THE THEOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR HEALING
MINISTRY
The issue of healing has been the subject
of sometimes intense debate in many parts of the Church in recent decades,
particularly since the advent of the early Pentecostal and more recent
charismatic movements with their emphasis on Christ as our healer. The questions which have been raised have
been many and varied, ranging from the basic question of whether the word of
God gives us grounds of hope for healing today, all the way to debating various
aspects of the practice of healing ministry.
So, in this chapter, I will endeavour to lay a foundation for healing
ministry which will theologically justify the validity of healing ministry
today.
At the heart of the debate about healing
is how it relates to the person and work of Christ. One of the questions that is often raised is
whether healing is ‘in the atonement’ or not.
Put simply, on the one side, those who believe
that healing is in the atonement, hold that Jesus bore our sicknesses in
the same way that he bore our sins, and that healing ministry is therefore
valid for today. God’s promise of
healing is for our present life and therefore we can expect to be healed when
we are sick. Equally simply, on the
other side, those who do not believe that healing is in the atonement,
hold that Jesus did not bear our sicknesses in the same way that he bore our
sins. So, although we can expect
forgiveness for sin as a guaranteed promise in this life when we confess our
sins, we cannot necessarily expect God to heal us when we are sick, although
some believers may experience healing from time to time through the sovereign
grace of God. Many of those who believe
this hold that miraculous healing is not for today.
The word ‘atonement’ is
an Anglo-Saxon term which literally means ‘a making at one’ (so an ‘at-one-ment’)
and signifies the bringing into unity of those who have been estranged, making
them ‘at one’ with each other. It is the
theological term used to denote the work of Christ in dealing with the problem
of human sin and bringing sinners into right relation with God. The word ‘atonement’ is used widely in
English language versions of the Old Testament to translate the kpr
family of Hebrew words, referring to the death of a sacrificed animal whose
blood covered the sins of the people, so bringing God’s forgiveness and
allowing them to continue in covenant relationship with him, with all the
blessings and provisions that this entailed.[1]
As far as the New Testament
is concerned, the word ‘atonement’ is used only once in the AV (in Romans 5:11
to translate the Greek noun katallage which is better rendered as ‘reconciliation’)
and three times in the NIV (in Romans 3:25 to translate hilasterion and in 1 John 2:2, 4:10 to translate the related word hilasmos, each translated as ‘propitiation’
in the AV). Apart from these instances,
the word ‘atonement’ is not generally used in the New Testament.[2]
The way in which the word ‘atonement’ is used in these translations might
suggest or enforce its traditional association with the two soteriological
concepts it is used to replace, namely propitiation and reconciliation. These two soteriological concepts taken
together have historically given rise to the traditional reformed understanding
of the atonement of Christ, the so-called doctrine of penal satisfaction, vis.
that Christ died vicariously in our place to take away the wrath of God upon
sin so that we can then be reconciled into a relationship of right standing
with God as his children. In this
reformed view, the focus of Christ’s atoning work tends to be placed almost
entirely on his death on the cross. So
historically, and thereby also traditionally, the evangelical reformed doctrine
of the atonement has a strongly hamartiological focus. The work of propitiation leads logically on
to the doctrine of reconciliation to God in relationship. Propitiation and reconciliation make up the
two main foci of the atonement and, taken together, they make up many reformed believers’
understanding of it.[3] In this viewpoint, the issue of healing therefore
has no part in the atonement.
However, and not denying the crucial
place that both propitiation and reconciliation play in the work of Christ, it
is not difficult to point out some of the difficulties raised by such a limited
view of Christ’s work of atonement.
Propitiation and reconciliation taken together do represent a critical
and crucial part of Christ’s work of atonement.
However, these two facets considered alone together leave us with a
limited, and therefore inadequate, understanding of the total work of Christ
and its intended fruit and aim. The
result is that we may well then have an inadequate understanding of what being
reconciled into living relationship with God means. For example, on the other side, as it were,
of the work of propitiation to remove God’s wrath against sin, is the entrance
of the believer into the ongoing, subjective experience of the love of God (cf.
Hosea 14:4 ‘I will heal their
waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them’). It is this ongoing experience of the love and
care of God the Father over a believer’s life which is the experiential aim of
propitiation. To focus merely on the
removal of wrath, and not also on the consequent ongoing enjoyment of a loving,
eternal relationship with God, is to miss God’s aim in propitiation and
therefore to potentially condemn ourselves to having an insecure experience of
God’s love as the fruit of our misconception.
Propitiation is rooted in God’s love for us (1 John 4:10) and so its
intention is to lead us into an ongoing experience of God’s love through
repentance and faith, and the ministry of healing is a natural expression of
this love and care of God.
Furthermore, if we have been made ‘at one’
with God through the death of Christ, then what is/are the outcome(s) and fruit
of this now being ‘at one’ with God?
What does being reconciled and ‘at one’ with God mean for our lives
now? Merely forgiveness, a new life and ‘a
relationship’ with God? Or are we now,
having been reconciled with God, ‘at one’ with the fullness of God’s life, presence
and power with us? In theological
traditions in which there is no place for healing in the atonement, there is
not only little or no place for physical healing today, there is also often no
ground for adequately addressing the internal, subjective needs of our
hearts. But, if we are truly to be ‘at
one’ with God, does not the internal condition of our heart need addressing as
well as the outward, objective fact of sin?
Would not being ‘at one’ with the life, presence and power of God bring
restoration to our inner beings, healing to our hearts, and freedom from shame,
inward guilt and self-condemnation? And
would it not also bring us inward empowerment to overcome the power of
indwelling sin and live practically in Christ’s righteousness in this world?
If the work of Christ is to have a greater
and more significant, practical meaning for us, then we need to develop an
understanding of it which deals with the needs of the whole person (body, soul
and spirit), not simply with the forensic aspect of being forgiven, justified
and placed in right standing with God. As
we shall see, healing – both inner emotional healing and physical healing – is
a natural outcome of being reconciled to God and
restored into a covenant relationship with him which is empowered by his life
within us (cf. Rom. 5:10). Hence, even a
very brief and simple look at propitiation and reconciliation as theological
facets of the work of atonement, would suggest that healing does indeed seem to
be intrinsically bound up in the atonement as one of its fruits and natural
outcomes.
As I said previously,
apart from issues in translation such as the ones outlined above, the word ‘atonement’
is not generally used in the New Testament.
Writing in Greek, the New Testament writers used words which conveyed
the meaning of the Hebrew kpr words
which are footnoted above. So they used an
array of theological concepts which describe the various facets of the saving
work of Christ, such as deliverance, propitiation, expiation,[4] forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, ransom,
justification, adoption, new birth, union with Christ, covenant,[5]
and so on. Viewed by themselves, each of
these concepts (including propitiation and reconciliation) is meaningful and
important, but is limited in terms of understanding the whole work of Christ,
and is therefore inadequate to describe this whole work. The fact that this array of concepts is
offered to us by them, suggests that, in trying to understand the atonement as
fully as possible, we should focus our understanding of Christ’s work on an
integration of these various truths. In
this way, we would be sure to include all the different concepts that the New
Testament writers themselves use to describe Christ’s work and we would
therefore gain a better and more wholesome view of the all-encompassing work of
Christ in our great salvation. And
as a result, we would then be better placed to understand healing as its fruit.
As Morris says, the atonement is vast and deep, and it is its
fruit – the new life we have in Christ through his resurrection – that needs to
receive significant attention if we are to understand and embrace healing as a
fruit and natural outcome of the atonement.
‘...it is abundantly
apparent that the atonement is vast and deep.
There is more to it by far than we have been able to indicate... Nor are we to overlook the fact that the
atonement represents more than something negative. We have been concerned to insist on the place
of Christ’s sacrifice of himself in the putting away of sin. But that opens up the way to a new life in
Christ. And that new life, the
fruit of the atonement, is not to be thought of as an insignificant detail. It is that to which all the rest leads.’[6]
(underlining my own for emphasis).
