God's Will To Heal

BIBLE PROOF THAT IT IS ALWAYS GOD'S WILL TO HEAL

There are many reasons we can give from Scripture to prove that bodily healing is always the will of God for all men in every age. The following proofs are a few that are backed by many Scriptures to prove it is always God's will to heal:

(1) Healing is in the atonement and therefore must be the will of God for all men for whom the atonement was made. That healing is in the atonement is plainly stated in a number of Scriptures. The literal rendering of Isa.53:3-5 reads, "He was despised, and forsaken of men; a man of pains, and acquainted with sickness: . . . Surely he hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our pains: yet we did esteem him violently beaten, slain of God, and degraded. But he was slain for our crimes, he was beat to pieces for our guilt; . . . and with his wounds we are healed. . . Yet it pleased Jehovah to beat him to pieces; he hath made him sick: when thou shalt make his soul and offering for sin." This plainly pictures Christ as bearing the sins and sicknesses of all men in His own body on the cross.

To prove that Isaiah did mean healing of the body instead of only forgiveness of sins we have the statement of Matt. 8:16-17 saying, "He cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." Peter also taught that Christ took our sicknesses on the cross: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: BY WHOSE STRIPES YE WERE HEALED" (1 Peter 2:24). Paul taught the same truth when he stated that many of the Corinthians were sick and many had died because they had failed to get healing for the body by rightly discerning the Lord's broken body (1 Cor. 11:29-30).

To say that Matt. 8:17 was fulfilled before the atonement was made on the cross, and therefore, it was not fulfilled on the cross, does not prove that healing is not in the atonement. On the same basis we could prove that Christ did not atone for sin on the cross because He also forgave sins before the cross. But 1 Peter 2:24 settles this question by showing that both sins and sicknesses were atoned for by Christ in His sufferings. Also, since Isa.53 pictures Christ's sufferings on the cross, it proves that both sins and sicknesses were borne by Him at that time. Christ forgave sins and healed before the cross in view of His coming atonement for both.

(2) God would not have healed people in both Testaments if it had not been His will to heal all who come in faith to him. God is no respecter of persons (Rom.2:11), and He has told us if anyone has a respect of persons he has sinned (James 2:9). This proves that God will heal all alike if He has ever healed anyone. Everyone can be healed the same way that others have been healed and they have the same right to such healing as all others have had, for it is God's promise to provide for all alike and be good to all alike (Ps. 84:11; Matt. 7:7-11). This is why Jesus died (Matt. 8:16-17; 1 Peter 2:24; Rom.8:32).

(3) God would not have made plain His will concerning healing, if it were not His will to always heal those who meet His conditions of healing (Matt. 8:17; James 5:14-16; 1 Peter 2:24; 3 John 2).

(4) God would have been the originator of sin and sickness, if it had been His will for such to continue in the human race (Rev. 21:3-7).

(5) He would not have healed even one person in any age and He would not have provided for and freely promised healing at all if He were responsible for sickness (John 10:10).

(6) It was God's will that man should be healthy and sinless forever when He created him, and that is still His highest will (Gen. 2:17; 3 John 2).

(7) Jesus Christ proved it to be God's will to heal all the sick when He actually healed all that were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38).

(8) The universal will of God was made clear when the early church was given power to carry on the work Jesus "began both to do and to teach" (Acts 1:1-8;Mark 16:15-20; John 14:12-15).

(9) The fact that sickness is the work of the devil proves that God wills to get rid of it in His children (1 John 3:8; John 10:10).