INTRODUCTION

We know that the Scripture is the Word of God, breathed by the Holy Spirit – living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. (Hbr. 4:13) Therefore, we can confidently assume that since God is without error (Deu. 32:4), so is His Word, again as the Scriptures declare (2 Sam. 22:31; Isa. 40:8) and as Christ confirms (Mat. 4:4). There is no accident in its makeup or the organization – it is put together exactly as the Most High God intended it. He watches over His Word, to perform it (Jer. 1:12), exactly as written.

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Consider, then, the episode of the woman with the issue of blood in Matthew 9. After she had been healed by touching His cloak, Christ spoke the following to her, as translated from the Greek: “Your faith has healed you.” (Mat. 9:22) You may also recall the woman from Luke 7 who was not physically sick, but freely acknowledged her spiritual sickness before Him by washing his feet with her tears. He said to her, as translated from the Greek: “Your faith has saved you.” (Lke. 7:50)

But here is what the translations fail to communicate to the reader: in both cases the Greek words used to translate Christ’s actual Aramaic words are exactly the same! The English translators then translated the same Greek words differently to fit the context since the operative Greek verb “sozo” means to be healed or saved. That is no accident, nor is the fact that, as translated into the Greek, Christ spoke the same exact words to both ladies – one physically sick and one spiritually sick.

Because Christ, knowing all things, foresaw how His Words in both cases would be translated into the Greek, there is only one conclusion to be drawn: in the eyes of Christ, being physically healed and being spiritually saved are two aspects of the exact same thing!

But why should we be surprised by this? Christ went about preaching the Gospel of salvation and, at the same time, healing the sick – the two went hand in hand. Certainly, He healed the sick to prove He was the Sent One from God (Jhn. 20:31), and to show His compassion (Mat. 20:34; Mar. 1:41), for God is Love, and even to demonstrate His justice, but it is more than that.

He healed their bodies when He healed their spirits because the two were inseparable, indivisible components of the same salvation. This is borne out by His instructions to both the 12 and the 70, to preach the Gospel and “to heal the sick.” (Mat. 10:5-8; Lke. 10:9) The 12 and the 70 were sent to proclaim what God had done in sending His Son, the healing of both our spirits, our souls, and our bodies.

Physical healing is not some adjunct to the Gospel. It is as much a part of what Christ has accomplished as the salvation of souls, subordinate, but similarly essential. This is clearly further born out in the Scriptures for those who have an ear to hear.

In 1 Cr. 11:23-25, Christ inaugurates the communion sacrament of bread and wine – not wine only, but bread and wine – not for the remission of sins only, but for the healing of our bodies. His body was broken for ours. He took our infirmities and carried away our diseases. (Mat. 8:17) The chastisement of God was upon Him (Isa. 53:5), so that we might be free of that chastisement which resulted from the Curse. He became the Curse for us, so that we would be free of the Curse (Gal. 3:13), which includes every disease known to man. (See Deut. 28:15 et seq.)

Consider Psalm 103 and the indivisibility, again, of God’s healing/salvation: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget His benefits. Who pardons all your sins and who heals all your diseases. Why do we insist upon believing one half of the sentence and not the other? Why make God a liar and receive one of the Promises and not the other? If you received Him as your Savior, why hesitate about receiving Him as your Healer?

This conjunction of the two promises, and the healing/saving of the whole man is again set forth in 1 Pe. 2:24: He Himself bore our body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;… That is the spiritual healing side of salvation. But what is the next line? By His wounds you have been healed. That is the physical healing side of salvation. The wounds that were due us because of the Curse of our rebellion, the chastisement of justice, and the oppression of the Enemy were transferred from us to Christ. The Enemy’s blows that would have resulted in our “wounds” or sicknesses were legally transferred to Him so that we would be free, so that the Enemy’s legal right to oppress us with cancer and the like would be destroyed.