Furthermore, if we take a
view of the atonement that emphasizes Christ’s death on the cross as a
sacrifice for sin which then turns away God’s wrath towards sin, bringing the
potential for forgiveness and reconciliation with God through repentance and
faith, then, although these things are indeed very true, yet it is to view the
atonement only from its soteriological aspect.
Limiting ourselves to such a soteriological view of atonement does not
help us to gain a fuller and broader understanding of Christ’s work. It limits our understanding of the atonement
only to the cross and what Christ accomplished there in dealing with sin. Such a view places little or no emphasis on,
or perhaps does not even recognize, the significance of the role of the person
of Christ in the atonement.
To fully understand
Christ’s role as mediator, we must consider his person as well, not simply his
work on the cross. We are saved through
the work of the person of
Christ. Christ could only do what he did
because he was the person he was. His
person is intrinsic to and inseparable from his work. This then necessarily links Christology to
the work of atonement. The atonement has
an intrinsically christological dimension to it which, as we will see, we must
come to understand and appreciate in order to then more fully understand and
experience what it means to be and to live ‘at one’ with God. The atonement is soteriological, precisely because
it is christological. Atonement can
exist as an objective soteriological fact, because it is christological in
nature. Indeed, the separation of
systematic theology into different branches such as soteriology and Christology
is done simply for the ease of the academic study of the vastness of God’s salvation
in Christ. However, they are not, and
never can be, separated. They are
inseparably connected and interwoven.
Soteriology presupposes and founds itself upon Christology. Therefore, not to recognize the place of
Christology in the atonement is to undermine and weaken our understanding of
soteriology as a consequence.
So the fuller meaning
of atonement can only be attained by considering it in the light of Christ’s
person, and this means that we must then consider his incarnation, his life and his resurrection (and
ascension/exaltation), as well as his death, and establish their link with the
wider meaning of being ‘at one’ with God.
Christ’s incarnation, his life, his death and his resurrection are all
inseparably connected together and should be viewed as one whole, completed
work. God’s salvation comes to us through the total work of the person of
Christ. His death, crucial and
central though it is, should not be separated from these other aspects of his
person and work. To view atonement only
through the soteriological lens of Christ’s death, is
to limit our understanding of atonement and, in fact, it runs the risk of
compartmentalizing Christ’s work by isolating one aspect of it from the others,
and then we end up with a limited view of what it means to be ‘at one’ with
God. We should view the atonement in the
light of this fuller and much broader christological understanding of God’s
intention for us through the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of
Christ. For example, the concept of
union with Christ is taught strongly and repeatedly by the apostle Paul as a
foundation stone for Christian living.
It is a direct outcome of Christ’s work on the cross in which we
participate through repentance and faith.
And yet it is an intrinsically christological concept. We shall see below how union with Christ and
his resurrection life within us is one of the theological grounds of
healing and healing ministry.
The secret of
understanding healing and its relation to the atonement, is in taking as wide a
view of Christ’s person and work as possible. If we take a wider view of becoming ‘at one’
with God by viewing it through the lens of the total work of the person of
Christ, then healing is necessarily bound up in the atonement. Both the removal of sickness (and therefore
healing from it) and the removal of sin are bound up in the total work of the
same person (cf. Isa. 53:4-5). Both our
sins and our diseases were taken up in their totality by the same person. God’s provision of salvation in Christ therefore
brings us both forgiveness and healing. So
healing is bound up with the total work of the person of Christ.
As we go through this chapter, it
will become clear that healing is associated (prophetically, ontologically and
actually) with each recorded phase of Christ’s life. We will see its ontological relation to the
incarnation which was then worked out in his ministry, and it is clearly
associated prophetically and empathetically with the events of the cross. We shall also see that, in terms of Christ’s
resurrection, it is his life which now indwells us as born-again believers and
whose power can therefore heal us (cf. Heb. 13:8). Furthermore, our ultimate physical healing will
come through our eschatological, physical resurrection which is bound up with
Christ’s own resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-23).
This suggests forcibly that we take a christological view of the
atonement and find the source of our healing in the person of Christ. Our healing is bound up with the work of
Christ, because it is in his person.
In addition to
this, the relation of pneumatology to the atonement is also often not
recognized and taken into account. If
the atonement is both soteriological and Christological in nature, it necessarily
also has a pneumatological dimension.
This is because the Holy Spirit played such an important role in every
significant recorded phase of Christ’s life and work, including the cross (cf.
Heb. 9:14). This is discussed later on
in this chapter. In fact, the work of
atonement is inter-trinitarian in nature, involving each of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit. There would not be atonement
at all, if the Holy Spirit had not been inextricably involved in Christ’s person and work at every stage. The atonement, therefore, in its fullest and
widest meaning, is an inter-trinitarian integration of soteriology, Christology
and pneumatology. For healing ministry
to be meaningful and practical today, a theology of healing should be informed
by and developed out of this integration.
So, to form a firm foundation for healing ministry, we need to view
the atonement in its widest sense, including therefore also its christological
and pneumatological dimensions.
Without this, our understanding of healing ministry will be weak, if not
awry.
In the rest of this chapter, we will
be studying healing in its relation to various theological facets of the
atonement by approaching this in its widest sense possible as the whole work of
the person of Christ, including its pneumatological dimension. In this way, we will discover how healing
relates to this atoning work of Christ as its fruit and natural outcome.
The incarnation, the ministry of Christ and
healing
One of the simplest and yet most profound
statements in the whole of Scripture is found in the apostle John’s description
of the incarnation: ‘the Word became
flesh and made his dwelling among us’ (John 1:14). It is in the incarnation, the ontological
union within Christ of the divine nature of the Logos of God with a fully human
(but sinless) nature, that we find the existential ground for the actual
subjective reconciliation and restoration of humankind to God which was made
possible through sin’s removal by Christ on the cross. Mediation and reconciliation through the work
of the cross were made possible by the fact that this union of two natures was within
the mediator through the incarnation. It
is in this union within the person of the mediator Jesus Christ that God and humankind
are ontologically reconciled and brought inseparably and indivisibly together. As we shall see below, this incarnated union
in Christ provides a profound theological ground for healing ministry.
The Word was sent by the Father to become
flesh with the specific intention to save and transform fallen humankind. The crux of the outworking of this inner
union of God and human nature within Christ to bring salvation to humankind was
as the mediator in the event of the cross-resurrection, of course, since the
removal of sin is at the heart of the atonement (1 Tim. 2:5-6). However, an important dimension of God’s
intention in the incarnation was worked out through Christ’s life and
ministry. As a man, he identified as a
complete human with human beings, and experienced a fully-human life as we
experience it (Heb. 3:17, Phil. 2:5-11, 2 Cor. 8:9). But because the reconciliation of God and
humankind was already bound up in his own inner nature, he was able to
incarnate the life and power of God into the particular world of human life in
which he lived. Divine life and power
were able to operate through him into human life, by the power of the Holy
Spirit. The life of God could minister
into the total life of humans. To put it
simply, he brought God in his fullness to people, and brought people in the
fullness of their state and need to God, and he empowered this restored
relationship in the very ‘warp and woof’ of their everyday life. He would minister the life, power and grace
of God to people at the very intimate core point of their need (cf. Ps. 23:4). The
bringing of healing to the sick in this way was a demonstration of the will of
God for them.
Furthermore, in
Christ, God ‘opened himself up’ to understand, feel and suffer as he entered
into relationship with people and the world.
He fully embraced broken and sinful humankind and so he understands
human life and suffering from the inside.
It is this that is at the root of God’s empathy towards human suffering,
and in particular towards sickness. When
Christ came across sick people, he experienced deep empathy within himself: ‘When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he
had compassion on them and healed their sick’ (Matt. 14:14). The Greek verb esplagchnisthē used here is a strong word meaning ‘to have the
bowels yearn,’ ‘to feel sympathy with,’ ‘to pity,’ and hence to be moved with
compassion. Seeing the suffering of sick
people not only provoked an involuntary response of spiritual empathy deep
within Christ, it also then moved him into action in healing them. So healing came to sick people as a result of
the free working of God’s grace in and through him towards them. Healing was – and still is – the natural
outworking of this inner union within Christ of God and human nature.
