Lesson 3. Christ the Healer. F. F. Bosworth. A Classic on Divine Healing.
Is it God’s will today, as it was in the past, to heal all who need healing and lengthen their days?
The greatest barrier to faith for many who seek physical healing today is uncertainty about whether it is God’s will to heal everyone. Almost everyone knows that God heals some, but much in modern theology keeps people from knowing what the Bible clearly teaches: healing was provided for everyone. We cannot claim a blessing with complete determination and faith if we are not sure that God offers it, because we can claim the power of God only when His will is known.
It is practically impossible to persuade a sinner to “believe unto righteousness” until he is fully convinced that it is God’s will to save him. Faith begins where God’s will is known. If God’s will is to heal only some of those who need healing, then no one has any basis for faith unless he has received a special revelation that he is among the fortunate ones. Faith must be based solely on God’s will, not on our desires or ideas. Faith that obtains is faith not in what God can do, but in what God wants to do. Because they do not know that the privilege of redemption was provided for everyone, most people today, when praying for healing, add: “If it is Your will.”
Corrected Theology
Among those who wanted healing from Christ during His earthly ministry, we find only one who held this theology. He was a leper who said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” The first thing Christ did was correct his theology by saying, “I am willing; be cleansed!” Christ’s “I am willing” removed the “if,” adding to the man’s faith that Christ could heal him the faith that He wanted to do so.
This leper’s theology, as it was before Christ enlightened him, is widespread today because this part of the Gospel is rarely and only fragmentarily preached.
From every conceivable perspective, we see that there is no other doctrine in which Scripture teaches so clearly that it is God’s will to heal all who need healing and lengthen their days according to His promise. Of course, we mean all who have been properly taught and fulfill the conditions prescribed by the Word. And now I hear someone say, “If healing is for everyone, then we will never die.” Why? Divine healing does not extend beyond God’s promise. He did not promise that we would never die, but He said: “I will take sickness away from among you… I will fulfill the number of your days” (Exod. 23:25–26).
“The days of our lives are seventy years” (Ps. 90:10).
“Do not take me away in the midst of my days” (Ps. 102:25).
“Why should you die before your time?” (Eccl. 7:17).
Someone may ask: “Then how do people die?”
“You take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust” (Ps. 103:29).
The Reverend P. Gavin Duffy writes on this subject: “He has allotted a certain span of life to each person, and His will is that this life be lived. I want you to remember that all those whom He raised from the dead were young people who had not lived out the fullness of their days; and in this very fact we can see His protest against premature death. Of course, we should not expect the elderly to be physically young, but if the appointed span has not been lived out, we have the right to claim God’s gift of health; and even if it has already been lived out, but His will is for us to live longer, then it is equally His will that we enjoy good health.”
Death comes, and we blame our God,
And wearily say: “Let Your will be done”;
But never has God
Placed anyone in the grave.
God does not send us sickness or crime;
Nor carelessness, nor warring clans;
And if we die before our time,
People are to blame for this.
He is the God of life, not of death;
He is the God who gives us life,
He has never shortened
Anyone’s life on this earth.
He would like us to live in this world
All the days appointed for us.
Therefore, do not blame God—for our own sin is
The cause of our tears.
Douglas Malloch
Read the Will and Find Out
If we want to know His will, let us read about it. Suppose a woman says, “My husband, who was very wealthy, died, and now I would like to know whether he left me anything.” I would say to her, “Why don’t you read the will?” Legally speaking, the word “will” means a person’s wishes. The Bible contains God’s last will and testament, in which He bequeaths to us all the blessings of redemption; therefore, since this is His “last will and testament,” anything that comes afterward is a forgery. A person can never write a new will after his death. If healing is included in God’s will for us, then by claiming that the age of miracles has passed, we are saying the opposite of the truth—that the will lost its validity after the death of the testator. Jesus is not merely a testator who died; He rose again, and He is the mediator of this testament. He is, so to speak, our lawyer, and He will not take the will away from us, as some earthly lawyers do. He is our representative at God’s right hand.
