Healing and the Atonement: Introduction

By Hazel Holland

When the question is asked, "Is healing provided in the atonement?" the answer we are essentially asking is, “Is physical healing guaranteed in this life as a result of God’s saving work for us through Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection in the same way that spiritual healing is guaranteed?”

We know that Jesus Christ came to save and deliver us from our sins, but does His atonement also deliver us from our sicknesses—now? Is physical healing from disease promised in this life when we pray for people in the same way that spiritual healing is?

What prompted me to begin this study on healing was seeing many friends die from cancer over the past seven or eight years. In spite of the fact that they all received the best medical treatment, along with much healing prayer from many members of the body of Christ, they all went to be with the Lord.

One of the things that troubled me the most as I watched these friends suffer was hearing other brothers and sisters prophesy over them that the Lord was going to heal them, because it was His will that they live and not die. The same “healing” Scriptures were repeatedly quoted to support their prophetic words. They sincerely believed that they just had to speak the healing word and my friends would be healed. They adamantly reasoned that God does not want us to be sick.

For years I agonizingly watched as some of these friends became very discouraged as the healing word they received didn’t stop the spread of cancer in their bodies. Although prayer seemed to encourage them to trust in God’s love and rest in His faithfulness, it didn’t restore their sick bodies back to health as the word of faith proponents promised.

In spite of seeing no physical healing manifest in her body one of my friends continued to believe right up to the very end that she would be healed. She truly believed that “by His wounds she had been healed!” “I’m just waiting for the healing to manifest,” she explained “because physical healing for my cancer has been provided for me in the atonement!

I remember another one of my friends grieving over what she supposed was her inadequate faith to be healed. She kept striving to muster up more faith, or be touched by the “right” anointed person. When physical healing did not happen after many months and then stretched into a couple of years of praying and running to get in various healing lines, she eventually became seriously depressed and wondered why God didn’t answer the many prayers of faith that had been offered up on her behalf.

As she began to question God’s love for her I began to question the biblical soundness of some of the faith-healing teachings. Since God wasn’t answering our prayers of faith in the way we wanted, I began to question if we rightly understood the “healing” Scriptures that we had been encouraged to claim by our word of faith friends.

Although so many of us longed to see physical healing manifest in the here and now, all my friends eventually died. But it certainly wasn’t because of any lack of faith or cherished sin on anyone’s part that prevented God from answering our prayers.

So I had to ask myself some difficult questions as I began this study on healing. Hopefully, as we search for a more biblical understanding of the healing that has been provided for us in the atonement, we will find answers to the questions listed below. I will try to discuss them in the order they are presented.

1. Have we inadvertently been violating one of the primary rules of biblical interpretation by taking “healing” Scriptures out of their context, and in so doing have misinterpreted the type of “healing” being promised?

2. What is the primary difference between sin and sickness?

3. Is faith in Jesus Christ always a condition for our healing, and if so, is there a certain degree of faith required on our part in order for God to heal us?

4. Does God sometimes say, “No” to physical healing?

5. Have we also misunderstood the dual application of some healing passages by believing that physical healing is always guaranteed here and now when in reality it is only guaranteed at the final resurrection of the righteous?

6. What is the Biblical relationship between healing and suffering?

7. Is the “Prosperity Gospel" found in the atonement?

8. Have we misunderstood the “greater works” prophecy of Jesus by thinking He was primarily speaking of miraculous signs and physical healings?

9. Have we failed to understand the primary focus of the Great Commission by majoring on the “signs that will follow those who believe” instead of the preaching of the Good News of salvation?

In order to answer these questions we will look at some familiar “healing” Scriptures in their context in order to see what the Word of God has to say about the subject of healing and the atonement. I believe it is crucial as we begin this study that we recognize that God’s reconciling work for us on the cross is grounded on His unconditional love for us and His sovereign knowledge of our desperate human need.

* To continue this study go to Chapter 1: Healing Scriptures