We can also note a
major prophetic reference to healing in the ministry of Christ. The prophet Isaiah foretold that Jesus would
carry our sicknesses and infirmities: ‘Surely
he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows’ (Isa. 53:4). The
Hebrew noun choliy used here for ‘infirmities,’
translated in the AV as ‘griefs,’ has a variety of meanings and can be
translated as ‘malady,’ ‘disease’ and ‘sickness,’ as well as ‘grief’ and ‘anxiety.’ It comes from a root word meaning ‘to be worn
down,’ which was also used figuratively with the meaning of ‘to be weak,’ ‘to
be made sick,’ ‘to be afflicted,’ ‘to be diseased,’ ‘to be wounded,’ or ‘to be
put to grief.’ Similarly, the noun makob translated as ‘sorrows’ means ‘anguish,’
‘affliction’ or ‘pain,’ and comes from a root word meaning ‘to feel pain’ or ‘to
grieve.’ Also, the verb nasa translated as ‘took up’ literally
means ‘to lift up’ and ‘to carry away.’
In his gospel
narrative, Matthew tells us that this prophetic passage found fulfilment in the
healing ministry of Jesus: ‘When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him,
and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all their sick. This was to fulfil what was spoken through
the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”’ (Matt.
8:16-17). So as he ministered to people
at the very intimate core point of their need in grace and empathy, he brought
the healing power of the presence of God to them, lifting up and carrying away their
infirmities and diseases.[7]
The death of
sickness in the death of Christ
Our healing is also intrinsically connected to the events of the
cross. It was then that Jesus ultimately
lifted up and carried away our sicknesses.
Firstly, Isaiah confirmed this connection of healing to the events of
the cross when he wrote his oft-quoted words: ‘But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his
wounds we are healed’ (Isa. 53:5).
The Hebrew noun chaburah translated
here as ‘wounds’ (NIV) or ‘stripes’ (AV) refers to a weal, or the blueness of a bruise, a stripe or a wound. Similarly, the Septuagint version of this
verse (which the apostle Peter quotes from in 1 Peter 2:24) uses the Greek noun
molops, meaning the mark of a blow or
a bruise. It seems that this is
prophetically referring to the scourging that Jesus suffered, and not necessarily
to the crucifixion itself. So it is in
the scourging of Jesus that we see another secret of our healing. His suffering of
physical wounds (including, of course, those from the crucifixion itself)
brought about an identification of the divine nature within his own being with
suffering humankind. The Hebrew noun
translated as ‘wounds,’ comes from a root word meaning ‘to have fellowship
with.’ So in suffering his wounds, God,
in Christ, was identifying intimately and deeply with us in our human
suffering. He entered into intimate
identification with the pain of our human condition. Jesus knows and understands us intimately
because he has been there himself.
He can become our greatest heart friend, closer than a brother could
ever be. In his love, he can draw gently
alongside us and empathise with us on a deep and intimate heart level, and
lavish his healing grace upon us at our point of need, lifting up and taking
away our sickness. This deep and intimate identification of God with us in Christ is a key
to bringing us into restoration and healing. Jesus willingly experienced his sufferings
with the precise intention that he could then bring healing to our lives
through his divine empathy. This was ‘the joy set before him’ for which he
endured his own suffering (cf. Heb. 12:2).
However, secondly, it is in the death
of Jesus on the cross that we find the crux of the plan of God’s
redemption. It was on the cross that our
sin and iniquity was laid upon Jesus, and he died as the Lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the world as a ransom for many (Isa. 53:5-8, John 1:29, Mark
10:45). In the Old Testament there are
several places in which physical healing is linked to sacrificial death (which
is a type of the death of Christ). For
example, in Leviticus 14, the healing of infectious skin diseases required
sacrificial atoning death. In his own
ministry, Jesus instructed the healed leper to perform and fulfil this
sacrifice (Matt. 8:4). Also, we can see
that physical healing is linked to a symbolic type of Christ’s death on the
cross. The ancient Israelites were told
to look to the brazen serpent for their physical healing (Num. 21:8-9). Jesus interpreted this as being symbolic of
his death on the cross through which people would receive eternal life (John
3:14-15), so implying that not only deliverance from sin comes to us through
the cross, but also our physical healing.
Physical healing is the working of eternal life in our bodies. If physical healing came through looking to a
type of Christ, then how much more will it do so when we look to the actual
Christ? Furthermore, healing was a
promise of God under the old covenant made effective through the sacrificial blood
that sealed the covenant and put it into effect (Ex. 15:25-26, 23:25; Heb.
9:18). Again, in the book of Job we are
told that physical healing comes through a ransom (using the Hebrew noun kopher, Job 33:24-25). The words ‘“Spare
him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for him” – then his flesh
is renewed like a child’s’ imply that sacrificial death is involved in
bringing about healing. So healing comes to us through Christ’s
atoning, sacrificial death.
In order to bring us complete, eternal
salvation, Jesus, when he was on the cross, had to take upon himself the
totality of the curse of what it means to be ‘in Adam.’ In doing this, not only did he need to take
our sins upon himself and die in our place for our forgiveness (2 Cor. 5:21, 1
Peter 2:24), he also had to lift up and carry away our sicknesses as well (Isa.
53:4) since these are a consequence of sin in the Fall and therefore part of what
it means to be in Adam.[8] Everything
that it means to be in Adam has been taken away in Christ: this is the totality
of our salvation. To hold that
Christ’s death was to take the judgement of God upon human sin (true as this
is), but to separate it from his work of bringing healing is to deny sickness
as being the consequence of sin in the Fall.[9]
It is to view the work of the cross only
from a hamartiological perspective.
However, Christ died for sin and all of its consequences. Christ’s death on the cross was the crux of
our deliverance, through the taking away of the totality of the Adamic curse,
completely removing and taking away both sin and its consequence, sickness. In the same way that he lifted up and carried
away our sins, he also lifted up and carried away our sicknesses (Isa.
53:4,11-12).[10][11][12] Jesus lifted up and carried sickness away unto
his death, and in doing this and then being resurrected from death he removed both
it and its power completely. His words on
the cross ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30) tell us that the work which needed to
be done to deliver us completely from the Adamic curse, from God’s judgement on
sin and from the dominion of Satan (Heb. 2:14) has been accomplished.[13] Christ’s work is finished in regard to both
sin and sickness; it brings us both forgiveness for sin and healing. Therefore, to have died with Christ and to
have come into resurrection life in him (Rom. 6:4-5) means that we have now come
into a state of being and life in which sickness has been completely taken away
through redemption. So healing and good health are characteristics of the new order of life into which Christ has brought us and are therefore the will and intention of God
for us.
In Christ we have died to sickness.[14] It is through the shedding of Christ’s blood
that we can come into the new covenant in which all the promises of God are
‘Yes’ in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20, Heb. 9:15-18) and therefore know healing. Healing is part of our salvation; it was bought for us with the blood of Jesus. So receiving healing is a matter of receiving what has already been fully provided for us by Jesus. God
heals therefore on the basis of full and complete deliverance in Christ: sin has been
completely taken away, likewise sickness has been completely taken away, the
power of Satan’s dominion has been broken, and death (the natural end of both
sin and sickness) has been dealt a fatal hammer blow through the resurrection
of Christ.[15]
Reconciliation with God and healing
ministry
The essence of the soteriological theme of
reconciliation is that, through the atoning work of Christ, humankind is made
‘at one’ with God, being restored into right relationship with him through
faith (2 Cor. 5:20-21). It is this
objective reconciliation of humankind with God in restored and inseparable
covenant relationship which is the aim of the atonement. However, in being reconciled into covenant
relationship with God as his born-again children, we
are not placed merely into the kind of relationship with God that Adam and his
wife experienced before the Fall. Their
salvation and relationship with God was dependent on their continued obedience. However, both Christ’s life as the last Adam
and his death on the cross are representative and substitutionary for us. Just as the
merits of his atoning death are imputed to us, the merit of his perfect life
and obedience is also imputed to us as the righteousness of Christ, so we do not
now have to earn eternal life through our obedience. Indeed, it is love for God that produces
obedience in our lives as believers (John 14:23), not a desire to gain eternal
salvation through our own efforts. The
penalty for our sin has been paid in full by Christ’s death and we have become
the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).
