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Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 132 The Promises of God Talk 13 Promises of healing   All the promises we have looked at so far are specifically referred to as promises in the New Testament. Surprisingly, nowhere is the word promise used to refer to healing, but that does not mean that there are no promises of healing in the Bible. There most certainly are - although some people claim Bible verses as promises of healing which most certainly are not!   In this talk I will not be attempting to go into the subject in great detail, but if you would like to hear or read more of what I have to say on healing, you could visit my website - https://www.davidpetts.org/podcast - where you will find several talks on healing first produced between May and August 2019. Alternatively, my book, Just a Taste of Heaven - a biblical and balanced approach to God’s healing power, covers the subject in great detail. So this talk will be just a short introduction to a vast subject. We’ll briefly consider:   A right understanding of God’s healing power The right use of God’s healing power Why isn’t everybody healed?   A right understanding of God’s healing power As evidence for the fact that the healing of our sicknesses is the privilege of the people of God we may point first to God’s promise in Exodus 15:26. Israel had been brought out of Egypt by a supernatural act of divine deliverance. The Egyptians had perished beneath the waters of the Red Sea. As a further token of his mighty power the Lord had made sweet the bitter waters of Marah (Exodus 15:23-25). God was showing his people that he was able to meet all their needs. Then came the reassuring promise:   If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his eyes… I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.   God’s willingness to heal is also confirmed by the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ went around doing good and healing all who were under the devil’s power (Acts 10:38). The Gospels provide many examples of this (Matthew 4:23-24, 8:16, 9:35, Mark 6:56, Luke 6:17-19, for example).   When Jesus sent his disciples out to preach he commanded them to cure every kind of disease and sickness (Matthew 10:1, 7-8). And this commission to heal was not limited to the time of his earthly ministry. In his final words to his disciples before his ascension Jesus commanded his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Those who believed would cast out demons, speak with new tongues and heal the sick in his name (Mark 16:15-20).   The fact that they did so is well illustrated in the book of Acts. In Acts 3:7-9 a lame man was healed in the name of Jesus resulting in the salvation of thousands of people (Acts 4:4). In Acts 4:30 the early church prayed that God would stretch out his hand to heal in the name of Jesus. In Acts 5:14-16 multitudes were healed in the streets of Jerusalem. Miracles were performed in the ministry of Stephen (Acts 6:8) and the sick were healed as Philip preached the gospel to the Samaritans (Acts 8:6-8). Peter was used to heal the sick and to raise the dead in Acts 9:33-42. At Paul’s command a cripple leapt to his feet and walked (Acts 14:8-10), diseases departed (Acts 19:12) and the dead were raised (Acts 20:9-12). And it does not seem that the power to heal was ever withdrawn, for in the very last chapter of Acts the sick are still being healed (Acts 28:8-9), and in James 5:14-16 explicit instructions are given to Christians who need healing.   In both Old and New Testaments, then, we see God’s power and willingness to heal his people. When God made man he made him perfect and put him in a perfect creation. Everything God made was ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31). It is clear that man was not only morally, but also physically perfect. There was no sickness in the Garden of Eden. There is to be no sickness in heaven (Revelation 21:4). The existence of sickness is the result of Adam’s sin. The whole of creation was affected by the Fall (Romans 8:22).   But just as God has not left us without a ransom for sin, so too he has not left us without a remedy for sickness. By Christ’s atoning death on the cross he has reconciled to God all those who believe. By faith in the substitutionary sacrifice offered at Calvary repentant sinners are brought into right relationship with God. Their sins are washed away. Sin, the root cause of sickness is atoned for. By restoring us to fellowship with our Maker, Christ has, by his death, made provision for the healing of our bodies.   It is in this sense that healing may be rightly said to be ‘in the atonement’. Of course, the word ‘atonement’ by its very meaning essentially refers to sin. Because of the atonement we are redeemed, we are reconciled to God, we are no longer enemies but sons. And the blessings of the New Testament are no less than those of the Old. To those who are by covenant his people, God still says, I am the Lord who heals you.   