Misuse of Scripture on Healing
“It seems to me that God holds out as a genuine possibility that the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit can work in us so completely that we are brought in increasing measure into wholeness whether spiritually, in the realm of our soul or in relation to our physical body. Romans 8:11 makes it clear that he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you. . . . As our individual faith grows, and as the faith of Christ’s church locally and worldwide grows, so we are more likely to see these manifestations of God’s glorious and full salvation.”i
Staggering statements such as this are surely based on wishful thinking, not on genuine experience or from expounding carefully the true meaning of Scripture.
Romans chapter eight is a great chapter on assurance. Paul is reminding Christians that whatever life throws at us we are secure in Christ and we have a glorious future with him in heaven. When he says that we are ‘set free from the law of sin and death’ (Romans 8:2), he is not saying that we need not die or suffer when we are Christians. Just the opposite, we will suffer but gloriously that is not the end. We live within a tension, we still have evil desires within us but Christians are not controlled by these (Romans 8:9). Let us look at the passage quoted above,
“But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Romans 8:10
Our bodies will die because of senility and pathology and accident. Christians will suffer from these because we share a fallen world. However our spirits will live on and eventually will be clothed with a new body, a heavenly one.
“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, through his Spirit who lives in you. “ Romans 8:11
Paul is saying that we have mortal bodies, we will die, but, like Christ, we will rise again. A little later in the same chapter he emphasises that we will suffer in this life.
“I consider that the present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18
He continues to stress that this life will not be easy. Christians have a hope they look forwards to in the future, but it will not be experienced here.
“ . . .we ourselves, , who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
I will never forget a teaching ward round I was conducting. We came to the bed of an elderly lady who had disseminated bowel cancer and was in for terminal care. I held her hand and she looked me in the face.
“Mr. Palmer, when am I going home?”
She clearly could not cope on her own so I tried to make this point.
“Alice, I don’t think you will be able to cope at home, do you?”
At this she gave me a deep smile and said,
“No, I don’t mean that. I mean when am I going home to be with my Saviour, the Lord Jesus.”
Romans eight is not teaching that God is going to heal us now, just the opposite. But the great assurance is that like Christ, who died and rose again, we who belong to him have nothing to fear. He writes,
“As it is written, ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep for the slaughter.’ No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death not life . . . nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:36-39
Of course God is a healer. We recover from most illnesses and injuries we develop. In the next life we will not have the illnesses or handicaps we endure now, all will be made new. The only question is when this healing will occur. Evidence shows that physical healing does not occur in the ‘healing campaigns’ of so-called Christian preachers. It is therefore wrong to suggest that people will be physically healed at such events. Such missions may be attempts to help people have faith in Christ but the methods are wrong. Dishonesty is never the way to promote faith in Christ. Paul wrote,
“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 2 Corinthians 4:1-2
BVP
i Tony Dale ‘Seeing God at Work in the Physical’ in ‘Signs, Wonders and Healing’ Ed John Goldingay IVP 1989 p61
