Bodily Healing in the Atonement
Many people are Calvinist when it comes to Divine Healing. The Calvinist believe in Limited Atonement and many Christians believe in Liminted Healing. God is no respector of persons, end of arguement!!!. You can quit asking God if He is willing to heal you and start believing that His big heart of mercy and graciousness is ready to do the work. The truth is, God has healed you from your sickness in the exact sense in which He has saved you from your sins. The Blood Atonement of Jesus Christ, crucified before the foundation of the world, has vicariously borne your sins and your sicknesses in your behalf. Sin and sickness has passed from us to Calvary, that salvation and healing might pass from Calvary to us. (quoted). “It’s finished,” because Jesus said so.
Seven Redemptive Names for Jesus
There are seven redemptive names (some say there are as many as ten) found in the Old Testament, each providing hope to the reader as well as prophetic insight into Christ’s death and provision. One of the first of these in the order they were revealed was Jehovah-Rapha (Exodus 15:26), spelled by some authorities Ropheka. Translated that means “The Lord That Healeth Thee” or “I am the Lord Thy Physician”. The presence of Christ in the Old Testament included along with all His other manifestation, His readiness to heal. Let me list the other six manifestations as they were revealed with their redemptive names.
Jehovah-Shammah: “The Lord is There or the Lord is Present.” (Ex.48:35). Men and women are separated from God by sin and one of the redemptive acts of Christ is to bridge that chasm and bring us back into the Father’s fellowship. We can be His intimate children having personal union with Him.
Jehovah-Raah: “The Lord is my Shepherd.” (Psalm 23:1) He doesn’t just save us from sin, He shepherds us by giving us His guiding presence and by teaching us that we might walk in His steps. He is the shepherd of our soul.
Jehovah-Jireh: “The Lord will provide an offering.” (Genesis 22:14) When Abraham was about to offer his son, the Lord stopped him and then provided a sacrifice. That was the setting for this redemptive title. Our sacrifice or substitute was the spotless Lamb of God.
Jehovah-Nissi: “The Lord our Captain.” (Exodus 17:15). When the enemy comes in like a flood we are not left to our own devices. He is our Captain and the battle is the Lord’s.
Jehovah-Tsidkenu: “The Lord our Righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:6, 33:16). Holiness is not the product of human will or determination. Will and determination are admirable traits but must bow to confess helplessness at His cross. Then and only then can acceptable righteousness clothe us in a new garment.
No one would dare suggest that the New Covenant is not better than the old. Whatever the supernatural help to man was in the Old Testament it became “Much More” (Romans 5) in the New. We must believe that healing for our bodies is no less available than redemption from sins, our deliverance in our temptations or righteousness for our unrighteousness. When you can name any of the other redemptive names and provision that have been withdrawn then you ought to question the provision of Jehovah-Ratha, The Lord our Physician.
He Hath Borne Our Sickness
The Mount Everest of prophetic foreknowledge is found in Isaiah 53. Let’s look at two verses that remove all doubt about divine healing. “Surely He hath borne our grief, (Gr.choli, disease or sickness) and carried our sorrows: (Gr. makob, pain) yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him: and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4,5).
Disease of the soul is cared for with great mercy in these verses but not by excluding disease and pain of the body. Why should anyone penknife the Word of God with a view to denying the healing of suffering individuals? It seems so uncaring to watch men bear the afflictions of Satan while denying them the promises of God. The word”borne” in verse four means to bear away or carry off. Jesus took your sins and sickness upon His sinless and sickless body and by efficacious and judicial fiat He became a substitute for each of us. We are saved and healed by faith in His atonement. Our will to believe may fail but His will to heal cannot.
This great truth is compounded by the gospel of Saint Matthew. He shares a beautiful occasion of Christ’s healing power and then sets forth this Messianic prophecy of Isaiah with even stronger language. “When the evening was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” (St. Matthew 8:16-17). This direct quote of Isaiah 53:4 by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost makes the previous interpretation beyond argument.
