Lesson 2. Christ the Healer. F. F. Bosworth. A classic in the field of divine healing.
Before answering the question above with the Word of God, I want to draw your attention to certain facts concerning this subject that Scripture teaches.
Scripture states in Romans 5:12 that “by one man sin entered the world, and death through sin.” It clearly says here that death entered the world through sin. It then becomes clear that sickness—that is, death in its initial stage—entered the world through sin. Therefore, if sickness came through sin, the true remedy for it must be found in Christ’s redemption. If the devil oppresses people (Acts 10:38), then what power, when nature is helpless, can destroy it except the power of the Son of God? Once sickness has gone beyond nature’s ability to heal us, its result will be death unless it is removed by the power of God. All honest doctors acknowledge this, because they claim only to be able to help the body, not to heal it. In that case, anything that hinders the power of God, even if it supports the body in this way, makes recovery impossible. James says, “Confess your sins to one another… that you may be healed,” meaning that otherwise you cannot be healed.
When sickness progresses beyond the doctors’ ability, even prayer cannot save the sufferer until he confesses his sins, unless God, for some sovereign purpose of His own, removes the sickness. Since sickness is part of the curse, the true remedy for it must be the cross, for who can remove the curse except God, and how can God do this without a just substitute? The Bible teaches that sickness is the physical punishment for the iniquity we have committed, but Jesus bore in His body all our pain caused by sin, and thus our bodies were legally freed from sickness. Through Christ’s redemption, we can all have as part of our inheritance—even the life of Jesus manifested in our mortal bodies, sustaining the body until our work is finished. Just as we can receive the “firstfruits” of our spiritual salvation, we can receive the “firstfruits” of our physical salvation.
Now to the question
Did Jesus redeem us from sickness when He bore our sins?
Some teach that there is no healing in redemption. If so, why throughout the Old Testament are types of redemption given that are connected with physical healing? Why does Exodus 12 tell the Israelites to eat the flesh of the Passover lamb to receive physical strength, if we cannot receive physical life or strength from Christ, who, as Paul says, “is our Passover, sacrificed for us”? Seven hundred sixty-five years after the Passover was instituted, 2 Chronicles 30:20 says: “And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people” when they celebrated the Passover. Accordingly, in 1 Corinthians 11:30, Paul says that the Corinthians’ failure to “judge the body” of “Christ, our Passover” was the reason why many of them were “sick and weak.”
The Lord’s Supper is more than just a ritual, because we partake of Christ by sharing in what symbolizes His death, and thus receive blessing. In Christ there is both spiritual and physical life, and surely this is the best time to receive the privilege of having the life of Jesus manifested in our mortal bodies (2 Cor. 4:11).
Healing in the Old Testament
In Leviticus (14:18), we read about how the priest cleanses the leper. Why is cleansing healing for the leper if Christ’s cleansing does not bring healing to us? Chapters 14 and 15 of Leviticus show us that through cleansing, the disease was invariably healed. In our view, this is the complete answer to the question under discussion, even if we stopped here, because all these types foreshadow Calvary and point to it.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Luke (4:19) that He was anointed “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord,” referring to the year of jubilee in the Old Testament. This demonstrates to us that the year of jubilee is entirely analogous to the blessings of the Gospel, for here He Himself relates the year of jubilee to the Gospel age.
Leviticus (25:9) shows us that no blessing of the year of jubilee was to be proclaimed by the sound of a trumpet before the Day of Atonement. On that day, a bull was slaughtered as a sin offering, and the altar was sprinkled with blood. God’s mercy was not available until the atoning blood had been sprinkled on the altar, because otherwise it would have been not a mercy seat but a seat of judgment. This teaches us that no mercy or blessing of the Gospel will be given to us without cleansing by the blood of Christ.
The Restoration of Everything Lost in the Fall
As a result of the Fall, humanity lost everything. Jesus restored what was lost through Redemption. It was precisely on the Day of Atonement that God said: “Let everyone return to his possession.” The order of the year of jubilee is as follows: first, atonement; then the sound of the trumpet proclaiming the jubilee, together with the joyful message: “…return each to his possession.” The order is the same today: first Calvary, then the Gospel message that He “bore our sins” and “bore our diseases,” and so on, proclaimed “to every creature,” showing us that we can return to our possessions.
