The So-Called Theory of Divine Healing

“Christ redeemed us from our diseases” is the belief of all charismatics and many non-charismatics who have been deceived by this teaching. If physical healing is in the redemptive work of Christ, the following statements would be true: (1) God must disapprove of the use of means of any kind—no doctors, hospitals, medicine, etc. (2) The body would never die and never come into judgment. (3) Diseases would have been imputed to Christ. The truth is that our sins, not our diseases, were imputed to Him. He is a sin offering, not a disease offering.

Among professing Christians, there is a danger of being mislead by the sound of certain expressions in the Scriptures through failure to ascertain their real meaning. There are among them superficial people who imagine that the quoting of a verse is sufficient to prove their point and silence any opponent. They do not understand that it is not enough to quote a verse. You have to study the verse in the light of its immediate context and in the light of the overall context of Scripture.

There are others who in a mistaken zeal for the integrity and authority of the word suppose it would be a perversion or denial of it to place a different meaning upon what appears to be its obvious meaning. An example of this occurred when Christ said at the institution of the Lord’s Supper that this is my body [referring to the bread] and this is my blood [referring to the wine] (Matt. 26:26-28; John 6:50-58). Catholics say it was His blood, but it was not His blood. Participants of the Lord’s Supper are not cannibals. In John 7:38, Christ said, “…From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” This is talking about the individual who has the Holy Spirit of God. This is not to be taken literally but symbolically. All Scripture requires interpretation—even the simplest statement; and when the Scriptures are rightly, handled the truth can be known. Charismatics and all who believe that physical healing was in the redemptive work of Christ say Isaiah 53 carries the agonies of the Calvary experience on the cross. They say that Christ bore our sicknesses and pains; and therefore, we should never be sick and never have pain.

A major spokesman for the Pentecostal people, F. F. Bosworth, wrote the book entitled Christ The Healer. The following are some pertinent statements from that book:

1. “Freedom from sickness comes from knowing the truth” (page 14). In answer to this, there are people in the Scriptures that God used who were sick and had pain. An example would be Paul. No one taught him. He knew the Scriptures. They were revealed to Him (Gal. 1:11-12). Paul had an infirmity. “On behalf of such a man will I boast; but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses. For if I do wish to boast I shall not be foolish, for I shall be speaking the truth; but I refrain from this, so that no one may credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me. And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.” (II Corinthians 12:5-11 NASB). Not only was Paul afflicted and God used him, but He also used others. There was Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25-30), Timothy (I Tim. 5:23), Trophimus (II Tim. 4:20), and Gaius (III John 1-2).

2. “Our attitude toward sickness should be the same as our attitude toward sin” (page 16). That would mean that if a Christian is sick he has to be dealt with as an alien sinner. That is absolutely not the case.

3. “In the same way that we receive the first fruits of our spiritual salvation, we can receive the first fruits of our physical salvation” (page 23). In answer to this, we receive the gospel and the Lord Jesus because God Himself has wrought a work in us. The charismatic’s healing is like his salvation—you can have it today and lose it tomorrow. You can be healed today and lose this healing tomorrow. When do we receive the first fruits of our physical salvation—now or then? Read II Corinthians and Romans 8 as examples. We are not receiving our fullness of physical salvation now. It is available only in the glorified body. The natural body wears out. If we received the firstfruits of our physical salvation, the body would not be perishing every day.

4. “We have in the command of James 5:14, a positive ordinance of healing in Christ’s name, as sacred and binding upon every church as the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper and Christian Baptism” (page 31). The promise of James 5:14 is not a promise to professional faith healers who scoff at medicine and make merchandise of prayer. The sick send for the elders of the assembly because the chief interest is the soul (Heb. 13:7, 17).

5. “Sin and sickness have passed from me to Calvary. Salvation and health have passed from Calvary to me” (page 34). Any person who believes that is deceived. He is blind to all the Scriptures concerning the body.

6. “The apostle tells us ‘He was made sin for us who knew no sin of his own.’ Likewise, He has made Him sick for us who knew no sickness of His own” (page 38). Any person who believes this statement would choke to death on the threefold imputation of Scripture—Adam’s sin to all his posterity; our sins to Christ; Christ’s righteousness to us.

7. “If the body were not included in redemption, how can there be redemption? How can corruption put on incorruption or mortal put on immortality? If we have not been redeemed from sickness, would we not be subject to disease in heaven if it were possible to be resurrected irrespective of redemption?” (page 40). This shows how ignorant these people are of progressive sanctification and glorification.

8. “The Word of God is made life to our bodies in exactly the same way that it is made life to our souls, which is by believing His promise” (page 104). No one can believe the promises of God apart from regeneration by the Spirit who makes the passive lost sheep become saved sheep (John 6; 10; 17).

9. “How can God justify us and at the same time require us to remain under the curse from which He redeemed us?” (page 65). This reveals the ignorance of the threefold justification in the following order: (1) before God by the redemptive work of Christ; (2) before the chosen person’s consciousness by faith; and (3) before others by the works of faith.

We all know that God can heal because the Scriptures teach it. God has healed. God does heal. He heals in answer to prayer. He heals where there is no prayer at all by the recuperative powers of nature. He heals as in the case of Hezekiah by the use of means. He has healed in answer to the prayer of the individual who was sick or others who prayed for him. The charismatics may be clever in the way they present their argument about the double atonement—for sin and sickness. However, please do not forget that people can be clever and at the same time be a thousand miles from the truth. To pray intelligently, we pray for God’s will to be accomplished and, above all, make us willing to accept what that will is.