To answer the question at hand, let us set aside modern traditions and turn to the Word of God, which is the revelation of His will.
In Exodus 15, immediately after the crossing of the Red Sea—which was a type of our redemption and was written for “our instruction”—God gave the first promise of healing. This promise was for everyone. God stated the conditions for receiving it, those conditions were fulfilled, and we read: “He brought them out with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.” Here God gave the covenant of healing, which was revealed and sealed by His first covenant and redemptive name, Jehovah-Rapha, which means, “I am the Lord who heals you.” This is the unchanging Word of God, “established forever in heaven.”
Who is authorized to change the will of God?
To say that the privilege of having health is not intended for God’s people today is the same as changing “I AM” to “I WAS” in Jehovah-Rapha. Who has the authority to change the names of God? He has not abandoned His ministry as Healer; He is “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever,” both under this first name and under the other six. The blessings revealed through His redemptive names, as we saw in the previous chapter, were given to us in Redemption, when He “tasted death for everyone,” and therefore they cannot apply only to Israel. This fifteenth chapter of Exodus shows us that, at least at that point in the history of the world, 3,500 years ago, God left people with no doubt about His willingness to heal everyone.
A Nation Without a Single Sick Person
This universal state of health among the people of Israel continued as long as God’s conditions were fulfilled. Then, twenty years later (Num. 16:46–50), when 14,700 people were destroyed because of sin, the Israelites again fulfilled God’s conditions, and the plague stopped; He was still Jehovah-Rapha, the Healer, not merely for some, but for everyone. The fact that the plague stopped would not have been true if even one person had died. Once again, they remained in this state of health for nineteen years, until people who were dissatisfied with God’s ways, love, and mercy rose up against God and Moses and were punished with an invasion of snakes. When they fulfilled His conditions again by confessing their sins, He said through Moses: “Anyone who was bitten, when he looked at it (a type of Calvary), would live.” Once again, Scripture shows us that God’s will was to heal not some, but everyone. Everyone who had been bitten lived by looking at the bronze serpent, which foreshadowed the coming sacrifice at Calvary for us.
In his time, the psalmist David understood that being healed appeared to be a universal privilege. In Psalm 86 he says: “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” In the next chapter we will see that healing was the most widespread mercy throughout Scripture, and that the sick in the New Testament asked for “mercy,” seeking healing from Christ, because God’s mercy covers both the physical and spiritual nature of people. Therefore, in keeping with the Old Testament promise, Jesus demonstrated that God is “abundant in mercy” by healing everyone who came to Him, not merely some. Again, in Psalm 103, David said that the mercy of healing was as universal a privilege as the mercy of forgiveness. He calls his soul to bless God, “Who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases.” “Heals all” is just as consistent as “forgives all,” because the same language is used in reference to both of these mercies.
In Psalm 90, God speaks of the person who “dwells under the shadow of the Almighty: with long life I will satisfy him.” Is this privilege of dwelling in the Lord’s shadow only for a few, or is it for everyone? If it is for everyone, then God’s promise, “with long life I will satisfy him,” is also for everyone. God would break His promise if He did not want to heal His obedient children in the prime of life. If it was possible to dwell under the shadow of the Almighty in darker times, then surely it is possible now, in this age of grace, when He “increases His grace” toward His children. The holy prophets of the Old Testament prophesied “of the grace that would come to us.”
Calvary Meets Every Human Need
As we saw in the great redemptive chapter (see Isaiah 53), Jesus bore our diseases just as He bore our sins, making one privilege just as universal as the other. What Jesus did for individuals when they came to Him for blessing was for them, but what He accomplished at Calvary is for everyone.
Clearly, in all these examples from the Old Testament, God desired to heal everyone who fulfilled His conditions. Wherever forgiveness was offered, healing was offered with it. Let those who teach people that God’s will concerning healing has changed today answer this question: “Why would God withdraw His Old Testament mercy from the better covenant?” It is most likely that He who “keeps the best for us” and who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” will show the same mercy in this better covenant. Let us now look into the New Testament.
