Stauron

The Healing Power of the Cross

Jim Nance

"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" Isaiah 53:4,5

"Government occasionally does do something right in health care."
President Bill Clinton

he civil government has no God-given responsibility, and therefore no real ability, to guarantee universal health care to our nation. "Health care that's always there" sounds promising, but only if we believe it will work. It will not. The State is very effective when it operates within the sphere that God has assigned to it, that of punishing the evildoer and praising the good (1 Pet. 2:14, Rom. 13:4), but it fails miserably as a minister of health, education, and welfare. What would you think if your doctor said, "I occasionally do something right at the operating table"? Civil government makes a good soldier but a lousy surgeon. Thus we do not believe that the State can guarantee health care to everyone.

But Christians are in danger of falling for a similar promise of guaranteed health. I am referring of course to the "name it and claim it" preachers who insist that through the Cross physical healing is available for everyone. Gloria Copeland, for example, writes: "Jesus bore your sicknesses and carried your diseases at the same time and in the same manner that He bore your sins. You are just as free from sickness and disease as you are free from sin. You should be as quick to refuse sickness and disease in your body as you are to refuse sin." Such statements display a misunderstanding and misuse of the Bible's teaching on the healing ministry of Jesus and His atonement.

So how are we to understand this passage from Isaiah 53:4-5? We should first examine how the inspired writers of the New Testament understood it. The apostle Peter wrote that Jesus "bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed" (1 Pet. 2:24). Jesus removed the guilt of our sin and its associated penalty by taking them upon Himself. We are saved by this vicarious atonement, which Peter here presents as the fulfillment of the healing which Isaiah prophesied. The healing power of the cross is the power to heal our souls from sin and death. Jesus makes a very similar comparison between sickness and sin when He told the scribes and Pharisees, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Luke 5:31-32). The stripes which Jesus received were for the healing of our souls from sin.

This is not to deny Jesus' ministry of physical healing, nor to imply that Isaiah does not refer to it. Indeed Matthew wrote that Jesus "healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses'" (Matt. 8:16-17). Clearly, Jesus healed powerfully, and Isaiah appears to connect this healing power to the cross; without a doubt all of God's blessings to us have their foundation in the cross. But is Mrs. Copeland correct in asserting that Jesus' atonement guarantees healing for all who will claim it? She tells me to "refuse sickness and disease" in my body. How? Do I repent of my hemorrhoids like I repent of my lusts? Should we "confess our migraines to one another" or "flee from cancer"?

She may respond, "You must have faith. Faith looks like this: you must know that it is God's will to heal you." But when we look at Jesus healing the sick in the gospels, do we see Him requiring that they know that He wills to heal them? No we do not. "And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.' Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed" (Matt. 8:2-3). This leper did not know that Jesus was willing for him to be healed, but he did know that Jesus was able. This is the faith that Jesus looks for in healing: "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" (Matt. 9:28). When we ask Jesus to heal us, we must believe that He is able to heal, and if He is willing, healing will occur. This is as true for healing from sin as from sickness.

The main problem then with the promise of guaranteed health in the cross is that God does not guarantee that He is always willing to heal. We simply do not know His will for the future. His will is sovereign, and our task is not to try to figure it out or to claim it, but to submit to it. Anything else is not faith, but presumption. "Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that' " (James 4:15).

Having said all this, I hasten to agree at one point with my charismatic brothers: the one time that we can know God's will of perfect health for His people will be when He returns to destroy death and sickness forever. "So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power" (1 Cor. 15:42-43). This also is the healing power of the cross.