The right use of God’s healing power As we examine the New Testament we discover that there are two main forms of divine healing. They are distinct, both in the purpose for which they are given and in the manner in which they are received, although there are, by the very nature of the case, many similarities between them. First there is there is healing for the unbeliever. This operates in the context of evangelism and is referred to in Mark 16:16-20 and in the various examples in Acts we mentioned earlier. Then there is healing for the believer. This is described in James 5:14-16.   Healing for the unbeliever The Lord Jesus promised that miraculous healing would be one of the signs by which he would confirm the word of those who preach the gospel. In this connection it should be noted that healing was to accompany the preaching of the gospel. The apostolic message was Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). That is what they preached. They did not preach healing. They did it! Notice too that in Mark 16 it is the one who is laying hands on the sick who appears to be responsible for exercising faith (vv.17-18), not the sick person who may well still be an unbeliever.   Further, it needs to be pointed out that these verses do not imply that all who have hands laid on them will be miraculously healed. Jesus was not saying that every believer would be used in healing or that every sick person would be healed. What he does promise is that he will confirm his word by working in a variety of ways, including miraculous healing, to authenticate the message of the gospel to the unconverted. Perhaps if this were borne in mind, and if a greater emphasis were placed on the leading of the Spirit in the matter of praying for the sick, there would be less apparent ‘failures’ in the ministry of modern evangelists.   Healing for believers Believers would remember that the form of healing prescribed for them is not that to be found in Mark 16, but rather that of James 5. The believer who is ‘in trouble’ (literally suffering evil) is to pray for himself (v.13). If he is sick, he is to call for the elders of the church who should pray in faith in the name of the Lord, anointing the sick person with oil.   James encourages Christians to pray for one another that they might be healed, and where applicable, to confess their faults to one another. Healing is promised, though not necessarily instantaneously. We sometimes need to persist in prayer. The conditions which govern all types of prayer are surely applicable in this context too. (The end of James 4 makes it clear that we cannot even be sure that we will be alive tomorrow – unless it is God’s will!)  Finally, it would seem sensible, and biblical, that when God has provided a simple natural remedy for a sickness, Christians should thankfully avail themselves of it.   Why isn’t everybody healed? The basic problem that lies at the heart of most questions that arise about the doctrine of healing is the simple fact that not everybody is healed. Pastors who have watched the suffering of some of the greatest saints in their congregation simply cannot believe that the answer is merely a matter of sin or unbelief on the part of the sufferer. The scriptures themselves do not support this suggestion.   We need to remember that even in Bible times there is evidence that there were occasions when not everyone was healed. Of course, there were times when everyone was, especially during the ministry of the Lord Jesus, from which we may conclude that we may well expect special periods of divine visitation when the same could happen again, as it did for the early Christians in Acts 5:16. But nowhere else in Acts are we told that such a thing took place. In fact, even in the ministry of the Lord Jesus there was at least one occasion when only one out of a large crowd was healed (John 5:1-9). And those who remind us of the health and strength of Moses whose eyesight was still good even at the age of one hundred and twenty usually fail to mention Isaac who died blind!   To attempt to deal with the problems of healing at all is a formidable task. To seek to do so within the scope of so brief a talk is an impossibility. Perhaps we do well to remember as we consider the problem of those who are not yet healed that the spirit is more important than the body, that God does discipline us that we might be partakers of his holiness (Hebrews 12:5-11), that Paul’s thorn – whatever it was – was in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:1-10), and that he did leave Trophimus at Miletus sick (2 Timothy 4:20).   As Christians we are still living in a world that is under the curse. The whole creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22) and we ourselves groan inwardly waiting for the redemption of the body (v.23). But the day is coming when the creation itself will be delivered from its bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of the children of God! There’s going to be a resurrection. We shall receive a body ‘like his glorious body’. Our mortal bodies will be clothed with immortality! Death itself will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:50ff). Then every promise of healing will be fulfilled, for there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away (Revelation 21:4).