Did the Atonement of Christ Secure Healing from All Disease?

This article provides two views on whether the atonement of Christ secures healing from all disease based on Isaiah 53:5–a doctrine held by many Christians today. For a partial defense of this interpretation, I offer the devotional articles of Charles H Spurgeon given in his book Morning and Evening: Daily Readings for May 7 (see below). For a prevailing argument that counters this interpretation, see this TGC article: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/physical-healing-atonement/. It also helps answer the oft-asked question of why is there suffering and death if God is so good, loving, and kind?

The ‘Prince of Preachers’ Charles Spurgeon wrote in his May 7 morning devotional:

“Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.” Matthew 12:15
“What a mass of hideous sickness must have thrust itself under the eye of Jesus! Yet we read not that he was disgusted, but patiently waited on every case. What a singular variety of evils must have met at his feet! What sickening ulcers and putrefying sores! Yet he was ready for every new shape of the monster evil, and was victor over it in every form. Let the arrow fly from what quarter it might, he quenched its fiery power. The heat of fever, or the cold of dropsy; the lethargy of palsy, or the rage of madness; the filth of leprosy, or the darkness of ophthalmia—all knew the power of his word, and fled at his command. In every corner of the field he was triumphant over evil, and received the homage of delivered captives. He came, he saw, he conquered everywhere. It is even so this morning. Whatever my own case may be, the beloved Physician can heal me; and whatever may be the state of others whom I may remember at this moment in prayer, I may have hope in Jesus that he will be able to heal them of their sins. My child, my friend, my dearest one, I can have hope for each, for all, when I remember the healing power of my Lord; and on my own account, however severe my struggle with sins and infirmities, I may yet be of good cheer. He who on earth walked the hospitals, still dispenses his grace, and works wonders among the sons of men: let me go to him at once in right earnest.
Let me praise him, this morning, as I remember how he wrought his spiritual cures, which bring him most renown. It was by taking upon himself our sicknesses. ‘By his stripes we are healed.’ The Church on earth is full of souls healed by our beloved Physician; and the inhabitants of heaven itself confess that ‘He healed them all.’ Come, then, my soul, publish abroad the virtue of his grace, and let it be ‘to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off.'”

Commentary: Based on the passage from Matthew, in presenting the remarkable condescension and overriding compassion of Jesus in healing the masses from their revolting and contaminating human sicknesses and disease, Spurgeon describes this as Christ’s triumph over evil and the deliverance of captives. Then in turning to personal application he says that, in remembering the healing power of the Lord, it can give him hope for himself and all persons in our severe struggle with both sins and infirmities (e.g., not just sins at the exclusion of infirmities), so we may have cheerful confidence to go to Him who still dispenses such grace and works such wonders with people today. He then concludes with exhorting praise to God for having wrought ‘spiritual cures, which bring Him most renown,’ that is probably an allusion for healing sin. The healing of sin and the attending redemption of captives is the whole purpose of the gospel message that saves–not for mere healing from disease and infirmities. Spurgeon then quotes from Isaiah 53:5, ‘by His stripes we are healed’ in this context, which agrees with the context where this verse occurs in 1 Peter 2:24. However, in Matthew 8:17, the companion verse of Isaiah, ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases’ is referenced as fulfilled in Jesus’s healings during His earthly ministry. Conclusion: Although Spurgeon emphasizes the primary application of Isaiah 53:5 as spiritual in healing of sin, he does also apply it by allusion to healing from infirmities (i.e., diseases) for God’s people today. In other words, just as Christ’s healing ministry was a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4-6 in His first advent, it carries over into the present dispensation of grace–it is a kind of two-fold package. That incudes the nature of infirmities as rooted in evil and bondage for which Christ gives deliverance. Spurgeon does not insist that this healing is already an accomplished fact for every disease or infirmity of believers only to be realized by faith, but rather, the healing is not actualized until after we bring our petition to the Lord in faith and He then responds, based on this promise. This comports more with the scriptures, such as how the healings by Jesus occurred only after people first came and appealed to Him by faith or committed some act directly demonstrating their faith in His healing power. Many times, after the healing occurred, Jesus exhorted them that their faith (in Him) saved them. To Spurgeon, the healing ministry of Jesus that was in fulfillment of Isaiah 53 also carries over to today when we can confidently appeal to Him by faith in like manner for salvation from sin and deliverance from our infirmities. Spurgeon appears to underscore this in his evening devotional (for May 7th) where he seems to chide people for seeking the use of various means for deliverance from afflictions rather then solely through Christ.