This is part 2 of the Series about physical healing. Part 1 addressed Christ's earthly ministry and explained that Christ did not always link healing with faith.
In this part we will address the false word-of-faith doctrine which teaches that Christ's defeat of sickness on the cross assures all Christians that they can and should be completely healed here on earth.
Did Christ's death bring Christians complete healing?
✅ Without a doubt, Scripture teaches that Christ’s death defeated sin, Satan, sickness, and death.
✔ Isaiah 53:5 says, “By His stripes we are healed.” past tense
✔ Colossians 2:15 says that Jesus "disarmed the powers and authorities" and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." past tense
✔ Hebrews 2:14 says Jesus broke "the power of the devil, who had the power of death." past tense
✔ 2 Timothy 1:10 says Jesus "has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." past tense
✅ However, Scripture makes it clear that this victory will not be fully realized here on earth.
✔ John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Even before His redemption was completed, Christ assured His followers that He had overcome the world (past tense) but He said they would still have trouble in the world (present tense). How could this be? See these other Scriptures that further explain this truth:
✔Romans 8:19-23: For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
✔ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Our physical world and our bodies have been subject to disease, death, and decay since the Fall of mankind. We have faith in the unseen reality that in heaven all things will be perfect, sinless, healthy, and whole.
✔ Hebrews 2:6-8: “'What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.' In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.”
We will experience perfection in all areas in eternity, but not here on earth. If fact, we will not fully understand our Lord or our salvation until we see Jesus face to face 1 Corinthians 13:12.
✅ If word of faith people believe these promises are present tense, then they must also believe that Satan and physical death are completely destroyed.
If Christ's victory on the cross is fully realized in our present life then the power of Satan is fully broken. But Scripture refutes those beliefs. The passage below is one of many passages that tells us we still contend with Satan on earth even though He was completely defeated in Christ's death and resurrection.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10: "Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
You might also like to read this 1-minute devotion: Misunderstandings About the Stripes of Jesus.
In Part 1, we discovered that Christ's healing ministry was multi-faceted. He did not teach that everyone with faith can be healed here on earth. In this devotion, we discovered that Scripture speaks in past tense about Christ's victory over sin, sickness, Satan, and death, but that victory is a legal one, not fully experienced here on earth. In Part 3 we will address the "promise" of healing found in James 5:13-18. In Part 4, we'll discuss why some faithful people are not healed.
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