The seven redemptive names of God, one of which is Jehovah-Rapha—“I am the Lord who heals you”—show us which lost possessions we may return to through deliverance. Two outstanding possessions that must be restored in the Gospel age are health for the soul and body; therefore, forgiveness and healing were offered wherever Christ preached “the acceptable year of the Lord,” so that the “inner” and “outer” person might be healthy and ready to serve God, thoroughly “equipped for every good work,” in order to fulfill their purpose.
Some fundamentalists who attack Christian Science because its adherents believe that one can be saved without Calvary make the very same error when they say that they believe in healing apart from Calvary. I do not understand how one can claim that Christ’s blood in His veins and His blood shed on the cross are equivalent, and set this claim against the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which says that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Accept a bloodless religion, and all you will be left with is a religion of ideas and human excitement, because no one except those saved through the blood of Christ can know “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” It is completely incomprehensible to me how these fundamentalists came to think that healing can be given entirely apart from the death of Christ. Scripture does not speak of saving any area of human life without a sacrifice.
If physical healing is offered and must be preached independently of Calvary, then why could no blessing of the year of jubilee be proclaimed by the sound of a trumpet before the Day of Atonement? Paul says that “in Him” all the promises of God are “Yes and Amen”; in other words, all God’s promises, including the promise of healing, owe their existence and power exclusively to Christ’s redemptive sacrifice.
Healing Is Not Deferred Until the Millennium
Some ministers try to postpone physical healing until the day when the Millennial Kingdom begins, but Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” It was in the Church—not in the Millennial Kingdom—that God appointed “teachers, miracles, gifts of healings,” and so on. No one belonging to the Church will need healing in the Millennial Kingdom, because all will receive glorified bodies before the moment comes when they will “be caught up to the Lord in the clouds,” when mortality will be clothed with immortality. If we postpone our healing until the Millennial Kingdom, we would likewise have to postpone the “teachers,” and so on, whom God appointed in the Church along with the “gifts of healings.” To say that healing exists only for the Millennial Kingdom is to say that we are in the Millennial Kingdom now, because God heals many thousands today.
God’s all-encompassing promise is to pour out the Holy Spirit on all flesh in “the acceptable year of the Lord.” The Holy Spirit comes as the executor of Christ’s will, to carry out for us all the blessings of redemption and bring us the “firstfruits” of our spiritual and physical inheritance until our final enemy—death—is destroyed, thereby admitting us into our full inheritance.
Faith comes by hearing
Many people today have not returned to their physical possessions because they have not heard the trumpet sound announcing the jubilee. “Faith comes by hearing,” but they have not heard because the Gospel trumpets of many ministers became defective while they were in theological seminary. They remind me of an acquaintance of mine who played the trombone in a brass band. Before rehearsal, the others stuck a small peg into his instrument, so that when he blew, the peg blocked the passage, making it impossible for him to produce a loud sound. Yet throughout the entire rehearsal, he never noticed that something was wrong with his horn. Some preachers, like this man, think they are blowing their Gospel trumpet with all their might and do not notice that it is sounding at half strength. They do not proclaim, like Paul, “the whole counsel of God.”
Just as the examples from Leviticus show that healing consistently took place through cleansing, so Matthew 8:17 clearly states that Christ healed all diseases on the basis of redemption. Redemption was the reason no exceptions were made when the sick were healed. “He… healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our diseases.’” Since He bore our diseases and His redemption embraces us all, the healing of us all is required for the prophecy to be fulfilled. Jesus still heals everyone who comes to Him with living faith, “that it might be fulfilled…”
If everyone had the privilege of being healed even in darker times, then surely, in the “better” Covenant with “better” promises, God did not take away His Old Testament mercy. And if He did take it away, Christ’s coming and redemption restored that mercy to us.
In Numbers 16:46–50, after 14,700 people had died, struck by the plague, Aaron, as a priest serving in an intercessory ministry, “made atonement for the people,” standing between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. In the same way, Christ, our Mediator, redeemed us from the “plague” of sin and sickness.