Christ—The Expression of God’s Will
There is no better way to find the right answer to the question than by reading the Gospels, which record Christ’s teaching and works. He was the expression of the Father’s will. His life was a revelation and manifestation of God’s unchanging love and will. He demonstrated God’s will for Adam’s race. He said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me,” and “The Father who dwells in Me, He does the works.” He also said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”; therefore, when we see Him healing the crowds surrounding Him day after day, we see the Father revealing His will to us. When He “laid His hands on everyone and healed them,” He was carrying out and revealing God’s will for humanity. There may be no people more conservative than Episcopal theologians, yet a commission appointed to study spiritual healing, after three years of work and research into both the Bible and biblical history, reported: “Jesus’ healing of the sick was performed as a revelation of God’s will for humanity.” Since the commission found that His will is fully revealed in the Bible, it further concluded that the Church should no longer pray for the sick with the faith-destroying phrase, “If it is Your will.”
The message taught throughout the entire Gospel is the message of complete healing of soul and body for everyone who comes to Him. Today many say, “I believe in healing, but I do not believe it is for everyone.” If so, how can we pray for anyone—or even for someone whom God desires to heal—without a revelation from the Holy Spirit that we are praying for the right person? If God did not desire to heal everyone, no one could discover God’s will for themselves from the Bible. Are we to understand these teachers to mean that we must close our Bibles and receive a revelation directly from the Holy Spirit before praying for a sick person, because God’s will cannot be discerned from Scripture?
In this case, we would essentially be teaching that all divine activity concerning healing must be governed by direct revelation from the Holy Spirit rather than by Scripture. How can the sick be healed if there is no Gospel (Good News) of healing that can be proclaimed to them as the basis for their faith? Or if faith is expectation that God will fulfill His promise, how can there be faith for healing if the Bible contains no promise they can apply to themselves? Scripture tells us how God heals the sick. “He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their graves” (Psalm 107). “...the Word of God, which is also at work in you who believe...” and is “health to all their flesh” (see 1 Thess. 2:13; Prov. 4:22).
Faith Is Founded on More Than Mere Ability
If a millionaire appeared before an audience of a thousand people and declared that he could give each person one thousand dollars, that would not give those present grounds to believe they would receive the money, because faith cannot be based solely on ability. If he continued by saying, “I will give one thousand dollars to fifty of you,” that still would not give everyone listening grounds to believe they would receive it. If any of them were asked whether they were completely sure they would receive one thousand dollars from this millionaire, they would reply, “I need the money, and I hope I am among those who are fortunate, but I cannot be completely sure.” But if the millionaire said, “It is my will to give each of you one thousand dollars,” then every listener would have reason to believe, and they would undoubtedly say to that wealthy man, “Thank you! I will accept the money!”
Now, supposing that God has favorites and desires to heal only some of those in need of healing, let us open the Gospels and see how the friends of the sick decided which of them to bring to Him for healing. “When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them” (Luke 4:40). Here, those “who were unfortunate,” if there were any, were brought as well, and all were healed by Him alike. Surely, God was doing and revealing His own will. If you had been there and were sick, you would have been healed along with everyone else, because they brought them all. Matthew, describing the same event, explains why Jesus made no exceptions: “...He healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our diseases.’” The word “our” means that everyone participates in the sacrifice at Calvary, and therefore all must be healed for the prophecy to be fulfilled. Not only in the event described, but in every individual case to this day, He heals the sick, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our diseases.’”
Let the sick study the Gospel and note the words “all” and “every,” and they will see that the redemptive blessing of healing was given for everyone and that no one ever asked Jesus for healing in vain. There was never a crowd large enough to make Jesus unwilling to heal everyone and leave anyone sick.
