By going to the cross and shedding His blood, Jesus not only purchased the salvation of our souls, but His sufferings also secured our physical healing. In fact, the word "salvation" (so frequently used in the New Testament), comes from the Greek "soteria", which means 'wholeness and healing - both in the physical and spiritual'. Years before Jesus came to the earth, the prophet Isaiah described the sufferings of the coming Saviour and gave this reason. He wrote, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5). The stripes mentioned by Isaiah were the awful lashings inflicted by the Roman soldiers upon Jesus' back. Thirty nine stripes were the traditional punishment for a condemned prisoner. And according to the scripture, these stripes upon Christ's body were borne to secure our healing (1 Peter 2:24). Several years ago a well-known physician claimed to have discovered that all the world's diseases could be traced to thirty nine root sources. A coincidence? Probably not! Jesus bore a stripe for every disease known to mankind.