The Example of the Bronze Serpent
In chapter 21 of the Book of Numbers, we read how all the Israelites were healed when they looked at the bronze serpent, which was lifted up as a symbol of redemption. If healing is not part of Redemption, why did the dying Israelites have to look at a foreshadowing of redemption to receive healing for their bodies? If forgiveness and healing came through a foreshadowing of Redemption, why can they not be provided by the Redemption of Christ, who is the embodiment of this symbol? Just as their curse was broken when the bronze serpent was lifted up, so our curse, as Paul says, was broken when Christ was crucified (see Gal. 3:13).
In the Book of Job (33:24–25), we read: “God… will say: I have found a ransom (atonement, redemption). Then his flesh will become fresher than in his youth; he will return to the days of his youth.” Here we see that the body is healed through Redemption. Why cannot this happen to our bodies?
David begins Psalm 103 by calling his soul to bless the Lord and “forget not all His benefits,” then specifies: “He forgives all your iniquities, He heals all your diseases.” How does God forgive sin? Certainly, through the Redemption of Christ. He heals diseases in exactly the same way, because the Redemption of Jesus Christ is the only basis on which fallen humanity can receive blessing from the Lord. How can God save any part of a person except through Redemption?
In his First Epistle to the Corinthians (10:11), Paul writes: “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” In his Epistle to the Galatians (3:7, 16, 29), the Holy Spirit clearly shows us that all this applies to Gentiles just as it does to Israelites. “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham… Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made… And if you are Christ’s (you Gentiles), then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”
Reverend Daniel Bryant, in his book Christ Among Our Sick, says: “Then the Church learned what, it seems, she needs to learn again—namely, that for the compassionate Christ there is no difference between a sick Gentile and a sick Israelite.”
The Seven Redemptive Names of Jehovah
I believe that one more indisputable proof that healing is included in Redemption can be found in the seven redemptive names of Jehovah. In the Scofield Bible, the commentator notes in a footnote devoted to the redemptive names that the name “Jehovah is definitely a redemptive name of Deity” and means “the Self-Existent One who reveals Himself.” These seven redemptive names “point to a progressive and increasing revelation of God concerning Himself.” The commentator then says: “In relation to human redemption, Jehovah has seven compound names that reveal Him as the One who meets every need of a person in a broken condition.”
Since these names reveal His redemptive relationship with us, they must all point to Calvary, where we were all redeemed, and the blessing revealed by each name must be contained in Redemption. Scripture clearly teaches this.
Here are the seven redemptive names:
JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH – “The Lord is there,” or present. This name reveals to us the redemptive privilege of enjoying the presence of the One who says, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” This blessing was given to us in Redemption, as evidenced by the fact that we “have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
JEHOVAH-SHALOM – “The Lord our peace.” This name shows us the redemptive privilege of having His peace. Accordingly, Jesus says, “My peace I give you.” This is the blessing of redemption, because “the chastisement for our peace was upon Him” when He made peace through His blood on the cross.
JEHOVAH-RAAH is translated as “The Lord is my Shepherd.” He became our Shepherd, “giving His life for the sheep,” so this is a privilege of redemption acquired at salvation.
JEHOVAH-JIREH, meaning “The Lord will provide,” a sacrifice, and Christ was the sacrifice provided for our full redemption.
JEHOVAH-NISSI means “The Lord is our banner,” or “Victor,” or “Captain.” It was there, on the cross, through Redemption, when Christ triumphed over principalities and powers, that He gave us the redemptive privilege of saying: “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU translates as “The Lord our righteousness.” He becomes our righteousness when He bears our sins on the cross; therefore, our redemptive privilege of receiving the “gift of righteousness” is a blessing of salvation.
