Sickness and Healing in the Bible

Brethren,

The following are what I shared recently with my Vespers Sunday School group in this topic of biblical sickness and healing:

1. In the Bible, there are two(2) types of sickness, physical and spiritual. In Jesus’ healing ministry, He cured (“made whole”) a number a PHYSICAL illnesses or conditions – leprosy, fever, bleeding, blindness, deaf/mute, and so on – which the other physicians of His day were not able to. No less than the Gospel writer, Luke, who was himself a medical doctor, can attest to Jesus’ miraculous healings.

They were called “miraculous” by the friends and enemies alike of Jesus because there was NO NATURAL or EARTHLY explanation for them — except that these were the SIGNS of HIS MESSIAHSHIP: ” So He replied to the messenger, ‘Go back and report to John [the Baptist] what you have seen and heard: THE BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, THE LAME WALK, THOSE WHO HAVE SKIN DISEASES ARE CURED, THE DEAF HEAR, THE DEAD ARE RAISED, AND THE GOOD NEWS IS PREACHED TO THE POOR.’” (Luke 7:22, NIV; See also Isaiah 35:5; emphasis mine).

2. Yet Jesus did not only heal physically; He also healed SPIRITUALLY (“the good news is preached”- Lk 7:22b). The root word for “heal” [SODZOW, Gk.] is also the root word for “SAVE” [also, SOTER, Latin, "to save"]. In other words, when Jesus/God is healing us through our prayers, He is also SAVING us from our sins. Consider this: “And by His wounds we are healed” (Is.53:5c).

What a double benefit – healing of our physical ailments, and healing us of our spiritual sickness as well, through the saving grace of God! In fact, the MORE IMPORTANT aspect of healing is not physical, important though it is (we all die eventually; even Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter, both of them raised from the dead by Jesus, still died later).

3. Being healed spiritually is the more-important, because we are being saved for eternal life, after our physical death. That is why, God sometimes does not grant us physical healing – no matter how much we prayed about it. Certainly, this was the Apostle Paul’s experience of his “thorn in the flesh.” Three times Paul asked for physical healing from God, and three times it was DENIED. WHY? Paul himself answered that question. God told him: “My Grace is sufficient for you; for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2Corinthians 12:9).

After this, Paul no longer feared “weaknesses..insults.. hardships.. persecutions… difficulties” because, said Paul: “FOR WHERE I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG” (v. 10). Fantastic!

4. Here are some relevant Bible verses to help us in our struggles in the midst of physical and spiritual pain:

a) God is the HEALER (all others are just instruments) – Ps. 103:1-5; Ex. 15:26

b) God PROMISES to heal – Jer 30:17; 1Pet 2:24

c) Healing results from PRAYER – Ps 6:2 (mercy); Jer 17:14 (praise); Mt 8:16 (study of the Word)

d) Healing by calling on His Name – Acts 4:29,30

e) Being healed thru FAITH – Mt 13:58; Rom 10:17

f) Being healed by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT – Lk 6:17-19; Acts 10:37, 38

g) Being healed by INTERCESSION – Ja 5:14-16; 2Chr 30:18-20

h) Being healed simply by ASKING – Jn 4:46,47; Lk 7:3

i) Being healed by LAYING ON OF HANDS – Mk 5:22,23; Lk 4:40

God bless.- nr