Jesus Healed All and Everything
“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching... and preaching the Gospel... and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. News about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and pains, those under the power of demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and He healed them. And large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis, Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (Matt. 4:23–25).
“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching… preaching the Gospel… and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. Seeing the crowds, He had compassion on them… And calling His twelve disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out and to heal every disease and every sickness” (Matt. 9:35; 10:1).
Notice that it was specifically the crowds who came for healing that demonstrated the need for new workers to labor in His harvest, preaching and healing. It was shortly before another seventy people were called and sent by Him to heal as well as to preach.
“And a great multitude followed Him, and He healed them all” (Matt. 12:15).
“When Jesus went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matt. 14:14).
“And when they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent word throughout all that region and brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the fringe of His garment; and all who touched it were healed” (Matt. 14:34–36).
“And a great multitude of His disciples and a great number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coastal regions of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases, as well as those troubled by unclean spirits; and they were healed. And the whole crowd sought to touch Him, because power went out from Him and healed them all” (Luke 6:17–19).
Throughout the Gospel, we see that whenever people brought the sick for Christ to heal, it is obvious that all were brought, including the unfortunate, if there were any. If, according to modern tradition, God’s will for the sick is that they patiently remain in that condition for His glory, does it not seem strange to you that among all those brought to Christ there was not a single person like that? By healing the epileptic (Mark 9:14–19), Jesus proved that it is God’s will to heal even someone whom the disciples had been unable to heal, though they had been given a divine commission to cast out demons. In this passage, we see that it would be wrong to question God’s will and teach that God is unwilling to heal merely because of the disciples’ unsuccessful attempt at healing. By healing the epileptic, Jesus showed the disciples that their failure indicated nothing other than unbelief. After three years of close fellowship with the Lord, Peter described His earthly ministry in one brief statement: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).
Thus, in all the passages mentioned above and many others in Scripture that show that He healed all, we see God’s will concerning our bodies and the answer to our question: “Is healing granted to everyone?”
Compassionate love—the leading motive of Jesus
Today, many people know that Christ performed miracles of healing only to demonstrate His power and prove His divinity. This may be true, but it is far from the whole truth. He would not have needed to heal everyone to demonstrate His power; several outstanding cases would have been enough. But Scripture shows us that He healed people out of compassion for them and in order to fulfill prophecy. Others teach that He healed people so that He would become known, but in Matthew 12:15–16 we read: “And a great multitude followed Him, and He healed them all and warned them not to make Him known.” Some who acknowledge that Jesus healed everyone who came to Him claim that Isaiah’s prophecy—that He bore our diseases—refers only to His earthly ministry, that this universal manifestation of compassion was His distinctive characteristic and was not a revelation of God’s unchanging will. But the Bible clearly teaches that He only “began to do and to teach” what was not merely to continue, but to multiply after His Ascension.
At the end of the three years during which Christ healed everyone who came to Him, He said, “It is better for you that I go away.”
How could this be true if His departure meant the end of His ministry?
Foreseeing the unbelief with which the wonderful promise to continue doing the same and even greater works in response to our prayers after His Ascension would be received, He began the promise with the words “Truly, truly.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to My Father. (But how are we to do them?) And whatever you ask the Father in My name, I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:12–13).
In other words, we do these works by first asking Him to do them.
He did not say “fewer works,” but He said “the works” and “greater works than these.”
For me, this promise from Christ Himself is a complete answer to all the opponents and their writings directed against divine healing.
“It is written”—this was Christ’s strategy when He resisted the devil.
B. Jennings asks a good question: “If Christ said ‘It is written’ and the devil said ‘It is written,’ then why can’t a preacher say ‘It is written’?”
The Wisdom of the Early Church
The early Church took Christ’s words seriously and prayed with Him for miracles and signs of healing until “the place where they were assembled was shaken,” and then people “brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches… Crowds also gathered from the surrounding towns of Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.” Everything Jesus began to do and teach, He continues here through “His Body, the Church,” according to His promise. Some say, “Oh, that was only at the beginning of the Book of Acts, to confirm the Word about Christ’s Resurrection.”