The Lord our Healer
JEHOVAH-RAPHA translates as “I am the Lord who heals you,” or “I am the Lord, your Healer.” This name is revealed to us to show our redemptive privilege of being healed. This privilege was purchased through Redemption, because Isaiah proclaims in the redemptive chapter: “He bore our infirmities and carried our diseases.” I have left this name until last as an argument. The fact is that the very first covenant God gave after the crossing of the Red Sea, which clearly typifies our redemption, was a covenant of healing; and it was at that time that God revealed Himself as our Healer through the first redemptive covenant name, Jehovah-Rapha—“I am the Lord, your Healer.” This is not merely a promise; it is a “statute and ordinance.” Accordingly, under this ancient law, we have (James 5:14) a positive ordinance of healing in the name of Christ, just as sacred and binding as the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper and Christian baptism. If Jehovah-Rapha is one of His redemptive names, sealing the Covenant of healing, then Christ, being exalted, could not have abandoned His ministry as Healer, as the other six redemptive names also demonstrate to us. Were any blessings revealed by His names taken away from us in the “better” Covenant?
After considering several examples that teach about healing, let us now consider Redemption itself, as it is described in the great redemptive chapter of the book of Isaiah. Chapter 53 is the greatest chapter of the greatest of the prophets, in which the doctrine of Redemption is fully revealed. If the types of the Old Testament teach healing, then surely it is unreasonable and illogical to place the very Antitype, the Healer, below them.
He Bore Our Diseases
Before quoting this chapter, I would like to note that the Hebrew words choli and makob were incorrectly translated into English as “griefs” and “sorrows.” Anyone who has taken the time to study the original text has discovered—and this is now widely acknowledged—that these two words mean “diseases” and “pains” throughout the Old Testament. The word choli is translated as “disease” and “sickness” in Deuteronomy 7:15; 28:61; 1 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 1:2; 8:8; 2 Chronicles 16:12; 21:15, and elsewhere in Scripture. The word makob is translated as “pain” in Job 14:22, 33:19, and so forth. Thus, the prophet says in verse 4: “He took our diseases upon Himself and bore our pains.” The reader may consult any standard commentary for further evidence on this matter, but there is no better commentary than the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 8, verses 16 and 17.
God-Inspired Commentary
That verse 4 of chapter 53 of Isaiah cannot refer to mental illness, and that none of the words translated as “illness” and “pain” has anything to do with spiritual matters, but only with physical illness, can be proven by the Gospel of Matthew (8:16–17): “…He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our diseases.’” This is an inspired commentary, clearly confirming that the prophet is speaking about bodily diseases. The very same Holy Spirit who inspired this verse in Isaiah repeats it in the Gospel of Matthew as an explanation of how Christ exercised His power to heal the body. To accept any other viewpoint is to accuse the Holy Spirit of making an error when repeating His own prophecy.
And now I will quote the Bible in the version of the scholar and translator Dr. Young.
3. He is despised and forsaken by men,
A Man of pains (Heb. makob) and acquainted with sickness (choli),
And as one from whom men hide their faces,
He is despised, and we esteem Him not.
4. Surely He has borne our sicknesses (choli)
And carried our pains,
Yet we—we considered Him stricken and smitten,
And afflicted by God,
5. But He was pierced for our transgressions,
Crushed for our sins,
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His wounds there is healing for us.
6. All we like sheep have gone astray,
Each one has turned to his own way,
And Jehovah has caused Him
To bear the punishment for us all.
10. Yet it pleased Jehovah to strike Him;
And He made Him sick (choli);
If His soul makes a guilt offering,
He will see offspring—He will prolong His days.
12…He was numbered with transgressors,
Yet He bore the sin of many,
And He intercedes for transgressors.
Dr. Isaac Leeser, a gifted translator of the Hebrew version of the Bible into English, renders these verses as follows:
3. He was despised and shunned by men;
A man of pains and acquainted with sickness.
4. Surely our diseases He took upon Himself
And bore our pains.
5. And through His wounds healing was granted to us.
10. Yet it pleased the Lord to crush Him with sickness.
Rotherham, however, translated verse 10 as follows: “He laid sickness upon Him.”
From me and you—to Calvary
In verse 4, the word “bore” (nasa) means to lift up, carry away, transport, or remove to a distance. These are the words used by the Levites in reference to the “scapegoat,” which carried away the sins of the people. “And the goat shall bear (nasa) upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness” (Lev. 16:22). Thus Jesus carried my sins and sicknesses “outside the camp” to the cross. Sin and sickness passed from me to Calvary, while salvation and health passed from Calvary to me.