Mr. Bosworth named seven of the ten compound names of Jehovah: “To me another unanswerable argument that healing is in the atonement is to be found in the seven redemptive names of Jehovah in the Old Testament: Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is present; Jehovah-shalom, the Lord is our peace; Jehovah-raah, the Lord is my Shepherd; Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide; Jehovah-nissi, the Lord is our banner; Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord is our righteousness; Jehovah-rapha, the Lord that heals.”

It is impossible that our sins could ever have been transferred from us to Jesus Christ in such a sense as to make Him actually the sinner, but He bore them in that He endured the judgment which we had deserved because of our sinful condition. The Lord laid on Christ “the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53:6 NASB). Note in Isaiah 53:8 (NASB), “the transgression of my people.” “Us all” and “my people” are the same. We are His by election. In verse 11, “He will bear their iniquities”—the iniquities of His people. “He Himself bore the sin of many” (v. 12). These Scriptures prove who and what Christ died for—not sickness but sin. Christ’s atoning work is absolutely perfect and complete. It is finished Godward, so that He is the propitiation for our sins. Its application to our bodies remains yet to be accomplished and will not be accomplished until the resurrection when we stand in his presence. (See II Cor. 4:16; Rom. 13:11; 8:23; I Cor. 15:26; Phil. 3:21; Col. 3:1-3; Eph. 5:27; I John 3:2-3.)

Read Matthew 8:14-17. In verse 17, study the Greek verbs lambano (took) and bastadzo (carried). If physical healing is in the redemptive work of Christ in the same sense as spiritual healing for the present time, our sicknesses would be as far removed as our sins. However, every student of Scripture knows that sicknesses are not taken away (removed) as the sins of the elect were removed. That is the meaning of the Greek verb lambano. On the other hand, Christ did not promise to save the elect from sickness and death, but He carries them through these experiences. “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (II Cor. 4:16-18 NASB). “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4 NASB). This is what the word bastadzo (carry, bear, to support) emphasizes in Matthew 8:17. Since Jesus Christ is the perfect example (I Peter 2:21), He set the example in His public ministry by supporting us in the weaknesses of our outer man by assuring us of the inner man being daily renewed. Furthermore, as our great Shepherd Christ will support us as we go through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil.

It is evident that Paul did not know anything about such a doctrine that is being taught by the charismatics today. If one case can be found in Scripture where a Christian was allowed to be sick and was not healed, then the whole theory falls to the ground. Five names were mentioned previously that were not healed; this proves that He did not bear sickness in the same sense He did sin. Christ’s work is both finished and unfinished today. It is finished from the standpoint of redemption, but not from the standpoint of the completion of ourselves in His presence. We stand between the finished work of Christ at Calvary and the unfinished work when He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. In this life, we groan and travail in pain waiting for the redemption of the body. (Read I Cor. 15; II Cor. 4:16-5:10.)

In regeneration and conversion, the body remains unchanged, but it is subject to the will of the new man, the new nature (I Pet. 3:4). The inward man has responsibilities. He is to buffet and keep his old body under subjection. If he doesn’t do this, he loses his testimony (I Cor. 9:26-27). We can’t lose our salvation, but we can lose our reward (II John 8). The body is saved by hope (Rom. 8:22-25). We are not being gradually glorified any more than we are being gradually regenerated. Each one is instantaneous.

We have to come to the conclusion that the salvation and the healing of charismatics are both nothing but the actions of the flesh. The Spirit has nothing to do with it. He is not present in any place where such error is being propagated.

Is the Lord showing less mercy under the New Testament than He did in the Old Testament? Many people have never learned that God does change His methods while His character remains unchanged. People are always quoting Hebrews 13:8 (NASB)—“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.” Also, “For I, the Lord, do not change” (Mal. 3:6 NASB). You have to interpret those passages. He is not rolling back the Red Sea today. He promised He would never destroy the earth again by water. He will not repeat some things that He has done.

There are some who say they take the whole Bible as the rule of faith, and this is correct. They are implying that most people who go to church are leaving something out. This is true also. However, should everything that is in the Bible to be observed by us today? No. For example, the feasts and offerings of the Levitical system were giving us a picture of Christ when He came, and we are not under that era. We are under Christ and stand between Calvary and His coming again. If we were under the Levitical system, we would circumcise male children, offer animal sacrifices, burn incense at the altar, and keep the feasts. God has not dealt with all people in the same way. (Read Deut. 4:32-36.) He has not dealt with any other nation as He dealt with Israel and is still going to deal with them. Covenants were made with the Israelites. (Read Deut. 5:2-4; Jer. 31:31-32; Ps. 103:3; Jer. 17:14.) They could claim things that we cannot claim today.

Notice some cases of Divine healing. Bartimaeus immediately receive his sight

(Mark 10:46-52). How much faith did Lazarus have when he was raised from the dead by the Lord? The impotent man at Bethesda (John 5:2-9) had been in that condition for 38 years and was immediately made whole. The lame man at the gate of the temple was immediately healed. Christ was proving who He was. Miracles were given for that purpose. We do not need any further attestation of the work of the apostles or Jesus Christ. These are examples in the physical realm of what Jesus Christ came to do in the spiritual realm. The blessing of God, therefore, does not consist of the physical healing of the bodies on earth still under the power of death (Rom. 8:10), but in spiritual blessings in heaven (Eph. 1:3).