In that case, let us turn to the final chapter of Acts and see how, thirty years later, after Paul healed Publius’s father on the island of Malta, “the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed.”
Thus, you and I see the Holy Spirit in the very last chapter of Acts, the only unfinished book of the New Testament, and become convinced that it is still God’s will to heal not some, but all.
The Works of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit, sent by Christ as His Successor and Executor, entered His Church, the Body of Christ, and demonstrated to us the same healing power after Pentecost that Christ had previously demonstrated, and many people were healed. In the Book of Acts, just as in the Gospel, we will not find a single person who asked for healing and was rejected. People called this book “The Acts of the Apostles.” A better and more accurate title for it would be “The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” because it tells us about the works of the Holy Spirit performed not only through the apostles but also through other believers. Philip and Stephen, who were not apostles, were called by the Holy Spirit just as Peter and John were. The Holy Spirit came to bring into operation all the blessings granted to us through Christ’s redemption and promised in the seven redemptive names. He has never lost interest in the work He came to accomplish. If you want to know how He wants to work today, read how He worked before. The Book of Acts shows us how He wants to work “always, even to the end of the age.”
It was the Holy Spirit who performed all the miracles of healing through Christ’s hands. Jesus never performed miracles until the Holy Spirit, the Miracle Worker, descended upon Him in response to prayer; then, fully trusting the Spirit, He cast out demons and healed the sick. Christ’s miracles were performed by the Spirit even before He entered His ministry. Why would the Holy Spirit, who healed all the sick before He fully entered His ministry, do less afterward?
Could the Church’s teaching and practice regarding healing during the Laodicean (lukewarm) period of its history be a truer expression of God’s will than the teaching and practice of the early Church, when it was entirely led by the Spirit? Certainly not! I will say without hesitation that modern theology has stolen part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry from Him.
Now, summing up everything we have discussed above, we can confidently conclude that you and I have a revelation of Christ’s gracious attitude toward our infirmities and diseases after He ascended and sat at the right hand of God.
Now we are examining not Christ’s attitude in the past, but only His present attitude toward our infirmities and diseases.
1. Christ’s present attitude is fully revealed by His redemptive name Jehovah-Rapha. His names do not change. Everyone acknowledges that the other six names reveal His present attitude toward the blessings disclosed by each individual name. Where is the logic in supposing that He abandoned His ministry as Healer, revealed by the name Jehovah-Rapha?
2. His present attitude is revealed once again by His own firm promise to continue and increase the ministry of healing in response to the prayers of believers while He is at the right hand of God the Father. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask the Father in My name, I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:12–13).
3. His present attitude toward healing is revealed by His own fulfillment of this promise, as recorded in the Book of Acts. In the very last chapter, which speaks of a time thirty years after His ascension, we read: “The rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed” (Acts 28:9).
4. His present attitude is revealed by the fact that healing is part of the Gospel, which Christ Himself commanded us to preach
“To all the world”;
“To all nations”;
“To every creature”;
“All the days”;
“Even to the end of the age.”
This commission is followed by the promise: “…they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
His present attitude is revealed by the fact that His sacrifice on Calvary was made for those who would live on earth after His Ascension. We saw in the previous chapter that, as recorded in the book of Leviticus, all diseases were healed because of cleansing, and Matthew told us that Redemption was the reason Christ made no exceptions when healing the sick who came to Him.
6. His present attitude is revealed by the simple command for every sick person to ask for anointing and prayer, with the promise that the Lord will restore him (James 5:14). Does He mean that we should pray with faith or without it? But how can we pray the “prayer of faith” if it is not His will to heal—in other words, does He command us to pray for something He will never do? Yet here we are commanded to confess our sins not even to priests, but to one another, and to pray for one another’s healing, as Elijah prayed for rain (James 5:16–18).
Would God command us to pester Him with something that is not His will? Certainly not!