The Hebrew words in verse 4 of the redemptive chapter, meaning “bore” and “carried” (nasa and sabal), are also used in verses 11 and 12 to mean “to bear sins on behalf of someone”: “He shall bear their iniquities” and “He bore the sin of many.” Both words mean “to take a heavy burden upon oneself” and indicate actual substitution and the complete removal of that to which they refer. When Jesus bore our sins, sicknesses, and pains, He carried them away and removed them from us. Both words signify substitution, when one person carries a burden for another.
Here let me quote from the excellent treatise Jesus Our Healer, written by the Reverend W. K. Stevens. He says: “This prophecy presents healing as an integral part of the redemption of another’s guilt…” Thus, whatever the meaning of these two Hebrew words (nasa and sabal), in both cases the same meaning must apply, namely, to both sin and sickness. And there can be no dispute that the meaning of these verbs, when applied to sin—not only in this prophecy but throughout the Old Testament—is substitution and redemption. This prophecy, therefore, gives Christ’s relationship to sickness the same redemptive and substitutive character that is everywhere attributed to the redemption and bearing of our sins.
An inspired translation
Accordingly, the Spirit causes us to be silent before the redemptive meaning of what Christ bore—our sicknesses. Professor Delitzsch fully supports this interpretation. The Gospel of Matthew, in a free yet accurate rendering, translates this passage of Scripture: “He took our infirmities upon Himself and bore our diseases.” The help Jesus provided in every kind of physical illness is presented in Matthew’s Gospel as the fulfillment of all that Isaiah, the servant of Jehovah, prophesied. The Hebrew verbs in this text, when used of sin, mean “to take upon oneself a heavy burden and carry the guilt of sin as one’s own,” that is, to bear sin as an intermediary in order to atone for it. And when not our sins but our sicknesses and pains are being considered, the mediatorial character remains the same. The meaning is not that Isaiah, the servant of Jehovah, merely divided our sufferings into sicknesses and sins, but that Christ took upon Himself the sufferings we should have borne and deserved to bear; therefore, He not only carried them away but endured them in order to set us free from them. And when someone takes upon himself sufferings that another should have borne, doing so not merely with that person but instead of that person, we call this substitution. Here the best results of irrefutable interpretation show that the removal of human sickness is an integral part of the redemptive work, part of Redemption, part of the doctrine of Christ Crucified; that Jesus is the Savior of our bodies just as He is of our spirits, and that
He comes so that blessings may flow
wherever there is a curse.
Physical healing by divine power becomes a gift for every believer in every period of Gospel history. This settles the question of the preacher’s duty to preach about it.
Objection and the answer to it
A Canadian writer objects that the quotation from the Gospel of Matthew (8:17) cannot refer to Redemption, for if Christ had not yet been crucified, then “Christ lived a substitutionary life.” To me, this is no argument at all, because Christ was “the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.” He not only healed the sick before Calvary but also forgave sins; nevertheless, He granted both of these mercies on the basis of the coming redemption.
A famous New York clergyman raises virtually the same objection. He argues that the fact that Christ fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy by healing the sick proves that “Jesus bore our diseases not on the cross, but when He lived in the city of Capernaum.” In response, I simply want to ask: “Did Jesus bear our iniquities in Capernaum or on the cross?” The forgiveness of sins, just like the healing of the sick, was provided in connection with the coming redemption, because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
The prophecy says that “He bore our diseases.” This includes all people, including those who were in Capernaum. In verses 4 and 5 of Isaiah’s redemptive chapter, we see that He died for
“OUR diseases,”
“OUR pains,”
“OUR transgressions,”
“OUR iniquities,”
“OUR peace,”
“OUR healing,” “for by His wounds we are healed.” We would distort the text if we excluded ourselves from any of these blessings.
If Christ, as some believe, does not wish to heal now that He is exalted, as He did when He passed through humiliation, then He is breaking His promise given in the Gospel of John (14:12–13), and the statement that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” would not be true.
Since healing is part of Redemption, His healing ministry continued after His Ascension, because His redemptive work encompasses all those living on earth while He is with the Father. That is why He promises to do the same works He did, and even greater ones, in response to our prayers. While the Church was under the control of the Spirit, the same miracles took place, and history shows, as Dr. A. J. Gordon says, “that wherever we discover a revival of the original faith and apostolic simplicity, there we find Gospel miracles that unmistakably characterize the apostolic era.”