Crippled Woman Loosed of Infirmity
This remarkable story we will discuss gives an excellent view from which to identify the source of all diseases. She was bowed over, crippled and could not straighten herself. It surely was not an infirmity we would identify with an evil spirit. Jesus did! Neither was she identified as a sinner but as a daughter of Abraham. She was at a Jewish worship service when she was healed. Note the facts. “And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her he called her to him and said unto her, ‘Woman thou are loosed from thine infirmity.’ And He laid His hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God…and ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” ( St. Luke 13:11-16).
This story establishes several valid facts. He associated disease with the work of a spirit from Satan. We must come to understand that every ounce of sickness and pain is the result of evil powers in our world. There was no sickness until Satan usurped control from the first Adam and there will be no disease when the second Adam reconciles all things unto Himself. THE FIRST FRUITS OF OUR BODILY REDEMPTION IS DIVINE HEALING AND THE FINAL FRUIT OF THAT REDEMPTION WILL BE A GLORIFIED BODY. WE MUST ATTACK SICKNESS WITH BELIEVING PRAYER AND INTERCESSION JUST LIKE WE ATTACK SIN.
The human body was created in the Father’s likeness to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. If that body isn’t garrisoned or preserved by the Spirit it will eventually be invaded by the forces of destruction. This woman was bound and imprisoned by her captor (I do not suggest she was possessed but oppressed. Oppression is a dominating factor in much sickness) but marvelously healed when a stronger than her captor took control. Jesus said a remarkable thing in Saint John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” One of the two master forces are in control of your life. Jesus is by far the stronger but cannot rule unless He’s invited. Satan will seek control by deception, default or by invitation.
Jesus absolutely desires our physical heath and wholeness. It is His will to heal us. He never acted in behalf of anyone but as an extension of His Father’s will for the human family. Neither is He a respecter of persons in picking or choosing those to receive His atonement.
She was healed because she was a daughter of Abraham and Jesus came to guarantee the Abrahamic promise. Again, all believers are heir of those blessings that Father Abraham assured to his sons and daughters. “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galations 3:19).
Sin Is A Cause of Sickness In Some Cases
There are many cases where disease is a direct result of willful sin against the laws of God. Jesus was prone to tell a person whom He healed “to go and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee.” Anytime a Christian goes back into open sin they are vulnerable to an explicit attack of the spirits of infirmity. James told the Jewish believers to whom he addressed his letter that “the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise them up; and if he (she) hath committed sins they shall be forgiven him (her).” (James 5:15).
It was very apparent in the primitive church that sin and sickness was closely related and when one area was addressed both needs were met with deliverance. There are exceptions but no reason to believe that the obedient Christian was not eventually healed or the healed person was eventually saved.
The Blood Atonement
Every promise of the Bible, every act of redemption and every work of God in behalf of man is by the blood of the Testator. The Old Testament was established by the blood of calves and goats which were a figure of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Hebrews 9:19-22). The New Testament was purified with a better sacrifice because it represented not the shadow but the Heavenly Act of Redemption itself. The two Testaments (Holy Bible) are in the cup which we drink at every communion celebration. (1 Corinthians 11:25).
Jesus said that He purchased the church with His own blood. (Acts 20:28). Apostle Paul said that our cup of blessing is the communion of the blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). The Blood will make every soul under its Judicial authority unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. (Colossians 1:20-23). We can enter the Holy of Holies for divine communion and fellowship by the blood of Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 10:19).
Jehovah-Ratha: “Jesus Christ, our Physician”is present in His church to heal every willing individual. Settle it in your heart that He delights to extend His promises and is grieved when we trust the arm of the flesh instead of the provision of Calvary. Once you have anchored your faith in His Blood Atonement then you should give praise for your healing and begin to conduct your life in expectation of His faithfulness. Making provision to be sick is an act of unbelief. If there is sin it must be confessed, forsaken and released to His cleansing. The Holy Spirit is pleased to say, “Rise and be healed in the name and by the blood atonement of Jesus.
