Is Healing In The Atonement? (Part 1)

Let me start this topic with a couple of simple beliefs that I have: First, I believe God heals people, plain and simple. Second, I do not believe healing is in the atonement, but rather it is God’s design and desire to heal us prior to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

I think scripture reveals a lot about healing way before Jesus came to be the sacrifice for our sin. I will try to reveal God’s intentions and actions on healing first in the Old Testament, and then deal with what Jesus came to ultimately do on the cross. There are some things the bible reveals pretty clearly, and other things which must be revealed through observation and research. Healing is one topic that needs to be researched carefully in scripture. Otherwise we may end up believing in fairy tales or make believe, rather than solid biblical truth.

For instance, God designed the body to heal itself. If our bodies were not designed by God to self-heal then medicine and surgery would not work no matter how much we might try to use them. Pretty plain and simple, yet so many people overlook the facts before us about healing. We all know people get sick, or get some disease or even broken bones, yet the body can heal itself because we were designed by our creator to do so. The question is why do some people get well and others don’t?

Our body is extremely complex, and while we are designed to heal by God, when one part of our body is broken, say our kidneys or liver are damaged, they no longer provide the filters God intended to bring about healing. If our nervous system is damaged, say in a car accident, then the whole body suffers under the  strain of that damage. The parts of the body work as team to deliver health. Take one part out of the teamwork and the body suffers. In addition, it has been proven that when a person is depressed or worried the brain can’t devote it’s effort on telling the various parts of the body to produce healing. If we eat poorly, either because the right food is not available or we choose to eat the wrong things, the various parts of our body will suffer and healing is retarded or hindered. Most important, if we live in defiance or ignorance of how God said we should live we are not under his protection and blessing, so we are under a curse. The curse is living without God and open to all kinds of damage both spiritual and physical.

At this point I want to just mention that God provided an incentive to walking with him, rather than without him. Scripture says the rain falls on the just and the unjust because God cares for us even when we act stupidly. However, he has established cause-and-effect to incentivize our behavior toward good choices and away from bad choices. The sad truth is we often try to violate the spiritual and natural laws of sowing and reaping, and in spite of experiencing pain and suffering, we continue to rebel. Healing or brokenness is in that flow of life.

Matthew 5:44-45

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

When you read the book of Genesis you discover people lived for upwards of 900 years and more, and this was all before the flood of Noah’s time. Scripture implies that there were “Profound Healing Properties” in the generations leading up to the flood, but not after. Methuselah is often cited as the oldest man in history, at 969 years old. Sin has consequences, and the health and healing God designed into the human body often is hindered, either by our sin or someone else’s sin.

After the flood there seemed to be a progressive decline in the length of age. This didn’t happen quickly, but slowly, until the longevity of mankind was generally under 60 years. By the time Moses came on the scene he and a number of other people lived to 120, but afterwards man generally lived an average of 50+ years. In 1960, the earliest year the United Nations began keeping global data, the average person could expect to live 52.5 years.  Today, the average age is 72. In the UK, where records have been kept longer, this trend is even greater. In 1841, a baby girl was expected to live to just 42 years of age, a boy only 40. In 2016 a baby girl could expect to reach 83 and a boy 79, although it seems from all the medical advancement and meds being utilized people are living in upwards to 90+. The point is, humanity as a whole suffers from living without God’s added blessing and protection. Though science has learned to overcome different diseases and sickness, new ones are always cropping up to do us harm. In other words, we live in a broken world with broken chemistry in our chromosomes and DNA.

when people were first created by God they lived a very long time because of the regenerative properties in the human body. God designed the body to heal itself. The problem is mankind finds ways to corrupt the design of God through everything from contaminated water to pesticides in the food we eat. Still, God designed our body to heal itself, so the point is that healing is, and always has been, part of our design. Yet we seem to resist God’s help.

David learned that he was “Fearfully & Wonderfully” made by God. That knowledge helped him to respond to God more than most, although he had his shortcomings in obedience like so many of us do. He tried to stay close to God so that his health would be sustained as long as possible. He knew that his body, and everyone else’s, was complex and needed God’s extra blessing and protection.

Psalms 139:13-14

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

So the first truth we should acknowledge is that God wants us healed and has made a way for that to happen in our design and the make-up of our bodies. The second part is a little more complex, and requires studying scripture thoroughly without manipulating our conclusions to align with our hunger to believe in healing outside of God’s design. With that in mind, lets look at what God has said about healing in the Old Testament.

I want to start in the book of Exodus where God clearly speaks to the children of Israel through Moses and says that if they followed him diligently he, God, would not put the diseases on them. God is saying clearly that our behavior defines his actions toward us. I know that people in some “Healing Circles” of theology believe that God never makes anyone sick, and that it is all from Satan. Yet, in this passage alone God makes it is clear that there are times when he does bring sickness. This is very important to consider as we look at how long man lived then, and how short we now live. It appears that there must be a correlation between being in the will and blessing of God, and being out of relationship with God, when it comes to healing.

Exodus 15:26

And said, if you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.

Second, in this passage God says he healed people thousands of years before Jesus. In other words, he says he could allow disease to overtake us, or he could intervene to heal and restore us from the diseases we encounter. Israel experienced both God’s protection in Egypt and disease in the wilderness. This article is primarily about the question of if we need healing to be in the atonement of Christ, or if God already offered healing to his people. I believe God healed people prior to the coming of Jesus because God healed people long before the time of Christ. In fact, he challenged the people of God to believe in him for their personal healing.

King David said in the Psalms that we should “Not Forget” all of God’s benefits. That included extra divine healing. The problem is that we do the very thing David challenged us not to do: We forget “Who” God is and what are his intentions towards us. We consequently create new theology to justify why we are not experiencing what God promised in the first place. The question is: are we following hard after him, or expecting him to heal us even when we fail to live as he requires?

Psalms 103:2-4

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion.

The benefits David mentioned were healing, forgiveness and redemption from poverty; and God crowns our lives with lovingkindness and compassion. Is it possible we, like so many, want some miracle scripture for our healing when God wants so much more with us in a relationship that transforms us? David goes on to say in Psalm 147 that God heals the broken hearted, meaning that God was our source of healing from emotional pain and brokenness, as well as our physical bodies, before Jesus was born.

Psalms 147:3

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Let me close this first article on healing by saying that it’s easy to believe a sermon or teaching about healing, and be told to just “Confess” that you are healed, when we all know the majority of people who claim these things are not healed as promised. The evidence speaks, yet so many don’t listen. I want to know what scripture teaches and not get fooled by some make-believe confession. I will continue on this topic of healing, and what the Scripture says and doesn’t say, in Part 2.

Questions:

1) Have you done your own study on the subject of healing, or have you just embraced what others have taught you? Many believers have been taught the same ideas about healing, but so few seem to manifest real, verified, healing themselves.

2) Are you aware just how wonderful God created the human body to heal itself? If we learn these wonderful truths it should motivate us to be more grateful. Then, maybe, God would be more inclined to heal us supernaturally more often.

Studying God’s word to grow in his grace and mercy,

Pastor Dale