The apostle tells us: “Him who knew no sin He made to be sin.” Likewise, “Him who knew no sickness He made to be sickness.” Peter writes: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.” Isaiah declares: “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” But according to Leeser’s translation, “only our diseases did He bear,” having none of His own diseases.
And again, in verse 4 of Young’s translation quoted above, we read: “And Jehovah caused the punishment for us all to come upon Him.” One writer asks in this connection, “What is the punishment for sin?” and then says: “Essentially, everyone acknowledges that sin is punished by condemnation of the soul, remorse, mental anguish, and often sickness… and believes that all this is removed by the Atonement. On what biblical principle or for what reason is the last-mentioned form of punishment separated from the others? Note the prophet’s words: ‘And Jehovah caused the punishment of us all to come upon Him.’ If sickness is part of the punishment, then the unchanging Word of God says that sickness is included in the Atonement.” The writer then asks: “Is it true that God will deliver us from every punishment and consequence of sin except one, and that this one (sickness) must remain until the very end? Away with such a thought! Isaiah declares that all the punishment of us all was upon Him… He Himself testified: ‘It is finished!’ Nothing was incomplete in the work of our mighty Jesus.” I could add that if it were otherwise, the prophet would have had to say: “Part of our punishment was upon Him.”
The Cross—Perfect Remedy for the Whole Person
Jesus went to the cross in spirit, soul, and body to redeem the human being in spirit, soul, and body. Therefore, the cross is the center of God’s plan of salvation for the human spirit, soul, and body.
Every form of sickness and infirmity known to humanity was included in the Atonement, and many of them are specifically mentioned in the “curse of the law” (Deut. 28:15–62 and other passages of Scripture). And in Galatians we have the positive statement that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us—for it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” Could there be a clearer statement than that Christ, who was born under the law to redeem us, bore its curse upon Himself and thereby delivered us from all infirmities and diseases? It states that it was on the cross that Jesus delivered us from the curse of the law. In other words, He delivered us from the following diseases mentioned in Deuteronomy: wasting disease (tuberculosis), fever, inflammation, Egyptian leprosy, and every disease not recorded in this book of the law, including cancer, the common cold, mumps, measles, and all other modern diseases. If Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, and sickness is included in that curse, then He undoubtedly redeemed us from sickness.
The Atonement Is Synonymous with Calvary
The Atonement is synonymous with Calvary; therefore, we have been redeemed from the entire curse of spirit, soul, and body solely through His Atonement. So, if sickness is part of the curse, how could God remove this part of the curse by healing the sick without first redeeming us from it? That would be unjust. Moreover, if Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, how can God justify us while simultaneously requiring us to remain under the curse of the law, when, as the apostle says, we are “not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14)? In short, why should a person remain under the curse of the law while not being under the law? To do so would be like sending a person to prison for life after his innocence had been proven and he had been acquitted of murder by the court.
In Romans 3, Paul states that God “presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement… so as to be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” In other words, if it were not for Redemption, God would act unjustly by justifying a sinner or healing the sick without first redeeming them from sickness. The fact that God has ever healed anyone is, for me, the best proof that healing became possible through Redemption. If healing was not provided for everyone in Redemption, then how did all those multitudes receive from Christ the healing that God had not provided? “He healed them all.”
An Important Question
If the body was not included in Redemption, then how can the Resurrection take place? How can corruption “put on incorruption” or “mortality put on immortality”? If we had not been redeemed from sickness, would we not be subject to sickness in Heaven, even if it were possible to be resurrected independently of redemption? Someone aptly remarked: “For a person’s future destiny to be both spiritual and physical, his redemption must be both spiritual and physical.”
Could it be that the “Second Adam” will not deliver us from everything the “first Adam” brought upon us?
And now let us consider several Gospel parallels.