Ethel
Brother Joseph,
Thus being, I would like you to explain why Timothy has not been healed, as Paul mentioned his frequent illnesses and advised him to drink some wine with relieving purposes.
As to Paul himself, many believe that the sting in the flesh he mentions is a sikcness (maybe yes, maybe not).
In fact, I have heard of no one who has died in perfect health (except by accident or violence).Even the most faithful Pentecostal believers who declare having such beliefs and strong faith, be them churgoers, pastors or missionaries.Usually they die of the same diseases than non-believers die: heart diseases, cancer… Could you please explain me that to my e-mail or write an article about it?
I`m not challenging you, I have deep respect and consideration for you and enjoy very much your articles.
What happens is that I need to understand this subject.
Yours in Christ,
Ethel.
P.S.: I apologise for any misusing of the English language.
Rick Hensley
Great Article! Thank God At Calvary Jesus Paid For Everything!
Sandra
I prayed and asked God to heal my hand. I had gotten bitten by my dog and the hand was swolen and red, very painful. I use home remedies when at all possible and avoid Money sucking docs and big pharma as much as possible. All I know is I woke up one morning and the hand was normal!! Only a tiny bit of soarness from the bite area. God is great! Praise his name for healing!
Byron
Dear Bro. Joseph
I believe (for a fact) that the Lord does and can, I also know that when He chooses not to, He gives us (through His Sweet Spirit) the strength to edure. He has healed my body a couple of times that (far as I’m concerned) were miracules, I am suffering from a serious back problem, I do believe that He will heal me of this, my prayer is sooner than letter. My heart goes out for many that are suffering, I believe that our enviorment does play into a lot. His people do die at times for a lack of knowledge. We live in a world (country) where floridation is delibertley put in our water and gmo foods are poison let alone the msg’s etc. Again, I do agree 100 percent that the Lord can, does and will, when we finally get Home we will understand. I pray for all those that are laid up and in pain, God Bless. Yes I agree w/you, no, it’s not an oxy-moron!
tramdol
Hey! I would like to depart a comment. I must say i enjoyed reading this article. Keep up the awesome effort.
Walter Pape
I thank you for your enlightinig studies and would reraly like to reprint them to file and use them in group discussions etc but for some reason I only get the first page printed are you not releasing iot?
Thank you and bless you
Walter
Jean Hynes
Praise God for salvation and healing! My 92 year old grandmother read her Bible daily, and accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She did NOT die of any dis-ease, but she just was worn out and willed herself to leave and be with Jesus. We do not have to die of any dis-ease. Jesus Christ paid the price for our salvation and our healing when he said, “It is finished.”
When the Scriptures tell me “I’m healed by the stripes of Jesus” I have to believe it. “Let every man be a liar but God’s Word is true.” (Romans 3:4)
Brian P
Thanks Joseph,
One of the most powerful lessons ever. They are all great, as are all things of the Holy Spirit, but this one is much needed by most of us. Ya know, if we could get this one right, and truly accept that Jesus DID take it all so that we would not have to, then by us meeting Him at His intended level of provision for us through His shed blood, we can indeed all be pain free, disease free, and I think this is what He really intended.
Bottom line is that people don’t all get healed, and for many many years it’s been blamed on our lack of faith. Maybe that’s right. Maybe that level of faith can only be achieved by serious serious retreat from all of the things of this world. I’m beginning to think that the world’s lack of faith has poisoned me. Monkey see, monkey do.
I do understand that not all of God’s biblical saints had perfect lives, nor did He heal them all, and that God brings Himself glory through providing us “grace” and strength to endure, but it certainly can’t be considered unscriptural to “ask and you SHALL receive”.
