Understanding Healing and the Atonement

Qn. Is it always God's will that His people be physically healed of all sicknesses in the present?

First, a bit of historical theology is, therefore, pertinent to make it clear what is affirmed and rejected by us. In the late-nineteenth century, starting with preachers of the Holiness movement like A.B. Simpson, and then adopted by Pentecostal leaders of the early-twentieth century like Smith Wigglesworth, there came what is known as the doctrine of “healing in the atonement”. This doctrine states that physical healing was purchased by Christ at the cross in the exact same manner, and with the exact same scope, as the forgiveness of sins. They argue that when Christ died on the Cross, He paid for our sins to redeem our souls and carried our sicknesses to heal our bodies. In other words, there was a unique provision for physical healing that Christ purposefully accomplished on the Cross. The practical implication then is that physical healing, exactly like forgiveness of sins, is a purchased legal right of every believer in Christ. Therefore, according to this view, if you are a believer, as forgiveness of sins is a guaranteed present reality, physical healing should also be a guaranteed present reality, and not something to be postponed to the future experience of glorification. It’s this doctrine that Charismatic charlatans use on TV to assert things like, “Healing is as easy as forgiveness; just claim it by faith,” or imply the notion that if you are a believer and not healed, the blame should be on your lack of faith. Because in their mind, Christ died for our sicknesses exactly as He died for our sins.

The textual basis for all this assertion is always Isaiah 53:5 - “By His stripes, we are healed.” Without any careful examination of the context, these preachers take "healed" in this verse to always mean physical healing and assert that the wounds Christ endured on the Cross were intentionally for the purpose of purchasing our physical healing. However, even a cursory reading of Isaiah 53:5 and its wider context, or how Peter quotes it in 1 Peter 2:24, will reveal how these verses are only teaching about how the Cross makes way for our healing from sin.

So what about physical healing that Jesus and the apostles performed in their ministry? Yes, the Bible does record them, and all those healings, in an ultimate sense, are made possible only by Jesus' work on the cross precisely because He dealt with the root issue of sin through His crucifixion. None of these healings, in and of themselves, prove that Jesus did something uniquely for the provision of physical healing while He was on the cross. Yes, He died for our sins — especially Adam's sin, which is the root problem behind all sicknesses — thus making healing possible. However, it does not prove that Jesus specifically carried our sicknesses on the cross and has made healing guaranteed for all His people.

But what about Matthew 8:16-17, where he quotes Isaiah 53:4 in the context of Jesus’ healing ministry? Indeed, Matthew does quote Isaiah to let his readers identify Jesus as the suffering servant prophesied by Isaiah. Matthew wants his readers to know that precisely because Jesus can deal with the consequences of sin, namely sickness, He is indeed the one prophesied by Isaiah who takes away our sins. Now, what does Isaiah 53:4 actually mean? Matthew does a good job of translating it from Hebrew, as the words used by Isaiah that are often translated in our English as “griefs” and “sorrows” should better be translated as sickness and pain or, as Matthew does, illness and disease. Now the question is: what does Isaiah 53:4 say that Jesus did to our sickness and pain? The verbs, both in the Hebrew of Isaiah (נָשָׂא, to take/carry away, and סָבַל, to carry) and the Greek of Matthew (λαμβάνω, to take, and βαστάζω, to bear away), suggest a sense of carrying away. In other words, He removes our sicknesses, both the illness and the pain, as a Healer, but He does not suffer it as a Substitute, as in the case of our guilt. So unlike the Pentecostal doctrine, Jesus did not carry our sicknesses on the cross in the exact sense as He did our sins. The former He removes by His power to heal; the latter He bears as a substitute and dies under its curse to conquer it. So, yes, Jesus is the Healer who can remove all our sickness and pain. And one day He will surely remove it all when we are glorified.

But the crucial question is, does He always remove all our sicknesses in the meantime? Unlike forgiveness of sins, which was the express purpose of the crucifixion, there is no guarantee that all believers will be physically healed simply because they are in Christ. Even in Scripture we see examples of early-church believers getting sick and not getting healed miraculously. Paul let Trophimus be sick at Miletus rather than performing an instant healing miracle for him (2 Tim. 4:20). Paul also told Timothy to take some wine as he had stomach issues and “frequent ailments” (1 Tim.5:23). Unlike today's TV preachers, Paul does not “decree” any miracle or mail an anointed kerchief of his for Timothy’s instant healing. Paul himself says he had a bodily illness which caused him to preach the gospel in Galatia (Gal. 4:13), and it’s probably something to do with his eyes (Gal. 4:15). It’s probably this same sickness that Paul called a thorn in his flesh, which, when he prayed, the Lord answered by His will to not remove it, but to only increase His grace. Paul's reply is one of joy, not disappointment: “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me” (2 Cor. 12:9). The interesting thing here is the word translated as weakness is the same Greek word we find translated in Matthew 8:17 as infirmity or illness (ἀσθένεια). Thus, healing being possible in Christ does not necessarily mean, as some Pentecostals and Charismatics have asserted, a contractual guarantee for all believers in the present. We need to understand that the nature of the atonement is such that it does not guarantee the immediate application of everything it made possible. If it were so, believers would be physically immortal the moment they are saved

Even in the lives of Pentecostal healers, there was no universal healing experience. Take the case of Smith Wigglesworth alone. He himself suffered severe kidney stones, sciatica, and a stroke, all of which included him not experiencing any miraculous healing. Despite his many prayers, his daughter Alice Salter remained deaf all her life. His son, George, died prematurely because of Wigglesworth's foolish insistence that no medical assistance should be sought by believers because it is an insult to Christ. Unfortunately, neither did any miraculous healing come to young George as guaranteed by the doctrine of Wigglesworth.

Had the Pentecostal doctrine of healing in the atonement been right, every believer who sincerely believes in Christ should always be healed. But that is not the history or experience of God’s people, including that of the Pentecostals. It is true that Jesus has removed our guilt on the cross, and the moment we believe in Him, we can be set free from the guilt of our sins. It is also true that Jesus has the power to remove our sicknesses, which He will perfectly accomplish in our glorification. In the meantime, He has commanded us that we must pray to Him when we are sick (Jas. 5:14-16). In His sovereign mercy, He sometimes heals us, either miraculously through His Spirit or providentially using means like medicine. However, in some cases, He doesn’t heal us for a greater good. But to say this prayer for healing must always result in a miracle is not biblical.

None of this explanation is meant to weaken the faith of any who are sick and breed unbelief in them concerning their healing, but for all of us to have a realistic, God-centered faith which is yielded to His will. If you are sick, pray like Paul for the thorn to be gone, but also surrender and rejoice if the Lord says He won't remove it, but will rather give you His sufficient grace. For that’s how disciples of Jesus should be: by faith, earnestly expecting the supernatural deliverance of God, but all the while willing to endure any cross ordained by the Lord (Dan. 3:17-18). Amen.