“The inward man” | “The outward man” | |
Through his fall, Adam brought sin into our souls. | Through his fall, Adam brought sickness into our bodies. | |
Sin, therefore, is the work of the devil. | Sickness, therefore, is the work of the devil. Jesus “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” | |
Jesus “was revealed to destroy the works of the devil” in the soul | Jesus “was revealed to destroy the works” of the devil in the flesh. | |
The redemptive name “Jehovah-Tsidkenu” reveals His redemption of our souls. | The redemptive name “Jehovah-Tsidkenu” reveals His redemption of our bodies. | |
At Calvary, Jesus “bore our sins.” | At Calvary, Jesus “bore our diseases.” | |
He became a “sin offering” (2 Cor. 5:21) when “He bore our sins.” (1 Pet. 2:24) | He became “a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13) when “He bore our diseases” (Matt. 8:17). | |
Who “Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.” | “By His wounds you have been healed.” | |
“Who forgives all your iniquities.” | “Who heals all your diseases.” | |
“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in…spirit.” | “For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:20) | |
The spirit was bought with a price. | The body was bought with a price. | |
Can we glorify God in spirit while remaining in sin? | Can we glorify God in the body while remaining sick? | |
If He “bore our sins,” then for how many should salvation be God's will when they come to Him? For “everyone who believes.” | If He “bore our sicknesses,” then for how many should healing be God's will when they come to Him? “He healed them all.” | |
“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.”
| “God made Him who knew no sickness to be sick for us.”
| |
“If our substitute bore our sins, did He not do so so that we would not have to bear them?” A. J. Gordon. | “If our substitute bore our sicknesses, did He not do so so that we would not have to bear them?” A. J. Gordon. | |
“Christ bore our sins so that we could be delivered from them. Not compassion—suffering with, but substitution—suffering for.” A. J. Gordon. | “Christ bore our sins so that we could be delivered from them. Not compassion—suffering with, but substitution—suffering for.” A. J. Gordon. | |
If the fact that Jesus “Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” is a compelling reason for us to believe Him for the forgiveness of our sins, | then why is the fact that Jesus “bore our diseases” not an equally compelling reason for us to believe Him for the healing of our bodies? (Author unknown). | |
Faith for salvation comes “by hearing” the Gospel—that He “bore our sins.” | Faith for healing comes “by hearing”—“He bore our diseases.” | |
Therefore, preach the Gospel (that He bore our sins) to every creature. Christ’s promise concerning the soul (“will be saved”) is contained in the Great Commission. (Mark 16). | And the Gospel (that He bore our diseases) to every creature. Christ’s promise concerning the body (they will be well) is contained in the Great Commission. (Mark 16). | |
In connection with the command to be baptized, the Bible teaches that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16). | In connection with the command to anoint with oil, the Bible teaches that whoever believes and is anointed with oil will be healed. (James 5:14) | |
We are commanded to baptize in the name of Christ. | We are commanded to anoint in “the name of the Lord.” (James 5:14) | |
At the Lord’s Supper, wine is received “in remembrance” of His death for our souls. (1 Cor. 11:25) | At the Lord’s Supper, bread is received “in remembrance” of His death for our bodies. (1 Cor. 11:23–24) | |
A sinner must repent before believing in the Gospel “for righteousness.” | James 5:16 says: “Confess your trespasses to one another,…that you may be healed.” | |
Water baptism signifies complete humility and obedience. | Anointing with oil is a symbol and sign of sanctification. | |
A sinner must accept God’s promise as truth before he can feel the joy of salvation. | A sick person must accept God’s promise as truth before he can feel well. | |
“But as many as received Him,…were born of God” (John 1:12, 13). | “…and those who touched Him were healed.” (Mark 6:56). | |
I will recount one of hundreds of cases of illness that were healed when sufferers listened to a sermon on healing in the Atonement. They were healed through their own faith before they had an opportunity to be anointed.
When Mrs. Rupert of Lima, Ohio, was eight years old, she had a very severe case of whooping cough, which ruptured a muscle in one eye. As a result, she became completely blind in that eye, and the eye became so numb that for many years she could rub the pupil without feeling any pain. She said that on windy days, when something got into her eye, it did not hurt at all.