This is a real eye opener, thank you. I’m looking forward to using this powerful lesson to accept what Christ actually did for us, not what “religion” has taught us.
brian
Meredith
Pastor Chambers,
I really enjoyed this article. Thank you for reminding me that our trust is 100% in Christ. My neck and lower ear have been hurting me for two weeks and when time goes by I feel weaker and more prone to negative thinking about the pain/discomfort. But, I read this at the perfect time. I will re focus and keep my eyes on Christ and His healing power. Thanks:)
Ed Wood
I have to disagree with you this time, Pastor Joseph.
The evidence is that people are not always healed even if they and their loved ones wish it and fervently pray for it, any more than they will one day be spared from physical death, unless the Rapture occurs first.
Though personal sin certainly does exacerbate the problem, sickness and death are inherent in this fallen universe, and until the arrival of the new heaven and new earth, these conditions will plague humanity, though will be greatly educed during the Millennium.
I have just seen too many people much more righteous than myself die of awful diseases to believe we can all be healed in this life. But I am comforted that they are now with Jesus, free from all pain and more alive than they have ever been.
Brian P
This is for Ed Wood. I always enjoy your comments, but this time I disagree. You have a somewhat unique approach to the world around you. You see things with an intellectual and metaphysical eye, and express yourself well…. but just for a moment, lose some of the “facts” and see the “faith”.
Here’s THE question…. Did Jesus only die for some of us? Did His death on the cross provide not only salvation, but total healing for all of us? Did He just “sort of” heal the blind man? The woman with an issue of blood? Lazarus? Why is the effectiveness of His healing different for us today? It’s not.
If He died for all of us, then why do some still go to hell? Is it that He desired for them to fall into eternal damnation, or did they choose that themselves through ignorance? Scripture tells us that the will of God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. Where is there room in that desire of God for any to go to hell? But some (many) still do.
So…. if we apply that same “lack of desire” in men’s hearts to the healing question, it’s not hard to see why we don’t see healing and more miracles around us. Extrapolate that across the world, and most of mankind becomes tainted in its thinking, justifying it by the lack of results we see around us. I referred to that in my first comment on this page. We shouldn’t let ourselves become poisoned by an unbelieving world. We should meet Jesus where He is, not where the world says He is. Not where your eyes of the world see Him, but where your Spirit sees Him.
At some level, there is the perfect will of Christ available to each and every human. I’m not there yet either, but I’m aware that the “world” is so tainted that it provides constant resistence to my “total healing”. But I continue to believe that Jesus DID take it all, and that we CAN have total healing. Nothing in God’s perfect will and accomplishment is partial, or incomplete.
brian
Ed Wood
Response to Brian P.
Thanks for sharing your point of view with me. I’m okay with someone disagreeing with me, especially in the very courteous manner in which you did.
I go back to my original statement in that I have seen people that I considered a lot more faithful and righteous than myself get sick and not get healed. Though Jesus did atone for sin once for all on the cross 2000 years ago, the effects of sin on our Earth are still with us. This is why we still have wars, disease, injustice . . . and the list goes on. God’s ultimate plan for us is not yet complete or else we would now be living on a new Earth residing in a New Heaven.
I may be misunderstanding you, but if your premise is that the reason someone does not get healed is because they have insufficient faith, then I do disagree. Bad things happen to evil and good people alike, a principle that Jesus alluded to in Luke 13:1-5.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
RJ
I was pondering about this in my heart & trying to think of a diplomatic way to “weigh” my words carefully. And actually, I must go with Ed Wood, albert s and Ethel on this one. Do I *BELIEVE* the Lord CAN heal?? YES, ABSOLUTELY!!!!! In fact, I just rec’d a miraculous healing last weekend ~ something that a “medical specialist” told me to “go home and live with”. And yet, the Lord directed my steps a different direction and healed me!!
However, does EVERY Christian get healing every time? albert s pointed out the very ones who came to my mind as well ~ and yes, these were recorded in the NEW Testament. Bottom line is, if all Christians were healed all the time, there wouldn’t be a single death. Nobody dies from being “too healthy”.