The Greek verb katallassein
translated as ‘to reconcile’ was used in everyday life to describe the exchange
of coins for other coins of equivalent value, and its strengthened form apokatallassein was used to describe
transferring someone from a certain state of being or relationship, into another which is quite
different, so removing all enmity. So the underlying meaning of reconciliation
is that through Christ we have now entered into a different state of being than
we were in before. We have been SAVED
FROM sin and SAVED INTO a living relationship with God. We have been regenerated spiritually by the
Holy Spirit and brought subjectively by him into a new life grounded in the
power of Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 6:4-5,8; Eph. 2:4-6; Titus 3:5). We have passed from death into life (1 John 3:14). We have exchanged our old, fallen life in
Adam for a completely new one in Christ and there is now no barrier between us
and God. The old has gone, the new has
come (2 Cor. 5:17). He who has the Son of God has life, i.e. the eternal life of God within him (1 John 5:12). Instead of being
estranged from and at enmity with God, we are now reconciled
to and at peace with him (Col. 1:20). God has placed us into the
new covenant of his love and grace in Christ.
So
the ministry of reconciliation is necessarily
also one of restoration: we have been restored into God’s love, favour, life
and blessing. We have been saved and delivered out
of a state of being and life characterised by sin and enmity towards God, into
a new one which is characterised by the experience of the blessing of God in
our lives. God's intention in Christ is to restore us into the loving relationship that he has always yearned and desired to have with us. The Hebrew noun shalom denotes this general state of
well-being and wholeness into which God desires to bring believers. It is this restored, loving relationship which is God’s experiential aim for us in the atonement and,
because we are made partakers in the resurrection life of Christ in this new
relationship, then healing becomes a natural fruit of this wider meaning of
atonement. We have exchanged our sin for
Christ’s righteousness, we have exchanged our spiritual death for his eternal
life, and, because Christ lifted up and carried away our sicknesses, we can
exchange our sickness for his healing – yes, indeed!
So
the heart of what it means to be a Christian is about being restored into a
living, empowered covenant relationship with God: ‘I will be their God and they will be my people’ (Heb. 8:10). It is our privilege and blessing to take hold of this new
life in covenant relationship with God and to enter into its full meaning. As
people who have been reconciled to God, we do not now cease to need God anymore,
in fact we need him infinitely and we can have the joy of walking with him and
seeking to know him better every day of our lives. Because God gives himself unreservedly to us
in this restored relationship of the new covenant, we have full access into his
promised provision and superintending care over our lives as our Father. We are saved into the ongoing, consistent
experience of his presence and power with us, through his Spirit who indwells
us. This is not an added extra, nor a
divine after-thought. No, it is the full
intention of God for us. As a
consequence and fruit of atonement, we
are saved and restored into the power of the life of God, not merely into ‘a
relationship with God.’ Even though
reformed evangelicals rightly teach that we are restored into relationship with
God through Christ (and that God will therefore care and provide for us), yet
too often they miss out on the experiential pneumatological empowerment of this
relationship, vis. that we are
restored into the ongoing experience of the very presence and power of God in
our lives through his Spirit. It is this
dynamic fruit of reconciliation that builds into this restored covenant
relationship the outworking of the fullness of its inner meaning. The reason why Paul implored people to
be reconciled into relationship with God, is because he understood this fuller
meaning of the outworking of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:20). It is God’s intention that we learn to
live consistently out of this empowered relationship so that we can live in and enjoy the fruits of Christ’s completed work
of salvation.
The healing streams of God’s presence
and power are restored to us in a consistent, ongoing way through being
reconciled into this living relationship which God yearns to have with us through Christ, and we have
free access by faith into the abundant grace of these healing streams (John
7:37-38). Because Jesus lifted up and carried away our sicknesses, we have been
placed into the context of a redemptive relationship which gives us living hope
and which can empower and heal us, bringing us wholeness. As a covenantal promise within this restored
relationship, healing is therefore a natural expression and outcome of this
relationship. Indeed, as Jesus
emphasized, ‘How much more will your
Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’ (Matt. 7:11). As a Father, God desires good for his
children, not evil, and healing is certainly a good thing! The promises of God are unlimited in scope
and therefore healing is included in them (cf. Matt. 21:22; Mark 9:23,11:24; John
15:7,16; 2 Cor. 1:20). Healing and good health are 'the new normal' in the Christian life! In this sense, healing is
simply a dynamic outworking of the inner meaning of reconciliation: reconciliation
brings healing as its fruit. To be
restored into the life of God can only mean that healing is part of this new
life in Christ. It is his life that
brings healing to us. This
is the practical implication of what Paul meant by his words in Romans 5:10 ‘...how
much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through [sharing in] his life!’ The ministry of reconciliation, therefore, cannot achieve a
full expression of itself without the dimension of healing ministry (cf. 2 Cor.
5:18-19). So, in terms of healing and
wholeness (both physical and emotional), God’s intention is to restore and
rebuild our lives, giving us abundant life to the full (John 10:10) and in this
way demonstrating his intention of wholeness for our lives. The
healing and restoration of our lives is the hope of the gospel!
Redemption and the healing and
protection of God’s treasured possession
Another
soteriological facet of the atonement is that of redemption: ‘In [Christ] we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins…’ (Eph. 1:7 and cf. Col. 1:14). This concept of redemption centres on the
issue of ownership. In the Old Testament, a person paid a price
to re-possess land or property which they or their family had previously owned,
but which in time had come into the possession of someone else. In Greek-Roman times, the verb agorazein (‘to buy’ cf. 1 Cor. 6:20) was
used of purchasing slaves from the market, and the noun lutron (meaning ‘ransom’) was used to describe the price paid for
prisoners-of-war that they might be released.
In the New Testament, the noun apolutrosis
(translated as ‘redemption’) refers to the process of securing the freedom of
something upon payment of a ransom-price (the lutron).
In
the New Testament, the emphasis is placed both on the price paid for our
redemption (i.e. the blood of Jesus) and on what has been purchased by that
price (i.e. believers as a redeemed community).
So redemption refers to God’s act of intervention to deliver us from being
captives to the power of sin: Jesus gave his life ‘as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45). So we have been redeemed with the price of
the blood of Jesus (Col. 1:14, 1 Tim. 2:5-6, Heb. 9:12, 1 Peter 1:18-19) and we have become God’s property (Eph.
1:14, 4:30). Our sins have been forgiven
(Eph. 1:7, 1 Peter 1:18-19), and we are no longer captives to sin (cf. Rom.
6:17-18, 7:14) or to Satan’s dominion, but we
have been bought by and are owned by God: we
belong to him (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Paul
emphasizes that we are redeemed as complete human beings; both our spirit and our body now belong to God: ‘For ye are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s’ (1 Cor.
6:20 AV, underlining my own), and, our
physical bodies are members of Christ himself (1 Cor. 6:15).[16] We have been rescued from the dominion of darkness (and all
of its consequences) and brought into the kingdom of God’s Son with its life
and blessings (Col. 1:13-14). Furthermore,
as his sheep, we have been marked out as belonging to God by being sealed with
his seal of ownership, the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:7,13-14) who is the guarantee of
our future inheritance. We are redeemed
in order that our bodies might become a temple of the presence of the Holy
Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).
One
of the fruits and clearest practical consequences of this truth of redemption is
God’s commitment to protect, provide for
and care for his people, for we are now his treasured possession (cf. Ex.
