
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said,
Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you:
this do in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the cup, when
he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament
in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it,
in remembrance of me.
The Corinthian church was admonished to continue
celebrating the Lord’s supper. After giving each element,
the Scripture says, “this do in remembrance of me.” It
is not just the “doing,” but “doing in remembrance of
Christ.”
To have remembrance of anyone or anything, we must
first have knowledge concerning that person or thing.
We must know what Christ accomplished by his death
before we can have a remembrance of the results of His
suffering and death for us. Acting upon the promise of
God brings the result that God said it would.
Romans 10:11:
The Scripture says, No man who believes in Him
—who adheres to, relies on and trusts in Him—will
[ever] be put to shame or be disappointed. (The
Amplified New Testament.)
Go to the communion table knowing that your sins
are forgiven and that by His stripes you were healed. It
does not depend upon the feeling you may or may not
have; it depends upon the accomplishments of Jesus
Christ.
As the bread is served to you, remember that Christ
said, “This is my body which is broken for you.” By
believing, receive and thank God for your physical as
well as spiritual wholeness.