SALVATON IS GOD’S FREE GIFT TO MANKIND
The subject of physical healing has never hurt anyone like it did Jesus. Just as Jesus bore all the sin of the world, He bore all the world’s sicknesses! Father takes very personal what His Boy went through on our behalf. He expects us to take it personal too! Until Jesus’ unspeakable agony for the sake of our healing is personal to you, you’ll claim a right to remain hurt by the subject due to personal experience. To emphasize what I mean, here is a Youtube link to a 4 minute portrayal of Christ at the whipping post (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. RECOMMENDED FOR MATURE VIEWERS ONLY. https://youtu.be/-K3dZqo9c-A )
- WHY make such a big deal about something as controversial as healing when it’s not necessary to get to heaven?
- THIS is why it’s a big deal!
- THIS is why we boldly declare the will of God to heal all!
- THIS is why we hate sin and sickness!
- THIS is why healing is more than just a doctrinal statement we argue!
- THIS is why we honor Jesus’ experience and the Father’s esteem for the suffering of His Son more than the experiences and emotions of any other!
- THIS is why we fear God more than men!
- THIS is where promises and provision for healing meet!
- THIS is the Jesus to Whom we each will give an account!
- THIS is the needed revelation and resolve of everyone concerning the importance God places on healing!
- THIS is why if hypothetically, God forbid, someone struggled but kept trying to stand on the Word and work of Christ against the same physical problem for nearly their entire lifetime. Yet, never saw or felt the full victory. (I’m not saying this should be the case. Only for the sake of illustration) Are not Christ’s sufferings worthy of the lifetime of that individual never having watered down the will of God to heal him/her regardless of his/her experience? Of course! Just as we know that if it took a lifetime to finally experience the victory which Jesus provided over sin, complete freedom having been affirmed as God’s will from the start, the Lord is worthy of that refusal to give up! In comparison to the endless, eternal worthiness of Christ in heaven, what is even a 100 year long struggle of not compromising the will of God for which Jesus suffered?
- THIS is the motivation behind this writing! That the Lamb receive the reward of His sufferings! He is worthy! His worthiness demands “NO COMPROMISE!”
WHY did entire multitudes seek if only to touch the border of Jesus’ garment, and everyone who touched Him were made whole? (Mar 6:56) I think the reason is found in the first mention of this method of receiving healing in the fifth chapter of Mark.
There, a woman who had suffered for 12 years from an “issue of blood” (or bloody flux) was instantly healed because she had believed and said, “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” If her healing doesn’t forever prove that Jesus is not picking and choosing who He wants to heal and who He doesn’t, then I don’t know what will. Jesus literally, genuinely asked, “Who touched my clothes?” I believe this was a sincere question of which He did not know the answer. I don’t think the Truth personified was deceptively toying with them.
His human lack of informational knowledge in this occasion no more threatens the dual reality of His divinity than His needing to eat, sleep, and being localized in a body. For the sake of the Incarnation (fully God, fully man), we recognize the commonly described divine attributes of omniscience (knowing all that can be known), omnipotence (possessing all self-sustaining power, thus never experiencing weakness or fatigue and thereby having no need of nutritional sustenance or sleep), and omnipresence (being present everywhere, at all times), were not fully experienced in Jesus’ time on earth.
This woman received healing power from Jesus before he even knew who received it, much less made a decision after her touch of whether to heal her or not! She and the multitudes, to whom the story spread, discovered that healing did not require a personal home visit, an intentional verbal address, or the laying on of hands from Jesus! Only faith that when I touch Him, I am healed! You see, the reason for this all- access provision of grace is gloriously revealed in Jesus’ words to the woman who had “told Him all the truth”: “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy PLAGUE.” All who heard the Greek word that Jesus used for “plague” (“mastix”), would have known it to be the word describing a whip; Roman flagellum for criminals; or scourging.
We could say that this woman and everyone else healed in the Old Testament and in the earthly ministry of Jesus, were all healed “on credit!” Jesus could tell the woman, “Be whole of this that has been whipping and scourging you!” because He knew that He had an appointment with a whipping post! In just a short matter of time, Jesus would take stripes and His body would be broken to pay in full the price of our healing. In the same way, every instance of forgiveness of sin before the cross and resurrection was provided “on credit”. Forgiveness of sin looked ahead to the shed blood of Christ at the cross. Healing looked ahead to the broken body of Christ at the whipping post. No wonder Jesus cried with a loud voice from the cross, “It is finished!” (“Paid in full!”) If they were confident in the willingness of Christ to heal, enough to take radical action of faith, and they received from Him “on credit” without hesitation or exception, how much more confident can we be in His willingness, now that the price has been fully paid? (on this side of the cross) Oh, what a Savior and Healer!
My prayer is that this content has helped to heal any previous hurt due to ideas about healing! God truly wants healing to flow to you and through you to the hurting! Please share this material with others! “freely ye have received, freely give.” Mat 10:8
Formerly titled:
Faith That Overcomes Emotional Intimidation and Mental Pressure: Understanding Salvation From Sin and Sickness
By: Derek R. Rich