19:5, Deut. 14:2, Mal. 3:17). God
redeems us in order to reconcile us to himself in covenant relationship, and
hence this is a relationship to which he has committed himself in terms of his
care, protection and provision for us (Isa. 43:1-4). As we learn to walk in this covenant
relationship, we come to experience that God keeps his word and that his
promises never fail (cf. Josh. 23:14). Furthermore,
as any normal human being would do with a possession of theirs which they
treasure, we find that God also cherishes and protects his redeemed
possession. Just as he did with Job, he
sets up a hedge of protection around us which Satan cannot readily penetrate
(cf. Job 1:10). Although we may well
suffer persecution for our faith, yet Satan and his evil spirits have no right
to oppress, torment or afflict that which belongs to God. Satan has no right to trespass on God’s
property. Indeed, quite the opposite is
true: the believer has authority in Christ over evil spirits and has every
right to be free of Satan’s dominion, whatever form this takes. As we learn to walk in holiness and to not
give the devil a foothold in our life (Eph. 4:27), and as we learn to abide
consistently under the shadow of the Almighty, then we discover the truths of
Psalm 91 in experience. God saves us
from dangers and he delivers us from fears (vv.3-8); he commands his angels to
guard us in all of our ways (vv.9-12); we can exercise authority over our
spiritual enemies (v.13); he will rescue, protect and deliver us (vv.14-15),
and he will satisfy us with a long life (v.16).
In
this ‘divine care and protection package’ of redemption, healing and
deliverance from oppression play a practical and ongoing part. Since
our bodies now belong to God as members of Christ, and are temples of the Holy
Spirit, divine care and protection must also relate to our physical bodies:
the Lord is for our body (1 Cor.
6:13). To be ‘satisfied with a long
life’ clearly implies ongoing enjoyment of good health and general well-being. God’s plans for us are for good, to prosper us
and not to harm us, to give us hope and a future (Jer. 29:11). To have been redeemed from sin and from
Satan’s dominion, means that we have also been redeemed from sickness, so the
life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit within us can give life and healing to
our mortal bodies (Rom. 8:11). Having
been brought into the kingdom of God means that we can enter into the ongoing present
experience of the holistic benefits of this: God forgiving all our sins and
healing all our diseases, redeeming our life from the pit, crowning us with
love and compassion, and satisfying our desires with good things,[17]
so that our youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Ps. 103:2-5).
Christological union and the healing
power of Christ’s life within us
The above sections on the incarnation of
Christ and reconciliation to God lead naturally into a consideration of the christological
union of the believer with Christ and its own implications for healing.
It is in Christ that we are subjectively
reconciled to God and brought inseparably into living union with him. Having received and believed the word of
truth, instead of remaining ‘in Adam’ we are included ‘in Christ,’ the new
representative head of the redeemed humanity (Eph. 1:13). So we receive and partake in every benefit of
what it means to be in Christ, just as we partook in everything that being in
Adam meant. In Christ, we died to sin and
have been made alive unto God, so we now live a new life (Rom. 6:4,8,11),
having been raised with Christ and made spiritually alive in him (Rom. 6:5,8;
Eph. 2:5); we have also been raised up with Christ and are seated in heavenly
places in him (Eph. 2:6). Instead of continuing
to be chained up in the unbreakable bondage of what it means to be in Adam,
being the enslaved subjects of sin, condemnation, death and judgement, we can
now experience God’s free gift of righteousness and his abundant provision of
grace, so that we might freely reign in life in Christ (Rom. 5:12-21).
Furthermore, when we are born again, not
only are we are ‘in Christ,’ but Christ is also in us (Col. 1:27). We have been restored
into the empowered life of the living, resurrected Christ who now dwells
within us. So in this inseparable, subjective
union with God in Christ, we can know the life, presence and power of Christ
within us by his Spirit. He who has the Son of God has the eternal life of God within him (1 John 5:12). Christ is the
wellspring of divine life within us: ‘In him was life, and that life was the
light of men’ (John 1:4). We have Christ’s active, divine life living
and working within us as believers.
Indeed, this indwelling Christ is our very life (Col. 3:4). So it must be God’s desire, intention and
purpose that this indwelling of Christ’s divine life within us should reach the
fullness of its potential, so that we come to know and experience the power of
his divine life working within every area of our human life.
So, in our new, restored
relationship with God, we should learn to live out of this source and wellspring
of divine life within us, in all that that means. This dynamic, divine life of Christ within us
can influence and permeate our entire beings through his Spirit, and we have access by faith to the release
of its power. The empowering presence of
the living, resurrected Christ within us transforms us and takes us from glory
to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). We can know in
experience the power of Christ’s righteousness breaking and displacing the
power of dominating sin and darkness; we can know his divine strength replacing
our weakness; his love and comfort strengthening us in times of mourning and
grief; his compassion ministering into the very groan of our human existence, and
his healing power restoring our soul and giving life to our mortal body by his
Spirit who lives within us (Rom. 8:6,11; cf. 2 Cor. 4:10-11).
In
short, as we allow the power of Christ’s divine life within us to interface
practically with the totality of our daily life as believers, then we can know
and experience the sustaining, overcoming and healing grace of God in every
area of our life. Our experience of
healing is therefore rooted in the union of our inner spirit with the divine
life of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 6:17). It is
because our lives are now bound up in Christ that we can experience healing: our
healing is in Christ. The power of
the immanent life of God can be released in our lives through this christological
union within us, to bring healing both to ourselves and to others through
us. If sickness was/is characteristic of
our old, fallen life in Adam which is subject to all the consequences of sin
and death, then healing is characteristic of our new life in Christ in which we
are subject to the working of eternal life.
Lake understood the power of the truth of this inward christological
union and its potential in regard to healing.
He underlined the weakness in the understanding of many believers
concerning the significance of the indwelling Christ:
‘One of the things the Christian world does not get
hold of with a strong grip is the conscious presence of Christ with us now.
Somehow there is an inclination in the Christian spirit to feel that
Jesus, when he left the earth, returned to Glory, and in consequence is not
present with us now… It would naturally
seem as if a separation had been contemplated because of His return to Glory, but no such separation is contemplated on the part of Christ. Christ promises His omnipresent presence with
us always, Christ omnipresent everywhere – present in the soul, present in the
world, present always unto the end of the age…
Christ is the living presence, not only with us, but to the real
Christian, He is in us, a perpetual joy, power and glory in our life… The Christian life is designed by God to be a
life of splendid, holy triumph. That
triumph is produced in us through the continuous inflow and abiding presence of
the Spirit of the triumphant Christ.’[18]
This positive intention of God for us in
terms of healing through the indwelling Christ, is underlined by Jesus’ words
in John 10:10 that ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I
have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ God’s intention is that we have the abundance
of divine life working within us, overcoming the effects upon us of the working
of sin and sickness through the dominion of darkness. Indeed,
the very context of these well-known words in John 10:10 is that of the
physical healing of the man who had been blind from birth. So, in this passage, physical healing was
seen by Jesus as the abundant working of the divine life of God in a person’s
life, whereas he viewed ‘stealing, killing and destroying’ as a consequence of
religious living which opposes and denies the divine purpose of bringing
healing and wholeness to those who need this.
To oppose God’s purpose of bringing healing is to steal away from people
the very intention of God in bringing abundant life to them in Christ, so
condemning them to the destructive results of continuing in sickness and
disease. If God intentionally worked to
bring healing to people through Christ in his earthly ministry, then how much
more must this be his purpose now that the life of Christ actually indwells us?
Pneumatology and the atonement
As I stated above, in
addition to the christological weakness of the traditional reformed
understanding of atonement, there is also the weakness it exhibits in terms of
its pneumatological dimension. When we
look at the life and ministry of Christ, we can see that the Holy Spirit was
intimately connected with its various recorded phases. It was the Holy Spirit who overshadowed Mary
to bring about the conception of Christ in her womb (Luke 1:35); it was the
Holy Spirit whose presence and power flowed through Christ in his healing
ministry (Luke 4:18-19, 5:17, 6:19; Mark 5:30); it was by the eternal Spirit
that Christ offered himself as an atoning sacrifice on the cross (Heb. 9:14),
and it was by the power of the Spirit of holiness that Christ was raised from
the dead (Rom. 1:4). So the work of the
person of Christ was thoroughly integrated with and empowered by the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit was the
empowering factor throughout this wider view of atonement, from the incarnation
right through to the resurrection.
Furthermore, of course, it is the Holy Spirit who brings about the
application in life of the work of atonement.
He regenerates believers into new life in Christ and he empowers their
lives and ministries. Put simply,
therefore, there could be no atonement and no application of it in life without
the Holy Spirit.
