By Hazel Holland
Let us take a look at the context of this familiar passage of Scripture in James and see if we can more fully understand the type of healing being talked about here.
“Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore (or save) the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:14-16 (NASB)
In order to interpret this passage correctly I believe that we must not only look at the context in order to understand the nature of the healing being talked about, but also weigh it against other Scriptures so that we will be in harmony with the whole counsel of God in the way we apply it. Above all else we must understand that God is sovereign, and He answers our prayers for healing or anything else according to His will as the following passage of Scripture teaches.
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” 1 John 5:13-15 (NASB)
As we look again at the context of James 5:13-15, notice that the final part of verse 15 helps verify the importance of what is being promised here when James says, in speaking about the sick person, “and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.” I believe that the spiritual sickness of the soul is again being talked about here rather that the physical sickness of the body, because James ends his discourse by saying: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.” This of course in no way rules out physical healing, but it again emphasizes the spiritual healing of our souls that takes precedence. In fact confession of sin and the receiving forgiveness often prepares the way for the physical healing of our bodies.
I also found it interesting to note that the word “save” is used here rather than “heal” in many translations. As I have already suggested that doesn’t exclude physical healing, but I believe it puts physical healing in a secondary role because the primary role of healing is to heal our souls from sin. That is why I believe James says “and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Knowing that we have already been forgiven for our sins because Jesus took our punishment as our Substitute is a healing and restorative truth.
Yes, of course God wants us to pray in faith and anoint the sick with oil, but all of our prayers for physical healing must still be submitted to His sovereign will and timing and be within the context of other scriptural teachings. If we insist on believing that physical healing is always guaranteed when we mechanically follow the steps outlined in James 5 we will be forced to not only ignore our own reality, but also to take the responsibility for our lack of faith if we are not healed. The worst part of this kind of belief system is that it totally fails to factor in the sovereignty of God in physical healing. As we have already seen, John clearly tells us that we must be submitted to God’s will in this healing business, because God is still sovereign and He decides whom and when to heal.
Moreover, if we choose to believe that Jesus healed everyone during His earthly ministry, we have not taken note of a number of occasions where Jesus passed by many people that he could have healed in order to reach the one person that He did heal. An example of this would be the story of the man Jesus healed by the pool of Bethesda. Jesus could have healed all who were sick that day by the pool of Bethesda, but He only selected one man to heal, and then He “slipped away into the crowd that was there.” John 5:13 (NIV)
I’m sure there were many times Jesus passed by that pool during His three and a half years of ministry, yet this is the only biblical record of healing in that place. Similarly, Jesus could have healed everyone around him in the story of the blind man in John 9, but He chose to heal only this one man who was blind from birth so that “the works of God should be revealed in him.” In other words it was for the glory of God!
Instead of saying that Jesus healed everyone when He was here, it would be more biblically correct to say that He healed all who came and asked. But He did not heal everyone, because the Scriptures tell us that there were places that He went where He would not heal anyone, or he healed very few because of their unbelief in Him (See Matthew 13:54-58).
So how much faith did a person need to exercise in order to get healed by Jesus? At times Jesus would tell someone that they would be healed according to their faith (the Roman Centurion’s servant). At other times the faith of the person wasn’t involved at all as in the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been dead for four days so he couldn’t be a participant in his healing. What’s more, the people gathered around Jesus waiting to see what He would do certainly didn’t believe Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead for the glory of God (John 11:40).
I also found it interesting to discover that Jesus miraculously provided food for 5,000 people and later 4,000 people without their faith or lack of faith being an issue (See Luke 9:13-14; Matthew 14:17; Matthew 15:33). He did it because He saw they were tired and hungry and “He was moved with compassion for them.” Matthew 15:14; Matthew 14:32 (NKJ)
Therefore, I think we can safely conclude from these situations that we have looked at so far that God is NOT dependent on our faith in Him before He can perform miraculous healings and wondrous signs on our behalf. He sovereignly chooses when and whom to heal. At times our faith or lack of faith in Him does not determine whether He will heal us or not.
If our level of faith was always the determining factor in healing then we would all be looking within ourselves for the power instead of trusting in the power of God outside of us. This is man-centered theology and has nothing to do with the real faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
We must not believe those who tell us that we are not healed because of our lack of faith. Neither must we believe those who insist on informing us that the devil stole our healing because we failed to keep our faith built up. Besides being a manipulation of Scripture, it is false. The object of our faith must always be Jesus Christ, but Scripture also reveals that God isn’t limited in healing us if we lack faith in Him. Yes, faith always pleases God. But God still chooses whom He will heal or not heal because He is ultimately sovereign.
Gathering from what we have just read apparently there is no list of rules that Jesus gave believers to follow that will insure physical healing every time we pray for one another. If Jesus didn’t choose to heal everyone during His earthly ministry, why do we measure the success of someone’s healing ministry today by the number of documented physical healings? Is it because miraculous physical healings take precedence over spiritual healings because they can be seen? But what takes place in our hearts when we repent of our sins and follow Jesus Christ is far more miraculous and precious in God’s eyes that what we can see with our natural eyes.
To continue this study go to "When God says, No! (4)" at: http://sound-the-trumpet.blogspot.com/2008/09/when-god-says-no-4.html
Let us take a look at the context of this familiar passage of Scripture in James and see if we can more fully understand the type of healing being talked about here.
“Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore (or save) the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:14-16 (NASB)
In order to interpret this passage correctly I believe that we must not only look at the context in order to understand the nature of the healing being talked about, but also weigh it against other Scriptures so that we will be in harmony with the whole counsel of God in the way we apply it. Above all else we must understand that God is sovereign, and He answers our prayers for healing or anything else according to His will as the following passage of Scripture teaches.
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” 1 John 5:13-15 (NASB)
As we look again at the context of James 5:13-15, notice that the final part of verse 15 helps verify the importance of what is being promised here when James says, in speaking about the sick person, “and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.” I believe that the spiritual sickness of the soul is again being talked about here rather that the physical sickness of the body, because James ends his discourse by saying: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.” This of course in no way rules out physical healing, but it again emphasizes the spiritual healing of our souls that takes precedence. In fact confession of sin and the receiving forgiveness often prepares the way for the physical healing of our bodies.
I also found it interesting to note that the word “save” is used here rather than “heal” in many translations. As I have already suggested that doesn’t exclude physical healing, but I believe it puts physical healing in a secondary role because the primary role of healing is to heal our souls from sin. That is why I believe James says “and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Knowing that we have already been forgiven for our sins because Jesus took our punishment as our Substitute is a healing and restorative truth.
Yes, of course God wants us to pray in faith and anoint the sick with oil, but all of our prayers for physical healing must still be submitted to His sovereign will and timing and be within the context of other scriptural teachings. If we insist on believing that physical healing is always guaranteed when we mechanically follow the steps outlined in James 5 we will be forced to not only ignore our own reality, but also to take the responsibility for our lack of faith if we are not healed. The worst part of this kind of belief system is that it totally fails to factor in the sovereignty of God in physical healing. As we have already seen, John clearly tells us that we must be submitted to God’s will in this healing business, because God is still sovereign and He decides whom and when to heal.
Moreover, if we choose to believe that Jesus healed everyone during His earthly ministry, we have not taken note of a number of occasions where Jesus passed by many people that he could have healed in order to reach the one person that He did heal. An example of this would be the story of the man Jesus healed by the pool of Bethesda. Jesus could have healed all who were sick that day by the pool of Bethesda, but He only selected one man to heal, and then He “slipped away into the crowd that was there.” John 5:13 (NIV)
I’m sure there were many times Jesus passed by that pool during His three and a half years of ministry, yet this is the only biblical record of healing in that place. Similarly, Jesus could have healed everyone around him in the story of the blind man in John 9, but He chose to heal only this one man who was blind from birth so that “the works of God should be revealed in him.” In other words it was for the glory of God!
Instead of saying that Jesus healed everyone when He was here, it would be more biblically correct to say that He healed all who came and asked. But He did not heal everyone, because the Scriptures tell us that there were places that He went where He would not heal anyone, or he healed very few because of their unbelief in Him (See Matthew 13:54-58).
So how much faith did a person need to exercise in order to get healed by Jesus? At times Jesus would tell someone that they would be healed according to their faith (the Roman Centurion’s servant). At other times the faith of the person wasn’t involved at all as in the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been dead for four days so he couldn’t be a participant in his healing. What’s more, the people gathered around Jesus waiting to see what He would do certainly didn’t believe Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead for the glory of God (John 11:40).
I also found it interesting to discover that Jesus miraculously provided food for 5,000 people and later 4,000 people without their faith or lack of faith being an issue (See Luke 9:13-14; Matthew 14:17; Matthew 15:33). He did it because He saw they were tired and hungry and “He was moved with compassion for them.” Matthew 15:14; Matthew 14:32 (NKJ)
Therefore, I think we can safely conclude from these situations that we have looked at so far that God is NOT dependent on our faith in Him before He can perform miraculous healings and wondrous signs on our behalf. He sovereignly chooses when and whom to heal. At times our faith or lack of faith in Him does not determine whether He will heal us or not.
If our level of faith was always the determining factor in healing then we would all be looking within ourselves for the power instead of trusting in the power of God outside of us. This is man-centered theology and has nothing to do with the real faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
We must not believe those who tell us that we are not healed because of our lack of faith. Neither must we believe those who insist on informing us that the devil stole our healing because we failed to keep our faith built up. Besides being a manipulation of Scripture, it is false. The object of our faith must always be Jesus Christ, but Scripture also reveals that God isn’t limited in healing us if we lack faith in Him. Yes, faith always pleases God. But God still chooses whom He will heal or not heal because He is ultimately sovereign.
Gathering from what we have just read apparently there is no list of rules that Jesus gave believers to follow that will insure physical healing every time we pray for one another. If Jesus didn’t choose to heal everyone during His earthly ministry, why do we measure the success of someone’s healing ministry today by the number of documented physical healings? Is it because miraculous physical healings take precedence over spiritual healings because they can be seen? But what takes place in our hearts when we repent of our sins and follow Jesus Christ is far more miraculous and precious in God’s eyes that what we can see with our natural eyes.
To continue this study go to "When God says, No! (4)" at: http://sound-the-trumpet.blogspot.com/2008/09/when-god-says-no-4.html
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