{"id":90628,"date":"2021-03-09T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T02:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/healing\/"},"modified":"2023-10-06T22:18:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T02:18:49","slug":"healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/healing\/","title":{"rendered":"Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">1 Peter 2:24: \u201cWho His own self bare our sins in His own body on\nthe tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose\nstripes ye were healed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size has-medium-font-size\">Christendom espouses a range of views regarding healing \u2013 from \u201cname it and claim it\u201d to a dispensational view that healing, as a manifestation of God, was for a prior age.&nbsp; Does God heal today?&nbsp; If so, why?&nbsp; If not, why not?&nbsp; Does it have to do with the spiritual purity of an individual?&nbsp; Was healing primarily a sign of God and, secondarily, a blessing for the individual? &nbsp;&nbsp;For the Biblical answer, we turn to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>Historical Context: 1 Peter\n1:1 identifies the author of the Book of 1 Peter as the Apostle Peter, written\nbetween 60 and 65 A.D.&nbsp; Peter understood\npersecution.&nbsp;He was beaten, threatened, punished and jailed for preaching\nthe Word of God.&nbsp;He knew what it took to stand strong.&nbsp;This knowledge\nof living hope in Jesus was the message and Christ&#8217;s example was the one to\nfollow.&nbsp;Peter handed down rules for wives, husbands, slaves, elders and\njust all people in general.&nbsp; This time of\npersecution is despairing, but Peter reveals that this is actually a time to\nrejoice.&nbsp;He says to count it a privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ\nas their Savior suffered for them as well as having made provision for\nsalvation from this world of turbulence.&nbsp;\nThis letter of Peter&#8217;s makes reference to his personal experiences with\nJesus and his sermons from the book of Acts.&nbsp;Peter confirms Satan as the\ngreat enemy of every Christian but the assurance of Christ&#8217;s future return\ngives the incentive of hope.&nbsp; The\nassurance of eternal life is given to all Christians.&nbsp;One way to identify\nwith Christ is to share in His suffering.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>Grammatical Usage: \u201cHealed\u201d in he Greek is \u201ciaomai\u201d meaning \u201cto be\nhealed\u2026made whole.\u201d&nbsp; While the term is\nused with respect to physical healing 22 times, it is used figuratively, of\nspiritual healing, 4 times in the New Testament including 1 Peter 2:24.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>Literal Application: \u201cWho\nHimself bore our sins in His body upon the tree, in order (and with the result)\nthat now that we are rescued from the domination of our sins, we may live\nbecause of righteousness, by means of the bloody wounds of Whom you have been\nhealed.\u201d\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>Contextual Interpretation:\nOur verse is often misunderstood as a reference to physical healing.&nbsp; Besides the grammatical evidence, context is\ncritical in that the very next verse unmistakably refers to spiritual healing:\n\u201cBecause you were always like sheep being led astray but you have been returned\nnot to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.\u201d \u2013 1 Peter 2:25. V. 24 is\nactually found in Isaiah 53:5 where, again, the reference is to spiritual\nhealing.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>Scriptural Comparison: In\nthe Old Testament the word \u201crapa\u201d appears 67 times, with variations another 19\ntimes.&nbsp; Essentially \u201crapa\u201d means \u201cto\nheal\u201d or \u201cto make healthy.\u201d&nbsp; In many\npassages, such as Genesis 20:17, the word refers to physical healing of a sickness\nor disease.&nbsp; But the image of sickness is\nalso used to represent the ravages of sin.&nbsp;\nIn these instances, as in Isaiah 1:50-6; 18, healing speaks of\nforgiveness and of the restoration of a harmonious relationship with God as\nwell as the blessings that follow such a relationship (2 Chronicles 7:14-16;\nHosea 6:1).&nbsp; While the prophets insisted\nupon God\u2019s firm intention to heal his sinning people spiritually, God Himself\ndeclares in Exodus 15:26 where He states, \u201cI am the Lord who heals you\u201d is a\nreference to <em>both<\/em> spiritual and\nphysical healing.&nbsp; To gain more insight,\nthe role of medicine in Judaism following the Old Testament period was viewed\nwith great suspicion \u2013 an historical attitude which has been wrongly attributed\nto Biblical days.&nbsp; In fact, Genesis 50\nmentions the physicians of Egypt\nand 2 Chronicles 16:12 mentions that King Asa sought out physicians for\nphysical healing.&nbsp; Asa was criticized in\nScripture not for seeking physical help, but failing to include God in his\nsearch.