To understand aright,
therefore, the application in life of the atonement and its expected fruit, we
must necessarily get to grips with the role of the Holy Spirit in terms of his
pneumatological empowerment in believers’ lives. As we have seen, healing ministry is a
natural outcome and fruit of the ontological reconciliation within Christ of God
and human nature in the incarnation and also of the objective reconciliation of
people to God in covenant relationship in Christ when they believe. However, it is the Holy Spirit who is the
empowering pneumatological factor in such healing ministry, just as he was in
Christ’s ministry.
So this pneumatological
factor runs consistently through the whole work of atonement and its fruit. Pneumatology is as intrinsic to the
atonement and its fruit as both Christology and soteriology. To miss this, or to live in denial of the
crucial role of pneumatology in the outcome in life of the atonement, or, again,
to focus simply on the hamartiological and soteriological dimensions of the
death of Christ, is to miss out on the empowering dynamic which made the atonement
itself possible and which makes its fruitful application in life possible
today. As I have said above, the
atonement was an inter-trinitarian work: the Father’s love and grace made
salvation available to all; the Son’s giving of himself made it possible for
all who believe to receive it, and it is the Holy Spirit who now indwells and
can empower all who do believe to therefore experientially participate in
Christ’s resurrection life. It is no
wonder then that to hold to a faulty view of the Holy Spirit’s work of
empowerment in a believer’s life, is therefore also to largely miss out on the
joy of healing ministry today. The
ministry of healing as a fruit of the atonement is dependent on and inseparably
integrated with its pneumatological dimension.
Pneumatology and healing ministry
So the field of pneumatology – the study
of the person and work of the Holy Spirit – is related closely to healing, and,
in fact, it is one of the key issues in healing ministry. If we hold erroneous or confused views of the
person and work of the Holy Spirit, and of how he relates to and works in the
lives of believers, then this will necessarily affect the way we understand
healing and how we practice healing ministry (if indeed we do at all). We need to be informed by a thorough biblical
theology of the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, if we are to have success
in healing ministry.
Healing is accomplished through the presence, life and power
of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit’s anointing (his presence, authority and power) is the
empowering dynamic of the ministry of the kingdom of God (Acts 1:8; cf. Luke
24:49). Where the kingdom of God is
manifesting powerfully, people get healed (Luke 9:2, 10:9). The Holy Spirit is the seal and life-giving
dynamic of the new covenant in Christ (Acts 2:38-39), so as believers we have become the habitation of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). His presence and power within us can permeate our whole being and give life and
healing to our mortal body: ‘He who raised Christ from the dead will also
give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.’ (Rom. 8:11). He can heal our redeemed physical bodies
which are his temple (1 Cor. 6:13,15,19-20 AV).
As Lake affirmed: ‘Beloved, all there is to divine healing, is that the life of God comes back into the part
that is afflicted and right away the blood flows, the congested cells respond,
and the work is done.’[19] Healing comes about through the operation of
the power of divine life in the particular area of our body that is in need of
healing. So the life-giving presence and power of the Holy Spirit is the secret,
essential dynamic of healing.
It
was through the anointing of the Holy Spirit that Jesus and the early disciples
ministered healing to the sick (Isa. 61:1-3; Matt. 10:1,7,8; Mark 5:27-30; Luke
4:14,18-19, 5:17, 6:19; Acts 10:38). Streams
of the Holy Spirit’s
dynamic, life-giving power often flowed through Jesus as he ministered, to
bring healing and freedom to people from the conditions that were afflicting
them (e.g. Luke 4:40, 6:19, 8:46; cf. John 7:38). The Holy Spirit brought God’s healing
presence into the absence of good health.
Through Jesus, the Holy Spirit ‘bound the strong man’ (Matt. 12:25-29,
Luke 11:21-22), set captives free (Isa. 61:1) and destroyed the works of Satan
in people’s lives.
The narrative of the book of Acts
tells us that the life of the early church was similarly characterized by
powerful healing miracles and by the release of people from demonic
oppression. The early believers brought
healing and freedom to many people and, as a result, they ‘turned the world upside down’ (Acts 17:6). Sick people would be healed as the Holy
Spirit worked through these believers when they laid hands on them and prayed
over them (e.g. Acts 28:8, cf. Jas. 5:14-15).
We can see examples of such healing ministry in the lives of
Spirit-filled men such as Peter (Acts 3:1-10; 4:30; 5:12,15-16), Stephen (Acts
6:8), Philip (Acts 6:3, 8:5-8) and Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:3, 16:16-18,
28:7-9; cf. 1 Cor. 2:4).
The Church today
has also been commissioned and equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit to
minister healing to those in need (Mark 16:15-18). It has always been God’s intention and purpose that the
ministry of the Church should be accomplished in the presence and power of the
Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:6,8,17). We are called to minister the whole gospel
of God’s kingdom to the whole person in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is normative when believers are filled
with the Holy Spirit and learn to walk with him, that this should give rise to a variety of different charismatic
manifestations in their lives. In
particular, there are various manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s grace
which often occur in healing ministry.
These are praying
in tongues, words of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the workings of
power (often called ‘miracles’) and discernment of spirits (1 Cor. 12:7-11,
14:14; Eph. 6:18-20). These
manifestations are not an optional extra for the Christian life. In fact, they are the tools for the job of
ministry, and they are essential to us if we are to fulfil our calling to bring
healing to those in need. These gifts of grace were vested permanently by God into the ministry of the Church (Rom. 11:29), so we should still expect them to manifest today. To grow in
the practice of healing ministry, believers need to be open to seeking and
allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest these expressions of his working
through them (1 Cor. 12:31, 14:1). Through surrendered and empowered believers,
the Holy Spirit will seek to demonstrate the power of God to bring healing to
those in need.
When we study the lives and ministries of those who have been
greatly used by God in the last century or so to bring healing to the sick, we
invariably find a clear and strong emphasis on the person and work of the Holy
Spirit. For people such as Maria
Woodworth-Etter, John G. Lake, Smith Wigglesworth and Kathryn Kuhlman, to name
just a few from the many, the Holy Spirit was never to be seen merely as an
influence upon a meeting. Neither did
they believe that believers received everything from God in terms of his Spirit
when they first believed. No, the
fullness of the Holy Spirit and his power were something that had to be
discovered and entered into as one walked with God. They learnt to deeply value and honour the
Holy Spirit’s presence with them at all times.
They guarded and cherished their fellowship with him. They lived consecrated lives, and they walked sensitively and consistently with
him in such close fellowship that his presence and power were invariably with
and upon them when they ministered. So the
charismatic gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s presence were
conspicuously marked in their ministries.
It was the presence and power of this divine Person with them and
working powerfully through them that gave them the success that they
experienced in healing ministry.
The kingdom of God and healing
Upon the fall of the
couple in the garden of Eden, their sin, brought about through the serpent’s
deception, caused separation from the life of God, bringing the sentence of spiritual
death and ultimately physical and eternal death. From that day on, after they were thrown out
of the garden, they (and their offspring) became subject to the inexorable and
inescapable processes of sin and death under the evil dominion of the
serpent. This separation from the
immanent life and presence of God made
them susceptible to sickness and its consequences, and meant the loss and absence of the constant life-giving flow of God’s
healing power. From that point onwards,
sickness had no cure, except in terms of what the human body could do for
itself in fighting and overcoming sickness and in terms of what humans could
discover that might help them in their intermittent encounters with sickness
and disease. Sickness became a
characteristic of life under the dominion of the serpent. It was an end-product of having received and
come under his spiritual deception. When
the couple were yet in Eden, physical wounds or accidents could doubtless have
occurred, for example if Adam or his wife had simply tripped up over a branch,
or had fallen down and hit their head against a tree, or whatever. However, the immanency of God’s dynamic life
and presence in the garden would have brought immediate healing to their
bodies, whereas after the Fall sickness, disease and demonic affliction under
Satan’s dominion became permanent features of human life.