For those who are going to want to point fingers and accuse, “oh ye of little faith” ~ may I remind you that even some of the very preachers who teach this ~ they themselves DIE!! Was *their* faith too small? What’s up with that? When they point fingers at us & claim our faith isn’t enough; and yet THEY die & nobody says a word.
Now again, I do believe the Lord CAN heal. He has directed my healing more than once. For we were “fearfully and wonderfully” made (re: Ps 139) and hence, the ONE Who Created us certainly knows how to heal us. However, until we are actually IN our sin-free, disease-free, sickness-free GLORIFIED bodies ~ UNTIL THEN:
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish , yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 2 Cor 4:16 and NLT puts 2 Cor 4:16 this way: That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
We should live our lives to glorify God whether He gives us healing or not in these bodies; and keep watching! We so look forward to being in those promised glorified bodies! Praise Him for that! Amen!
Robert
Robert’s back hips hurt, I am 82 yrs old, I thank GOD he is letting me get around and do
some things, that a lot of people my age could not do. I have see or heard of GOOD Preashers
dying with Cancer around 60 years old. David only lived to be 70. The truth is his system was
failing him, He was a man after GOD’S own heart. I look foreward to a new body, no more death
sickness or disease, Yes I still have a sinful nature, My thoughts are not perfect.
Yours are not either!!
GOD bless you pastor
I like your Commentary
Robert
Joseph Chambers
TO MY WONDERFUL FRIENDS WHO DO NOT BELIEVE THAT GOD IS PLEASED AND CHRIST HAS EARNED HEALING FOR ALL!!!!!!!!!!!
Many people are Calvinist when it comes to Divine Healing. The Calvinist believe in Limited Atonement and many Christians believe in Liminted Healing. God is no respector of persons, end of arguement!!!.
Pastor Chambers
Brian P
Response again to Ed Wood,
I agree with all you say, in that it is scriptural, and there are many cases where people still suffer. I realize that what I’m struggling with is that “we are already seated in high places in Christ Jesus”; The Holy Spirit has already placed an “earnest deposit” on our souls and spirits; we know that Jesus has FULL authority in heaven and on earth, even though this is satan’s realm for the time being, Jesus was able and willing to heal all that came to Him.
Technically speaking, we are already fully healed. Outside of this “time space continuum” we are already in glory with Him. Just because magnetism and gravity “relativity” are bending time in this physical plane, doesn’t separate us from the truth, nor His love, nor anything He has already accomplished in us. That redeemed self that we will be raised to is “technically” already a part of us, for it is promised to us, if not present at some level already.
We have already been completely cleansed, and the attacks against us come from satan who is a liar, therefore all our difficulties are products of satans lies. Jesus can use our tribulations as glory to him, he can use them as stepping stones in our faith, but the hand of Jesus holds back all darkness as He sees fit.
The case of Job, satan was not able to touch Job without Jesus’ approval. The blind man was not blind because of generational sin, he was born that way so that glory could be brought to Jesus at the right moment.
So… again I wonder why there are sick people on this planet. It is not a case of Jesus can’t do it.
I guess I aspire to grow so close to the Lord that I have such a saturation of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in me that satan can’t stand it, and stays away.
Is it possible to be that “drenched” in holiness that the light of our Lord shines so thoroughly throughout our entire being that every cell of our bodies is permeated with the power of God? Even here, before we are fully glorified in the presence of Jesus?
Bottom line: If He accomplished the “It Is Finished” completeness to redeem the entire human race from the darkness of sin; takes full authority over all darkness until it is His footstool; opens the “book” that no one but the Lamb Of God was found worthy to open; accuses, tries, convicts and punishes satan for every single dark deed he was responsible for, etc, etc, … then where is there any lacking in His total accomplishment, and if we “hesitate not” and come boldly before the throne, then why would He give us anything less than the “good” that any father is capable of giving His son?
Is there a point at which sickness has no room in us because the Holy Spirit is so dominant in our lives that sickness simply can’t get in, much less, stay?
brian