Therefore, in the justice of Heaven, there is no reason for you to bear any longer the “wounds” of the Enemy. The fact that the Enemy, being a criminal, may still try to afflict or wound you, does not change your legal right to be free of such affliction, but as with any legal right, it must be asserted to be recognized by the authorities.

It is an established legal maxim: “If you sleep on your rights you will lose them.”Therefore, if you are sick, once you have received ministry according to the Biblical method, then proceed to PROCLAIM AND ASSERT YOUR RIGHTS OUT LOUD EVERY DAY. You will be heard in heaven. Ps. 116:1. In doing this you are honoring God by believing God!

It could not be any clearer. The salvation sent by the Father in the person of the Son is for the whole man.

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What then has happened? Why is this not shouted from the rooftops, much less taught in the churches? The answer is simple – unbelief. If one’s faith can save/heal, as Jesus said above and in a number of other Gospel accounts, one’s lack of faith can be fatal to healing/saving. We know that one cannot be saved without faith – why is it surprising that one cannot be healed without faith? Especially if, as it appears from Christ’s words, they are two sides of the same coin!

Christ died for the sins of the whole world (Jhn. 3:16), but not all are saved, but only those who come to Him believing that He will save them. Likewise, Christ took the Curse of disease from us, but not all are healed, but only those who come to Him believing that he will heal them.

Is it harder for a person to be healed than to be saved? Apparently so, because there are many who have the faith to be saved yet do not get healed. Let us understand: the faith to be saved comes from God (Eph. 2:8), as a result of our hearing the Word of God on salvation (Rom. 10:17). Likewise, we can safely assume that the faith to be healed comes from God, as a result of our hearing the Word of God on healing.

But how often have you heard a sermon on the Word of God’s healing promises? Think about it? Ever? Why is that? Well, as Christ Himself said, what is easier to say: “Your sins are forgiven or get up and walk.” (Mat. 9:5)

Obviously, it is easier to say that which cannot be proven or challenged empirically. The speaker risks nothing by proclaiming heaven as the right of the lost who trust Christ. The speaker risks a lot if He proclaims healing as the right of the sick who trust Christ, when the sick stand before him.

Are these healing promises less reliable than the salvation promises? Does the One we are told to trust when we hear of His saving our souls become untrustworthy when He speaks of the healing of our bodies? Or is healing so much rarer than salvation because we are carnal Christians, who walk after the flesh, wedded to the reports of our senses and their rationalizations as opposed to the supernatural Word of the Supernatural One?

Sadly, the unbelief of the natural man is encouraged, supported, and augmented, even spiritualized, by all sorts of books and treatises from learned theologians. The mind is always the slave of the heart, and if the heart needs to justify its unbelief, the mind stands ready to rationalize why Christ’s healing promises are no longer for us, although we today suffer from maladies on a scale far greater than the humans of Christ’s day, and therefore have a much greater need for those promises to be true.

The implication of modern theology is that the fault is God’s, not ours. Christ might heal you, but He was not sent for the purpose of healing you, the sick are told. As a result, people come into church sick, and they leave church still sick, and if the help of modern medicine is insufficient, they all suffer and many die.

We are commanded as Christ’s followers to heal the sick but instead of healing, for the Kingdom of God consists not of words BUT OF POWER (1 Cr. 4:20), the sick are given platitudes and the thin gruel of sophistry and spiritualization of all the very great and precious promises of God. Their faith goes up and down as the test results come in, some good, some bad, whereas a faith that has its object the Promises of God does not fall but only rises and stands firm, regardless of good or bad test results, because the Promise does not change, and will never change, and neither will our God.

Abraham is our model here, the father of all who believe: In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.” 19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; 20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 22 Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. (Rom. 4:18-24)

And in the economy of the Living God, His Promise is greater than a test result, or a doctor’s opinion, or a drug, or a cancer, or an aged body as Abraham’s, and we know from His Word that the command of a King cannot be revoked! (Est. 8:8) Because it is greater and irrevocable, if it is brought to bear and proclaimed in the face of disease and the Enemy of God, the Promise will always prevail!

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