It is the restoration
of divine life to us through the last Adam, Christ, and his kingdom that brings
back to us the promise and hope of healing and health. The breaking
in of the kingdom ministry of Jesus into this present age saw a restoration to
humankind of those immanent, life-giving, healing streams of God’s presence,
grace and power which, apart from some isolated cases recorded in the Old
Testament narratives, seem to have mostly been missing since the Fall. The gospel writer Mark summed up this good news
of the coming of the kingdom of God through Jesus in the following words: ‘Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the
good news of God. “The time has come,”
he said. “The kingdom of God is
near. Repent and believe the good news”‘
(Mark 1:14-15). Through Christ’s
ministry there was a significant expansion of the working of the kingdom of God
and its authority and power in people’s lives.
The apostle Peter summed up this ministry in his well-known words ‘how [Jesus] went around doing good and
healing all who were under the power of the devil...’ (Acts 10:38, cf. Isa.
61:1).
In this ministry of
Jesus, the kingdom of God forcefully advanced in offensive spiritual warfare
against the dominion of darkness, ‘binding
the strong man’ (Matt. 12:25-29, Luke 11:21-22) and delivering people from
Satan’s grip on their lives. The life,
authority and power of God’s kingdom invaded the sin, sickness, oppression and
death of human existence, and brought forgiveness, healing and freedom to all
who would believe, just as the river of living water flowed from Ezekiel’s
temple and brought life and healing everywhere it went (Ezek. 47:1-12, cf. John
7:37-38). The message of the kingdom of
God was one of salvation, deliverance and restoration for people, overcoming and
disempowering the effects of Satan’s ‘stealing, killing and destroying’ in
their lives (cf. John 10:10). Jesus came to destroy the works of the
devil, including that of sickness (1 John 3:8), so as people opened their
hearts and yielded themselves by faith into the caring authority of God’s
kingdom, healing and freedom from spiritual oppression became their daily bread
(cf. Mark 7:24-30). This life-giving salvation in Christ brought
them wholeness: deliverance from sin and its bondage, deliverance from Satan
and his dominion, and deliverance from sickness. Jesus laid his hands on the sick and they received healing; the power
of the Holy Spirit flowed through him to heal people; he rebuked sickness,
exercised dominion over it and freed people from its power; and he took
authority over evil spirits, commanding them to leave people, casting them out and
delivering people from the effects of their influence (e.g. Luke 4:39,40;
5:24-25, 6:19, 8:46; John 7:38). He also
invested the same power and authority into his disciples, so that they too could
exercise and continue this same kingdom ministry (Matt. 9:35-38; 10:1,7-8; Luke
9:1-2, 10:19; and see throughout the book of Acts). So healing was a regular expression of the active power of the dominion of
the kingdom of God over sickness (Luke 9:2, 10:9). It was a demonstration of the will of God for people’s lives.
This
spiritual assault of the kingdom of God upon the dominion of darkness came to a
climax in the events of the cross and resurrection, where Jesus, by his death,
destroyed ‘him who holds the power of
death – that is, the devil’ (Heb. 2:14).
This event of the cross-resurrection was the decisive victory against
Satan’s dominion. It was a complete and
finished work: the issues of sin and sickness (as sin’s consequence in the Fall)
were thoroughly dealt with; Satan was totally defeated and made a public
spectacle of, and death itself was conquered (Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14, 9:26; 1
Cor. 15).
After his ascension, coronation and exaltation, king Jesus sent
the Holy Spirit to apply to people’s lives his completed work of
redemption. From the day of Pentecost
onwards, under the leadership and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the kingdom
of God on earth began to advance offensively through the new-born Church, and
the book of Acts shows us how the complete victory of Christ over the powers of
darkness was demonstrated through the early believers. King Jesus has commissioned and empowered us
to work to spread and establish his kingdom in this world in this present age
(cf. Matt. 28:18-20). Our calling as
sons of God, seated with Christ in heavenly places, is to work together with
king Jesus, partaking in his dominion and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to
further advance this victory of his kingdom in the world, bringing healing and
deliverance to those in whose lives God is working. The
gospel of Jesus Christ which we preach is the full, all-inclusive message of
the kingdom of God, and healing is therefore an intrinsic and essential part of
this gospel. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. There is no variation in him; he is today the
same one as he was in his ministry (Heb. 13:8, Jas. 1:17), and so he has the
same power and authority to set people free from sickness and oppression in our
own day. When the kingdom of God is
preached and ministry is done in the power of the Holy Spirit, there will
always be manifestations of healing in people’s lives. Healing is the will of God and is a sign
that the power and authority of God’s kingdom is immanently present and working. Furthermore, daily walking and living in the
kingdom of God develops a confident expectation of healing and wholeness on the
part of believers who have understood and embraced this aspect of kingdom
life. To live by faith under the authority,
power and grace of God in his kingdom means access to his healing power.
However, we need to realise that this
coming of the kingdom of God is also a future event, and therefore is an
eschatological reality (cf. 1 Cor. 15:24-28).
As believers we experience the powers of the future age as a present
reality. The gift of the Holy Spirit and
his working in and through our lives is an experienced reality in the present
age of what is the future kingdom of God.
Indeed, the birth of the Church itself was the inauguration in the
present age of the future new age of the kingdom of God. For us, the future reality of the kingdom of
God is something we already experience in part.
We are new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) and we experience in our
lives the powers of the coming age (Heb. 6:5).
So, at the present time, we experience in part what we will one day
experience fully in the future reality of God’s kingdom (1 Cor. 13:9-12). It is
this truth which lies at the heart of the tension between the present and the
future. We experience God’s truth,
and we also experience its power, but ultimately our experience of it in the
here-and-now is only partial and therefore limited. It is easy to make the mistake of
experiencing the power of God in the present and to then conclude that we have
it all now, i.e. that there is no tension between our present partial
experience and the fullness of our future experience in Christ.
As we have seen, our physical healing is
connected intrinsically to the person and work of Jesus: to his incarnation, to
his life and ministry, and to his death and resurrection. However, because it is connected to his
resurrection, it is therefore also inseparably related to our own future
physical resurrection in him. Our own
eschatological, physical resurrection is bound up with Christ’s resurrection (1
Cor. 15:20-23). It is this eschatological
aspect, the ‘redemption of our bodies’ (Rom. 8:23, Eph. 1:14), which is the
ultimate answer to the frailty and weakness of our present physical
condition. Understanding this point
helps to relieve the tension between our present and future experiences.
If the resurrection of Christ is integral
to the atoning work of Christ, then this means that the full meaning of atonement
in terms of its fruit and its outworking can only be properly understood in the
light of our own eschatological physical resurrection from death, since this is
inseparable from Christ’s own resurrection.
Christ is the firstfruits of those that will rise from death. We will rise, because he rose. We will rise, because we are in Christ (1
Cor. 15:20-23). Our physical bodies will
rise, because they are even now members of Christ himself (1 Cor.
6:14-15). So the final victory over the
Fall in the garden (with its consequent loss of the immanent dynamic life of
God) is eschatological. The total
victory of Christ is worked out and finally secured only through the
resurrection. So the ‘good news’
regarding our physical bodies has an intrinsically future, eschatological
aspect to it. If separation from the
immanent life of God, sickness, lack of healing and death came through the
Fall, then life and healing will be restored fully and completely to us through
the resurrection from the dead, when we will finally enjoy the fullness of the
eternal life we have inherited in Christ.
The apostle Paul referred to this as ‘the redemption of our bodies’
(Rom. 8:23, Eph. 1:14) when these will be finally and completely set free from
the consequences of sin. In this sense,
and following what we have outlined in the previous sections, the atoning work
of Christ and its outworking spans from Christ’s incarnation right up to our
own eschatological resurrection. Again,
the atonement is worked out through the whole work of the person of Christ, not
simply through the single act of his death on the cross, and, because
resurrection is integral to the atonement, the atonement itself in its
outworking is an eschatological reality.
In the present time, we experience the regeneration
of our spirits (Eph. 2:5, Titus 3:5), the cleansing of our hearts and the
renewal of our minds (Rom. 12:2), and we can also enjoy the physical healing of
our bodies from time to time as we need this.