7. His present attitude is revealed by the fact that, after His Ascension, He established teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, and so on in the Church to continue “the same works” and “greater works,” as He had promised. History testifies to the manifestation of these miraculous gifts from the days of the apostles to the present day.
Jesus’ Unchanging Compassion
8. His present attitude toward our illnesses is wonderfully revealed by the fact that, after His Ascension, He did not take away or change His compassion.
Later we will see that during His earthly ministry, our Lord was always moved with compassion and healed all who needed it. The word translated into Greek as “mercy” is also translated several times as “compassion” or “pity,” because these words mean the same thing. When the blind asked for healing, Jesus had compassion on them and healed them.
If physical healing is everywhere presented in the New Testament as mercy (out of mercy or compassion He healed all who came to Him), then is not the promise that He is “abounding in mercy to all who call upon Him,” ire true? Is God’s purpose not to offer us even greater mercy and compassion in this glorious Covenant than in darker times? The Reverend Kenneth MacKenzie, an outstanding teacher and writer in the Episcopal Church, raises this question: “Could the loving heart of the Son of God, who had compassion on the sick and healed all who needed healing, have ceased to care about their suffering after He was exalted and seated at the right hand of the Father?”
An Absurd Feature of Modern Theology
Would it not be strange if someone in this greatest age of grace claimed that Christ does not show compassion after He was glorified? If God does not desire to show the mercy of healing to His followers, while He shows the mercy of forgiveness to His enemies, then it would mean that He desires to show more mercy to the children of the devil than to His own. Scripture disproves this: “The mercy (compassion) of the Lord is from age to age toward all who fear Him,” because He loves His sick and suffering child more than the sinner. Glory to God that His mercy (compassion) is “unto all generations.”
9. His attitude toward healing in the present is revealed by the fact that in the Old Testament, in the year of jubilee—which Jesus in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke calls the Gospel age—“every person” was to return to his possessions. And just as all His blessings in the year of jubilee were for everyone, so the blessings of the Gospel age are for everyone. We discussed this in greater detail in the previous chapter.
10. His present attitude is also revealed by the fact that “He redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Gal. 3:13). We have already seen that the curse includes every disease known throughout history. How then is it possible for God to justify us while at the same time requiring us to remain under the curse from which He redeemed us?
The Pledge of Complete Redemption
11. His attitude in the present is also revealed by the fact that the Holy Spirit and His work in us are “the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph. 1:14). We have already established that our redemption must be spiritual and physical, because our eternal destiny is also both spiritual and physical. We cannot receive our full inheritance until the coming Day of Redemption, but, glory to God, as we are filled with the Holy Spirit now, we receive a “guarantee” of it. Paul tells us that we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, and they are manifested both spiritually and physically. The firstfruits of the Spirit include the guarantee of immortality, that is, a foretaste of the resurrection. Since our bodies are part of the Body of Christ, the life of His glorified Body is connected with our bodies to the same extent that His spirit is connected with our spirit. The same life that is in the vine is also in the branches, and in Christ, the “True Vine,” there is both spiritual and physical life. Only if He brings into our bodies the same life that He will bring at the moment of our resurrection can the Spirit become the guarantee of redemption for our bodies. Since our inheritance includes a glorified body, what then should the guarantee be? Glory to God that the life of Jesus can be manifested in our mortal bodies—when immortal life touches mortal bodies with a foretaste of redemption, giving us strength to finish our race and receive the “full reward.”
12. Does nature itself not reveal Christ’s attitude toward the healing of our bodies? Nature heals everywhere, or at least does everything possible to heal. As soon as disease-causing bacteria enter our bodies, nature begins to fight them. When a bone is broken or a finger is cut, nature does everything possible to heal it, and usually succeeds. Did God command nature to act against His will? That is the conclusion one might reach if one agreed that sickness is God’s will for His children.
