BY GREG CRUM
“And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked: The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.” Acts 14:8-10
A cripple in the crowd, a preacher proclaiming the Good News, faith in what was being said…that was just the right formula for God to show up and demonstrate to man His desire for all those that have been oppressed by the fallout of sin. Paul continued the work of Christ that day in Lystra, and the whole town was stirred. This is what naturally occurs when people dare to believe and act upon the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Last week we wrote to you concerning the salvation that Jesus has made available to us. It’s the most precious of the “exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4) that have been freely given to us because of the death and resurrection of our Savior. I mean, how could it get any better than the forgiveness of sin that opens the doorway to a right relationship with God and eternal life, right? What if I told you that, in fact, it does get better? Not because of additional blessings that are greater (nothing is greater than having a relationship with the Lord), but greater in the sense that our salvation is much more. Believer, the Scriptures declare that when you got “saved,” you received more than just a future trip to Heaven. You received all that the word “saved,” or “sozo” in the Greek, conveys. Yes, you received forgiveness and that home in Heaven, but you also have been given life more abundantly here in the here and now. You’ve been given all the provision you would ever need to live well, and that includes the health and healing that you need to function effectively on this Earth.
Of course, that’s not what we routinely see in our day and age, is it? Most often we see Christians struggling to live well, battling and coping with a variety of injury, sickness, and disease. Why? The promise of health is right there in the Scriptures, and all through the Gospels and the Book of Acts we see people getting healed by God, yet this reality is far from the typical experience of most Christians today. Why is it that the revelation of the written Word doesn’t match the reality of the physical health of many Christians today?
Last week we began to address some of the reasonings we often hear to excuse away our lack of healing from the Lord in our time. First, we noted that some say it is because those of us who believe such things are misunderstanding or misapplying the Scriptures. They say that when the Bible speaks of health and healing, it is just talking about healing of the spirit or the soul. Well, if that’s the case, the early believers in Jesus didn’t get that memo. They witnessed the Lord healing people’s physical bodies, and they understood that those stripes that Jesus took were so we could live physically well. In Isaiah 53:5, I Peter 2:24 and Matthew 8:14-17, we read of the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of divine healing, and He reveals that the salvation that Jesus worked wasn’t just spiritual health; it was physical as well.
Secondly, some believe that physical healing from the Lord stopped being available once the last original Apostle died. These cessationists put too much stock in their experiences and in science and not enough in rightly dividing the Scriptures. Remember, our etymology lesson from the last article? That word translated “saved” in Romans 10:9 is the same word translated “healed” in Acts 14:9. How could they do that? Because our “sozo” includes both concepts.
Now, a third argument that some use to undermine what God has freely given us is to reason that Jesus healed because he was trying to prove he was God, or at least approved of God. Is that the case though? Matthew 14:14 gives us the reason our Lord healed the sick, and insight into why God still desires to heal the sick today—it was because he was moved with compassion. That’s right, Jesus healed because he loved those people, not to prove himself.
Question: Does God still love people today? Absolutely.
Then He is still motivated to heal people today as well.
Greg Crum is the pastor at Calvary Temple Church in Lovely.