However, the fact remains that our physical bodies are not renewed or
changed at the present time; they remain essentially the same. They must still grow old and die, no doubt
experiencing some or many of the normal effects of the ageing process. Outwardly we waste away and ultimately perish (2 Cor. 4:16). Our hair may turn grey, our eye lenses slowly harden, our skeleton shrinks and our skin wrinkles. There is a real sense in which all physical
healing which we experience is only provisional; our healed and healthy bodies
must still die one day (unless we are of that particular generation of
believers which will experience the rapture, of course). However, this is not to say that we
cannot expect by faith to experience the blessing of good health into our old
age. We need to avoid the theological
mistake of shunting all physical healing off into the future as though it is
only an eschatological reality. Shunting
healing off into the distant future (or interpreting it in the present time
simply as ‘spiritual healing’) may seem very convenient, but it is simply a theological
way of justifying our inherent unbelief regarding healing in the present; it is
wrong. God heals now in the present
working of his kingdom, both physically and emotionally. This page (and the other pages in this
blog) make it abundantly clear that healing is the will of God in this present
age. But it is to say that the
ultimate healing of our physical bodies is an eschatological reality. The full and complete redemption of our
bodies in terms of health and healing is eschatological. Moses indeed seemed to be healthy through his
old age, but it is recorded that Elisha died of a sickness (Deut. 34:7, 2 Kings
13:14). However, again, this is not to
justify unbelief and to surrender ourselves passively to any negative physical
effects of ageing as though these are inevitable. The signs of old age are not necessarily bad
health and illness. We can still expect
the Lord’s blessing of good health as we grow older. But if, for whatever reason, our healing does
not happen and physical death ensues, then we are still guaranteed that our
physical resurrection (and therefore the doing away finally of that which is
perishable) is certain. Our healing is
in the totality of what it means to be ‘in Christ’ and is therefore ultimately
promised and assured to us through the living hope of the resurrection from the
dead.
[1] In relation to dealing with sin, Strong tells
us that the Hebrew verb kaphar
(literally meaning ‘to cover’) has the various meanings of to expiate, to placate, to
cancel, to appease, to cleanse, to disannul, to forgive, to be merciful, to
pardon, to purge and to make reconciliation.
The related noun kopher
(meaning ‘a covering’) was used to mean a redemption price, a ransom and
satisfaction.
[2] See also its Hebraic use in Hebrews 9:5, for
example.
[3] See for example Berkhof, L. Systematic Theology, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth,
1958, pp.367-391.
[4]
‘Expiation’ is a theological term
referring to Christ’s vicarious reparation for human sin, by which our sin is
cancelled and our guilt extinguished. It
is used by the RSV in Romans 3:25 and 1 John 2:2, 4:10 instead of
‘propitiation.’ Technically, through
Christ’s death in our place, God is propitiated in that his wrath towards sin
is removed, and sin is expiated in that our sin is blotted out and our guilt extinguished. Both expiation and propitiation are critical
concepts in Christ’s work of atonement.
[5] The following
chapter discusses healing in the context of the theme of covenant.
[6] Morris. L.L.
“Atonement”, New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, Leicester: IVP, 1996,
p.104.
[7]
This prophetic
passage from Isaiah 53:4 did not find its fulfilment only in the time of
Christ’s ministry, but is also fulfilled in the healing ministry that Christ
continues to exercise even today, in the same way that the passage in Luke
4:18-19 (which was prophesied in Isaiah 61:1-2) still continues to be fulfilled
in Christ’s ministry worldwide today.
Jesus continues to lift up and take away our sicknesses today, because he is the same person. He is the same yesterday, today and forever
(Heb. 13:8).
[8] ‘The yoke of His cross by which he lifted our
iniquities, took hold also of our diseases; - He who entered into mysterious
sympathy with our pain – which is the fruit of sin – also put Himself underneath
our pain, which is the penalty of sin’ (Gordon, A.J., Ministry of Healing, pp.16-17 quoted in McCrossan, T.J., Bodily Healing and the Atonement, Second
Edition, Tulsa: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1982, p.24).
[9] In fact, to say that the lifting up and carrying
away of sickness was bound up in Christ’s ministry which flowed from the
ontological union within himself through the incarnation, but that this lifting
up and carrying away of sickness was not still bound up in Christ when
he was on the cross is to unwittingly introduce an existential discontinuity
within the person of Christ. God and
humanity were (still) reconciled within him ontologically when he was on the
cross.
[10] In Isaiah 53, the same Hebrew verbs nasa and sabal are used in v.4 of Jesus lifting up and carrying away our
sicknesses as in v.11-12 of him bearing our sin.
[11] This teaching in Isaiah 53 reflects the
holistic nature of God’s dealings with humankind and which became inculcated in
Hebrew theology. Hebrew thought made no
sharp distinction between diseases of the body and those of the soul; they were
both rooted in the human condition of sin.
This demonstrates God’s holistic intention for humans in redemption: it
meets our needs in spirit, soul and body.
Western theological traditions which deny that Christ died for sickness
in the same way that he died for sin (i.e. which deny that he carried and
removed them both completely through the cross) do not reflect this biblical
holism, reflecting rather the influence of the ancient Greek dichotomy between
spirit/soul and the body. Such tradition
therefore introduces a dichotomy between God’s dealing with sin and his dealing
with sickness. As a result, this leaves
believers at best confused over the issue of sickness / healing and at worst in
denial of the validity of healing ministry for today. So believers have little or no effective response
to Satan’s dominion through sickness and therefore too often remain victims of
this. Understanding and embracing God’s
holistic intention in Isaiah 53 gives believers a clear redemptive answer to
sickness and gives ground for the response of faith.
[12] The truth that Christ lifted up and carried
away our sicknesses is emphasized by the adverb ‘surely’ at the beginning of
Isaiah 53:4. The Hebrew word means
‘certainly’ or ‘truly,’ and its root refers to something being set up and
firmly fixed in place for a specific use or purpose. This then implies that Christ’s carrying away
of both our sins and our sicknesses is the firm foundation which God has set in
place to bring us holistic salvation in spirit, soul and body. This foundation is sure, reliable, certain
and trustworthy for believers who will trust God for their healing.
[13] It is important to note the use of the aorist
tense in the prophetic passages to do with healing, such as ‘He took up… and
carried…,’ and ‘by his wounds you were healed’ (Isa. 53:4, Matt. 8:17, 1 Peter
2:24 AV; cf. Gal. 3:13). The aorist
tense is used of a fully completed action in the past, and so its use in these
verses underlines the fact that Christ’s work in relation to sickness and healing
is finished, just as it is finished in regard to sin (cf. Rom. 5:6, 1 Cor.
15:3, Rev. 5:9). It’s a done deal! So when we seek God for healing, we need to
stand by faith on this finished work in order to receive our healing.
[14]
Just as the truth that we died to sin in
Christ is the positional foundation for the progressive victory over sin which
we can then experience in our daily lives, so too the fact that we died to
sickness in Christ is the positional basis for believing God to bring healing
when we need this.
[15] If sickness is not dealt with completely
through the cross, then our redemption is incomplete. Death, through sickness, would still have a
hold on us, and so God would not therefore have resurrected Christ in
affirmation of his work. We would still
be under the dominion of Satan.
[16] This again underlines the holistic nature of
our salvation.
[17] See the use of the present participle form of
these verbs in the Septuagint version of Psalm 103:3-5, implying the believer’s
ongoing experience of these things in their life.
[18] Lake, J.G.
His Life, His Sermons, His
Boldness of Faith, Fort Worth: Kenneth Copeland Publications, Revised
Version, 1995, pp.15-16,21.
[19] Liardon, R.
“Science of Divine Healing” in John
G. Lake: The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings, Laguna Hills:
Roberts Liardon Ministries, p.343. Used
with permission.
[20]
For a general discussion of the dual
nature of the coming of the kingdom of God, see Ladd, G.E. “The Kingdom of God,” Chapter 4, and “The
Mystery of the Kingdom,” Chapter 7, A Theology
of the New Testament, Revised Edition, Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 1994,
pp.54-67,89-102.
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