&nbsp; The Old Testament also mentions\npractices such as cleansing and binding wounds and the use of soothing oil\n(Isaiah 1:6).&nbsp; There are references to\nhealing balms (2 Chronicles 28:15; Isaiah 38:21).&nbsp; It is true that although common remedies were\nin use during Old Testament times, no medical science or practice as such was developed.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size has-medium-font-size\">In the New Testament, 5 Greek words are used to refer to\nhealing.&nbsp; Oddly, of the 82 times these\nwords are used in the New Testament, 73 of the occurrences are restricted to\nthe 4 Gospels and the book of Acts.&nbsp; In large\npart, this is where dispensationalists base their position that healing is not\na present day reality.&nbsp; The argument is\nthat the reason these Greek words are so clustered has to do with the fact that\nhealing was a significant part of Jesus\u2019 ministry before His ascension as well\nas that of the early church apostles in order to confirm Jesus\u2019 identity as the\nMessiah as well as to authenticate His apostle\u2019s relationship to and authority\nfrom God (Mt. 10:1, 8; Mk. 6:13; Lk 9:1, 6).&nbsp;\nHowever, James calls upon the physically ill to prayer and anointment of\noil to heal infirmities (James 5:14-16) and Paul includes the gift of healing\nin his list of spiritual gifts given to believers (I Cor. 12:9, 28, 30).&nbsp; Therefore, healing is definitely a present\nday reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The question now becomes, is healing \u201cby right\u201d taught in\nthe New Testament.&nbsp; No.&nbsp; In the Gospels and Acts, healings are often\nassociated with the faith of the person who was healed (Mt. 9:21, 22; 15:28;\nActs 14:9).&nbsp; But the New Testament also\nreports other miracles of healing without reference to the conversion of the\nperson healed (Mt. 9:23-26; Mk. 6:5; Acts 3:1-10; 5:16; 8:7; 28:8).&nbsp; With so little prescription in the New\nTestament regarding how to deal with illness, we must turn to examples for\ninsight: 1) Paul suffered from a serious disease that affected his appearance\nand probably eyesight and, while he pleaded with God to take it away, he was\nonly given grace to live with the infirmities (2 Cor. 12:8); 2) Timothy\nsuffered from chronic stomach trouble and Paul advised a therapy (1 Tim. 5:23);\n3) Epaphroditus came to Paul with a gift, became sick and nearly died.&nbsp; Yet, God healed him (Phil. 2;27).&nbsp; In none of these cases do we see a believer\n\u201cclaiming\u201d a \u201cright\u201d to healing.&nbsp; What we\ndo find is God acting in His sovereign capacity by either granting or denying\nhealing according to His purpose.&nbsp; Often people are physically healed when they place\ntheir faith in Christ \u2013 but this is not always the case. Sometimes it is God\u2019s\nwill to heal, sometimes it is not. The Apostle John gives us the proper\nperspective: \u201cThis is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask\nanything <strong>according to His will<\/strong>, He\nhears us. And if we know that He hears us &#8211; whatever we ask &#8211; we know that we\nhave what we asked of Him\u201d (1 John 5:14-15). God still performs miracles. God\nstill heals people. However, sickness, disease, pain, and death are still\nrealities in this world. Unless the Lord returns in the next 50 years or so,\nalmost everyone who is alive today will die, and the vast majority of them\n(Christians included) will die as the result of a physical problem (disease,\nsickness, injury). It is not always God\u2019s will to heal us physically.&nbsp; In fact, it would appear based upon the\nBiblical evidence and practical example that more often than not, God chooses\nnot to heal.&nbsp; But the fact to be\nunderscored is that, indeed, God chooses.&nbsp;\nIt is His right, a reality, a legitimate Biblical option for believers\nwhich God grants or denies based upon His purpose and outworking for the\nindividual, the body of Christ and the unsaved as a witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>Conclusion: Ultimately, our\nfull physical healing awaits us in Heaven. In Heaven, there will be no more\npain, sickness, disease, suffering, or death (Revelation 21). We all need to be\nless preoccupied with our physical condition in this world, and be a little\nmore preoccupied with our spiritual condition (Romans 12:1-2). Then, we can\nfocus our hearts on heaven and when we will no longer have to deal with\nphysical problems, Revelation 21:4, &#8220;He will wipe every tear from their\neyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old\norder of things has passed away.&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 Peter 2:24: \u201cWho His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.\u201d Christendom espouses a range of views regarding healing \u2013 from \u201cname it and claim it\u201d to a dispensational view that healing, as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Healing - Grace Evangelical Free Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Healing - 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