God’s Use of Physical Pain
If sickness, as some believe, is God's will for His faithful children, then these children sin by wanting to feel well, not to mention the thousands of dollars spent trying to thwart His purpose. I am truly grateful to God for all the help given to those who suffer through doctors, surgeons, hospitals, and experienced nurses, but if sickness is God's will, then, as one writer said, “every doctor is a lawbreaker, every trained nurse denies the Almighty, every hospital is a house of rebellion, not a house of mercy,” and instead of supporting hospitals, we should do everything possible to close them.
If modern theologians who teach that God wants some of His followers to remain sick for His glory are right, then this means that Jesus, during His earthly ministry, unhesitatingly stole from God all the glory He could by healing everyone who came to Him sick. The Holy Spirit likewise stole glory from Him by healing the sick in the streets of Jerusalem. Paul, too, stole glory from God by healing all the sick on the island of Malta.
Today many claim that God causes suffering even for the obedient because He loves them, and that sickness thereby becomes a sign of the love of our Heavenly Father. If this is true, why do they try to get rid of this sign of love? Why does someone suffering from cancer not pray for another blessing for himself and ask Him to bless his wife, children, father, mother, neighbors, and so on in the same way?
Does God punish His people with sickness? Absolutely not! When we disobey God, sickness may be permitted by a loving Father who disciplines us, but God has told us how to avoid this. “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged; but when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:31–32). Punishment comes to save us from eternal judgment, but when we see what caused the punishment and turn away from it, God promises to remove it. As soon as we “judge ourselves,” that is, learn the lesson, He promises that we “will not be judged.” By judging ourselves, we can avoid punishment. Divine healing is not unconditionally promised to all Christians, regardless of their conduct. It is for those who believe and obey. “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies” (Ps. 25:10).
13. His present attitude toward healing is also confirmed by the fact that He “was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Think about how He left heaven and passed through terrible transformations to become a man, and about all the suffering and sacrifice that followed. What purpose moved Him to do all this? Scripture gives the answer: “…for this purpose… to destroy the works of the devil.” This purpose also includes healing all who were “oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38). Did He abandon this purpose, for which He sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane and endured terrible suffering at Calvary, after He was glorified? Does He want the works of the devil that He destroyed to remain in our bodies? Could He desire that cancer, “affliction,” “curse,” and “the works of the devil” be in the “members of Christ” and in the “Temple of the Holy Spirit”? Is it not His will to heal every part of the “Body of Christ”? If not, why did He command all the sick in the Body of Christ to be anointed in His name so that they might be healed?
If the body is a “living sacrifice to God,” would He really prefer a sick body to a healthy one? If so, how can He “perfect us in every good work to do His will”? Is God’s expressed will that we “abound in every good work,” that we “be ready for every good work,” “equipped for every good work,” “zealous for good works,” and “careful to maintain good works” intended only for healthy men and women? If it is for everyone, then He must heal everyone to make this possible, because no one can abound in good works if bedridden.
Salvation Including Everything
14. His attitude toward healing today can be seen in the very meaning of the word “salvation.” The word soteria, the Greek word for “salvation,” also implies deliverance, preservation, healing, health, and strength; in the New Testament, it sometimes refers to the soul and sometimes only to the body. The Greek word for “saved” also means “healed” and “restored.” In Romans 10:9, it is translated as “saved,” while in Acts 14:9, the same word is translated as “healed” and refers to a man who had been lame from birth. Both “salvation” and “saved” in Greek mean spiritual and physical salvation—in other words, spiritual and physical healing. Paul declares in Ephesians 5:23: “He is the Savior of the body.”
Is This for Some or for All?
Dr. Scofield says in a footnote on the word “salvation”: “Salvation is the great all-inclusive word of the Gospel, which embraces all redemptive acts and processes.” This word therefore includes our possession and enjoyment of all the blessings revealed to us through the Lord’s seven redemptive names; in fact, these names were revealed to us to show what our salvation includes. Thus, this is the Gospel of physical healing just as much as spiritual healing, which is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” One Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
Author: F. F. Bosworth