Simply Because the Bible Says So
As she listened to a sermon on the Atonement at one of the meetings in Lima, she said in her heart: “If this is true—and it is true, because the Bible says so—then I am just as sure that my blind eye will see today when I go forward as I was sure of salvation when I went forward to the altar in the Methodist church and was saved.” In keeping with her conviction, she went forward, and while we were praying for others, she knelt down and asked God to heal her. Before we anointed her, she rose from her knees, tears in her eyes, ran to her father, and embraced him. The people around them wondered why she had left the altar without being anointed. Her father asked her, “What is it, daughter?” She replied, “My eye!” “Does it hurt?” he asked. “No, I can see perfectly!”
Several months later, when we were holding meetings in those areas, we met this woman and her husband. They were attending Bible school, preparing for work for the Lord. Her husband wanted to preach the Gospel of Christ, who had so graciously healed his wife.
Practically every day at our meetings, we hear testimonies from people who were healed while they were simply sitting in the hall and listening to the Gospel.
What Notable People Say
These views on healing provided for us in the Atonement are not new, nor are they mine alone. Many of the Church’s most capable and godly teachers have pointed them out and taught them. I have already quoted some; now I will add several more statements.
Dr. Torrey states in his book Divine Healing: “The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ guarantees us not only physical healing, but also the Resurrection and perfected, glorified bodies… The Gospel of Christ brings salvation to the body as well as to the soul. Just as a person receives the firstfruits of spiritual salvation in this life, we also receive the firstfruits of physical salvation in the present life. Individual believers, whether elders or not, have the privilege and duty to pray for one another in times of sickness, expecting God to hear them and heal them.”
Dr. R. E. Stanton, moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, states the following in his work on Gospel parallelism: “My purpose is to show that Christ’s redemption lays an equal foundation both for deliverance from sin and for deliverance from sickness; that both have been fully provided for us; that, by exercising faith in the circumstances described, we have the same basis for believing that the body can be delivered from sickness as we have for believing that the soul can be delivered from sin; in short, that both aspects of deliverance have the same foundation and that both must be included in any true conception of what the Gospel offers humanity. Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice meets people’s physical needs just as it meets their spiritual needs… Healing of the body is therefore not a ‘by-product,’ as many present it, any more than healing of the soul can be called a ‘by-product.’ Both are nothing less than parts of one Gospel, and both are equally founded on the one great Redemption.”
The Episcopal Church on Divine Healing
The report of the Commission on Spiritual Healing, appointed by the Episcopal Church and sponsored by Bishop Rees, who had practiced the healing ministry for many years and served as the Commission’s chairman, contains the following statement: “Healing of the body is an essential element of the Gospel; it must be preached and practiced… God desires our health so that the Church—the Body of Christ—may have the same authority and power as its Head, and so that we believers, having a proper understanding of God as Creative Love, may offer the sinful and suffering world the full Gospel of salvation from sin and its inevitable consequences.”
The learned Commission reached these conclusions after three years of study and research.
Bishop Charles Wrent, a member of the Episcopal Church who, as head of all chaplains in France, conducted religious outreach overseas, states: “Whoever rejects Christ’s healing power as belonging to New Testament times does not preach the full Gospel. God was and is the Savior of the body as well as of the soul.”
James Moore Hickson says: “The living Church is a church in which the Living Christ lives and works, doing through its members what He did when He lived in the flesh on earth. It must therefore be a healing church, just as it is a soul-saving church… Spiritual healing is sacred. It is the extension of His immortal life through the members of His Body.”
Talented writers of the past (Dr. A. B. Simpson, Andrew Murray, A. T. Pierson, and Drs. J. Gordon), as well as many modern writers whom we could quote, were teachers who preached healing in the Redemption. An unknown writer said: “At Calvary’s cross Jesus nailed the declaration: Deliver him from the grave; I have found atonement.”
Isaiah begins the chapter on Redemption with the question: “Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”—that is, who has believed that He bore our sins and sicknesses. The answer is that only those who have heard about it can believe, because “faith comes by hearing.” If Jesus died to save and heal, then surely this is worth proclaiming.
The purpose of this sermon is to prove that healing was provided in the Redemption and is therefore part of the Gospel that Christ commanded us to preach:
“To all the world.”
“To all nations.”
“To every creature.”
“With all power.”
“Always, even to the end of the age.”
Author: F. F. Bosworth
