Healing

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Is Healing Included in the Atonement?
By Patricia Backora, author of the book
Tough Love in Christ's Millennium
Which you can order online from: http://www.publishamerica.com

Most of us Christians know of at least one sincere believer who has gone to miracle services to receive their healing, only to leave in the same condition. Yet these saints knew deep in their hearts that they did indeed have faith that God could heal them. Why some believers must wait until heaven to finally be freed of their sufferings is a deep mystery to me. Only in heaven will we know the answer.

For that reason and because of widespread abuses of the doctrine of divine healing, it is all too easy to throw the baby out with the bath water and dispense with this issue altogether. But God does heal today. When my husband got sick recently, I mustered all the prayer support I could. And God heard those precious prayers. He intervened to heal a serious infection which hung Tom's life in the balance. The Lord showed me it could have gone either way, but He was not done with my husband yet and had much more for him to do down here. I am thankful to say that there has been steady progress in Tom's condition, and a man who could not even stand to look at the fine cuisine served him for a month at the hospital is now eating normally.

Many years ago we knew a dear lady who received an instantaneous miracle of healing, after being prayed over by the pastor. She was able to remove her leg brace and run around the church. She testified that she felt "like she was walking on a feather bed". Her childlike trust in the Lord helped her touch the Lord Jesus for a miracle. Sometimes in His sovereignty God chooses to heal gradually, even with the help of skilled doctors and earthly medicine. Other times the work He does in a person's sick body can transcend the laws of nature in a marvellous way.

Today there is much controversy as the whether physical healing is even included in the Atonement Jesus won for us at the Cross. More often than not, a person who prays for salvation of the soul will immediately feel evidence of being saved, in that he feels the heavy weight of guilt lifted from his heart and feels clean inside and at peace with God. But many times, a person in a wheelchair who receives prayer for healing will leave in that wheelchair wondering why. Only God knows. I read that even Kathryn Kuhlman had to finally admit that not all who came to her meetings seeking healing were healed. That was no reflection on her faith or on the faith of those who earnestly sought this blessing.

Time and again I've heard that people in third-world countries find it much easier to receive miracles from the Lord than those living in modern Western societies. The "modern brain", as I've heard it called, always finds it much easier to believe in invisible blessings like salvation of the soul than physical miracles which can be seen or felt. But we must get past the analytical objections of our brainwashed brain to cultivate genuine faith deep down in our spirit, the central part of our being where God the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the believer. That is the seat of true faith, not the brain. And contrary to one popular modern heresy, faith is not a force to be used independently of God like Luke Skywalker's light saber. True faith is a living, vital confidence that what God has promised, He is well able to perform (Hebrews 11:11). It is oh, so easy to just "spiritualize away" the supernatural side of God's promises so there will be no conflict between what you're praying for and the evidence your eyes are seeing (or not seeing). But regardless of hearsay or people's skepticism regarding the supernatural, ultimately we must base our beliefs on what the Word of God clearly teaches. Is there any evidence whatsoever that healing of the body is included in the Atonement? And is healing part of the Great Commission Jesus gave the disciples before He ascended to heaven?


In Matthew 10: 7-8 Jesus gave the twelve disciples their marching orders: And as ye go, preach, saying, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Luke 9:1-2 says: Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. Now, if some assert, our corruptible human body isn't all that important because it's going to die someday anyway, why did Jesus bother to include healing in His Great Commission to the disciples?

Some insist that's just it…the commission of healing the sick was given ONLY to the original Twelve. But turn over to Mark 16:17-18, to some of the last words Jesus spoke before His Ascension to heaven. He said: And these signs shall follow THEM THAT BELIEVE (that includes every believer): In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

I understand the word "recover" to mean that healing can be either instantaneous or a gradual recovery, as in the case of my husband. I would love it if Tom were immediately delivered of all his pain and infirmity, and every evidence of his long-ago injury completely removed. But I am thankful for God's sparing his life and for the progress I've seen in the past few weeks.

Nowhere does Jesus say that we are to go on preaching repentance from sin to people but cut out the part of the Great Commission which obviously involves the miraculous and the supernatural. As Kathryn Kuhlman said, the salvation of a soul IS the greatest miracle possible. And salvation is a miracle performed in the quiet sanctuary of a person's heart. Yet the outward signs and wonders of the early Church also came through the preaching of the Kingdom of God.

Isaiah 53:5 proclaims: With His stripes we are healed. Many say this refers only to spiritual healing. This begs a question: What can we receive from God as believers which was not included in the Atonement? As former sinners, we were all worthy only of God's judgment and we were all sitting on death row waiting to go to hell when we died. What favors could we have expected from God if Jesus hadn't come to offer up Himself in our place on the Cross of Calvary? What if God, as the One sinned against by Adam, had not chosen to reconcile to the world through Christ, and God knew the whole world was going to hell unredeemed? Would He ever have seen fit to heal anybody's body or even to allow the world to go on existing without hope of the Atonement?

