The next few blog possts will be my notes from our Wedensday night series, "Christ the Healer." I thought some of you may want these notes and also it is good for review and building your faith in the goodness of God. Be blessed!
Does Jesus’ Atonement Include Healing?
Before giving a biblical answer to the question, Does Jesus’ atonement include healing? I invite your attention to a few facts taught in the Scriptures that pertain to this subject. The Scriptures declare, in Romans 5:12, that “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (emphasis added). Here it is plainly stated that death entered the world through sin. Therefore, it is clear that disease, which is incipient death, entered into the world by sin. Now, since disease entered by sin, its true remedy must be found in the redemption of Christ. Since disease reached us through the power of Satan—and the Scriptures call disease the oppression of the Devil (Acts 10:38).
Through Christ’s redemption, we may all have, as a part of the “earnest guarantee,” nkjv] of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:14), the “life also of Jesus…manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11) to supplement nature until our work is finished. In the same way that we may receive the “firstfruits” (Rom. 8:23) of our spiritual salvation, we can receive the “firstfruits” of our physical salvation.
Think about this. Even in the Old Covenant people were healed. They, in an Old Covenant had the privilege of being healed, surely in this “better” dispensation, with a “better covenant” and “better promises” (Heb. 8:6), God has not withdrawn this Old Testament mercy from us, If so we are robbed that much by the coming and atonement of Christ and it is not really better?
In Numbers 16:46–50, after 14,700 of the Israelites had died of the plague, Aaron, as priest, in his mediatorial office, stood for the people between the dead and the living and made an atonement for the removal of the plague—the healing of the body. In the same way, Christ, our Mediator, by His atonement, redeemed us from the “plague” of sin and sickness.
The Brazen Serpent
In Numbers 21:9, we read of the Israelites all being healed by looking at the bronze serpent, which was lifted up as a type of the Atonement (John 3:14). If healing was not to be in the Atonement, why were these dying Israelites required to look at the type of the Atonement for bodily healing? Since both healing and forgiveness came through the type of the Atonement, why not to us through Christ, the Antitype? As their curse was removed by the lifting up of the bronze serpent, so Paul told us that ours is removed by the lifting up of Christ (Gal. 3:13).
Psalm 103
David opened Psalm 103 by calling upon his soul to bless the Lord and to “forget not all his benefits” (v. 2); and then he specified, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases” (v. 3). How does God forgive sin? Of course, through the atonement of Christ. He heals disease in the same way, because the atonement of Jesus Christ is the only ground for any benefit to fallen man.
7 Redemptive Names of God
To me, another unanswerable argument that healing is in the Atonement is to be found in the seven redemptive names of Jehovah.
Jehovah is distinctly the redemption name of Deity, and means “the self-existent One” who reveals Himself. These seven redemptive names point to a continuous and increasing self-revelation. In His redemptive relation to man, Jehovah has seven compound names which reveal Him as meeting every need of man from his lost state to the end. Since it is His redemptive relationship to us that these names reveal, they must each point to Calvary
where we were redeemed, and the blessing that each name reveals must be provided by the Atonement. This the Scriptures clearly teach.
The following are the seven redemptive names:
Jehovah-shammah, “The Lord is there” (Ezek. 48:35), or present, reveals to us the redemptive privilege of enjoying the presence of the One who says, “Lo, I am with you alway” (Matt. 28:20). That this blessing is provided by the Atonement is proven by the fact that we “are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13, emphasis added).
Jehovah-shalom, “The Lord Our Peace,” reveals to us the redemptive privilege of having His peace. Accordingly, Jesus says, “My peace I give unto you” (John 14:27). This blessing is in the Atonement, because “the chastisement of our peace was upon him” (Isa. 53:5) when He “made peace through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20).
Jehovah-ra-ah is translated “The Lord is my shepherd” (Ps. 23:1). He became our Shepherd by giving “his life for the sheep” (John 10:11); therefore, this privilege is a redemptive privilege, purchased by the Atonement.
Jehovah-jireh means “The Lord Will Provide” an offering (see Genesis 22:8), and Christ was the Offering provided for our complete redemption.
Jehovah-nissi means “the Lord is our Banner” or “Victor” or “Captain.” It was when, by the Cross, Christ triumphed over principalities and powers (Col. 2:15) that He provided for us, through the Atonement, the redemptive privilege of saying, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).
Jehovah-tsidkenu is translated “The Lord Our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:6). He became our righteousness by bearing our sins on the cross; therefore, our redemptive privilege of receiving “the gift of righteousness” (Rom. 5:17) is an Atonement blessing.
Jehovah-rapha is translated “I am the Lord your Physician” or “I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exod. 15:26). This name is given to reveal to us our redemptive privilege of being healed. This privilege is purchased by the Atonement, for Isaiah, in the Redemption Chapter, declared, “Surely he hath borne our griefs [or sicknesses], and carried our sorrows [or pains]” (Isa. 53:4).
For the sake of the argument, I have reserved Jehovah-rapha for the last. The fact is that the very first covenant God gave after the crossing of the Red Sea—which was so distinctively typical of our redemption—was the covenant of healing; and it was at this time that God revealed Himself as our Physician, by the first redemptive and covenant name, Jehovah-rapha, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.”
Since Jehovah-rapha is one of His redemptive names, sealing the covenant of healing, Christ, during His exaltation, could no more abandon His office of Healer than the other offices revealed by each of His other six redemptive names. Have any of the blessings that His redemptive names reveal been withdrawn from this “better” dispensation? (See Hebrews 8:6.) All of the redemptive names of God in the Old Testament find their fulfillment in the person of Jesus the Christ in the New Testament. Jesus is :
Present
Peace
Shepherd
Provider
Victor
Rightousness
Healer, great physician
In the same way that Jesus died to set you free from sin, He also died to set you free from sickness. In the same way that Christ does not lead you into sin, neither does He bring you infirmity or disease. God is not the author of the sickness that comes against you, that is not His job description (see John 10:10) and as James declares, "He tempts/tries no man with evil".
In Acts 10, Peter was preaching the Gospel to Cornelius and his household. He summarized the life and ministry of Jesus, saying:
" God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." Acts 10:38
Notice that the Word says that when Jesus went about healing people it was good. Some churches today think that people who pray for others and claim that they’re healed are of the devil. That’s contrary to what the Word of God says here in this verse. When Jesus healed the sick, the Bible declares that it was good and it brought glory to God.
As we begin to lay a foundation for Christ the Healer, my hope is this will encouarge yo and build your faith to believe God for big things, especially things that are provided in the Atonement.
Comments