I believe that God protects me and provides for me because He has redeemed my life from destruction (Psalms 103:4). And if that is so, Who IS my Redeemer, but Christ? And how did He redeem me, except by going to the Cross of Calvary and redeeming me from the power and penalty of sin? Psalms Chapter 103 extols the benefits received from God. Verse 3 says: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases. Notice, in the same breath that the Psalmist praises God for forgiving all his iniquities, he praises the Lord for healing all his diseases. No Biblically sound believer would ever say that God has gone out of the sin-forgiving business because it's "done away". But why do so many question the second part of that verse which praises the Lord for being a healer? If forgiveness of the Psalmist's sin is included in the Atonement, why wouldn't his healing be included in it too?
In Matthew 8: 1-4 Jesus meets a leper who says: "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."

Verse 3: And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying: I will, be thou clean. And immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. Notice, Jesus didn't get on the leper's case for saying "If it be thy will". Some faith teachers will warn you don't ever say "If it be thy will" when you pray. That's a no-no, and a quick way to kill your own faith seed. But as badly as the leper wanted his healing, he bowed to God's sovereignty in the situation, and Jesus was willing to make the man whole.
Verse 4: And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

If healing is NOT included in the Atonement, and has no place in our faith and practice, then why did Jesus command the leper to go to the priest and show that he was healed, and to offer the special sacrifice which God commanded healed lepers to offer up in Leviticus Chapter 14:1-32? Temple rituals had everything to do with the issue of making atonement for fallen human beings. And as for the leper Jesus healed, it wasn't a quick in-and-out, popping into the priest's office to announce his healing from leprosy. It was a complicated business which went on for a solid week. As well as undergoing ritual shavings and washings, the healed leper had the priest offer up a mixture of flour and oil on his behalf. Flour speaks of beaten grain, typified by Jesus, the Bread of Life, Who suffered scourging before going to the Cross. Oil speaks of the unction of the Holy Ghost. Two birds and two lambs had to be sacrificed. One of the lambs, is mentioned in verse 12 as a trespass offering. Verse 19 mentions the sin offering which makes atonement for the healed leper before the Lord. Jesus is the Lamb of God Who makes atonement for us, in sickness and in health. He was offered up for all our sins and trespasses. Jesus is the Fulfillment of all the Old Testament Tabernacle rituals and Sacrifices, including the ritual for the healing of leprosy.

Isaiah 33:24 speaks of the inhabitants of God's Promised Land during the Millennium: And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. A connection is made here between sin and sickness.
Had Adam and Eve not sinned, no sickness would exist in the world today. This earth would be a paradise. The imperfection of the human body, like sin, is an inherited condition. Sometimes sin does lead to sickness as John 5:14 indicates. Jesus tells a man he has just healed to "sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee".

In Mark: 1-12 friends of a crippled man let him into a crowded house through a hole in the roof so he can get to Jesus to be healed. But the first thing Jesus says is: "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." Critics scoffed at Jesus for claiming to be qualified to forgive any man's sins. But Jesus asks them whether it is easier to pronounce forgiveness on someone or to heal them. Jesus does both for the crippled man.

However, Jesus doesn't always attribute illness to personal sin. Jesus says in John 9:1-3 when questioned by his disciples whether one man's blindness is the result of personal or parental sin: Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. While all sickness results from the sin and fall of Adam, not all sickness is a direct penalty for personal sin. Yet the very fact we are all descended from sinful Adam makes us all need a Redeemer to save us from sin and its consequences. Even believers who don't attain to robust health here in this world are ultimately healed in heaven.

In Exodus 15:26 God promises the Israelites that if they remain faithful to walk in His ways, He will put none of the diseases upon them which He put upon the Egyptians. God calls Himself: I am the Lord that healeth thee.

Meditating on these passages helps convince me that healing of every type, whether physical or spiritual, is indeed included in the Atonement. The Old Covenant was an inferior covenant, partly because the Israelites could not fullfill their part of it by abiding in sinless perfection. We are all imperfect in and of ourselves and we dare not lean upon our own righteousness. Through the power of Christ we can be accounted as faithful and righteous and our all-sufficiency is of Him. He is all our righteousness. The Israelites turned away from God many times and fell under the curses of their broken Covenant, which included sicknesses and afflictions listed in Deuteronomy Chapter 28. If we abide in Christ with a humble and repentant heart, looking only unto Him and the sufficiency of His Blood Sacrifice, we need not fall under such judgment for sin. As we repent of our stumblings anf failings God will still be the Lord Who heals us.

I have wrestled harder with this question of miraculous healing than with any other issue, but if God claims to be our Healer, we dare not make Him any less than what He truly is. God in Christ is our Redeemer from sin. He is our Provider. He is our Baptizer in the Holy Ghost. Instead of relying on us to perform perfectly, Christ Himself is the guarantor of this New and better Covenant (Hebrews 7:22). And in every way this New Covenant is superior to the Old. At what point during this 2000-year Church Age did God ever say that while He would continue to provide our daily needs and save our souls, He no longer wanted to be our Healer?

I do not subscribe to the Personal Messenger service. I can be contacted at:

[email protected] http://www.kingdomageministry.com

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