I’m attending a conference around the issue of physical healing this week. It’s not just conceptual either. I got to see a bunch of people get healed last night. It was very cool. All this has got me thinking about the subject of healing. When I think about something I can’t help but think about how I might think differently about it. So I’m thinking differently about healing today.
My exposure to discussion and demonstration of physical healing has been, obviously, within charismatic and/or pentacostal streams within the Church. In these streams, the theology of healing has been centered in the atonement. When Jesus died he carried our sin and sickness, our guilt and grief, our iniquity and infirmity. This understanding draws heavily from the suffering servant language in Isa 53. I fully affirm this and in what follows I don’t mean to in any way minimize this reality.
Here’s my question though. If healing is based in the atonement, then upon what basis did Jesus heal prior to the cross? Upon the basis of his deity? I don’t think so, for Luke 4 makes it plain that it was the empowering work of the Spirit that enabled him. It seems clear that what Jesus did, he did as a man empowered by the Spirit. If healing is based in the atonement, then upon what basis did the 12 and the 70 heal when Jesus sent them out prior to the cross?
I believe the answer lies in Jesus’ often repeated refrain “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Adam was a man, rightly related to the Father, endued with dominion, and empowered by the Spirit. He was earth’s governor, appointed by God and given authority by God. When man sinned this authority was lost. Sin and sickness reigned. Since that time no man had the kind of dominion that Adam had and lost. Until Jesus. Paul refers to Jesus as the “last Adam.” When he entered the scene he was a man, rightly related to the Father, endued with dominion, and empowered by the Spirit.
The Kingdom was “at hand” precisely because Jesus had come on the scene as a man in this way. Even prior to the cross, this man was able to demonstrate kingdom authority over devils and disease simply through the declaration of his word. Similarly, he was able to delegate this authority to those that followed him. All this prior to the cross.
So, what is the role of the cross in all this?
Well for one it occurs to me that on this side of the cross my faith is able to look back into the past toward Christ’s finished work. But there is no good reason to think that the disciples faith prior to the cross was not able to, in trusting Jesus in that moment, look forward to the the cross in a similar way. Secondly, through the cross God has provided the only way for me, as a man, to be rightly related to God, endued with authority, and empowered by the Spirit. Third, on the cross Jesus, the suffering servant, took upon himself all the brokenness of our world. When Revelation 21 is fulfilled and all creation is renewed, it will simply be the full appropriation of the provision Jesus has already made. Finally, in choosing to lay down his life, Jesus defeated Satan. The first Adam chose to save his life and he lost it as a result. The last Adam chose to lay his life down and as a result he found it. The first Adam abdicated his authority in the earth and gave it to the serpent, the god of this world. The last Adam took it back.
So: is healing a Kingdom issue or an Atonement issue? The answer is yes, for the cross is the climax of God’s plan to restore the earth to his Kingdom rule. So, when I pray for the sick, I am giving expression to the Kingdom rule of God through men upon the earth, a Kingdom re-inaugurated in Jesus as he began his ministry and whose final victory was forever secured on the cross.
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Awesome post Alan This topic has been on our mind and heart for awhile We´re watching the same conference online and being so blessed As always, thanks for helping pull back the veil a little on this topic with a clear concise post!
Wish I could be there. Perhaps it would be better to step back and recognize that we in the Protestant stream of Western Christianity live with restricted questions. The eastern streams put the emphasis on the Father’s heart and on the entire incarnation. In the West we load up the cross with all the weight of salvation and healing we end up with a partial gospel. It becomes more like a transaction than a relationship. Alan is right, this is not an either Atonement or KIngdom. Healing expresses the will of heaven that has been in the heart of God since the fall. Healing is in the incarnation! Healing is in the baptism of Jesus when the heavens were torn open and the Spirit descended like a dove with those wonderful words, “You are my beloved Son in whim I am well-pleased!” That Spirit and affirmation from the Father’s heart propelled him into the ministry of healing! Every time God is called Father by Jesus and every time God calls Jesus “Son” the baptismal moment of Jesus is renewed and the original intent of the image of God in Adam is being expressed. There is healing in the recovery of that image for us. And healing is given through the death of the savior on the cross for our sins—the culminating moment of the incarnation, when Jesus took on our humanity, even to the point of suffering death on the cross. Where is healing released? In a relationship, not simply a transaction. Healing was in the heart of God the Father from the beginning and is expressed in the resurrection through which Jesus released the life-giving Spirit. And healing is in Pentecost where Jesus’ followers are filled and empowered by that Spirit. The kingdom of God is simply the expression of God’s rule as Father being re-established in the house where his children have rebelled becoming stuck in the Devil’s blame game, shifting guilt to each other, to sacrificial animals and to God himself. Jesus represents the Father when he stood up and took the blame upon himself (though he had done nothing wrong) by taking on our flesh and dying our death, putting an end to all pride and blame shifting. Healing demonstrates God’s plan for all people in microcosm. Each healing is a moment of reversal and reclamation of lost territory, lost dignity, lost humanity becoming more like God. That is, healing is a sign that points to God’s heart in sending his Son to become like us in every way so that we could share in his nature, his glory.
Alan and Yancy- very insightful thoughts. Western Protestants have run amok by over-symbolizing, intellectualizing, and codifying their (our!) faith, and in doing so, have ultimately missed out on kingdom life- the way Jesus showed it. Thanks for making me re-frame my thinking of the kingdom!
I have viewed healing as kingdom based for some time now. I get the holistic view of Isaiah 53 as a whole, but I don’t pray for healing “based on a formula” from this passage, rather on the authority of Jesus Christ. I have witnessed healing in the present, but have also been turned off by a bunch of formula prayers with no power! I don’t beat others up about this, but I think more effectiveness comes as we listen intently to the Spirits leading as we pray for others.
Hi.
I agree with your estimation that healing is both in the atonement and a demonstration of the kingdom.
However, I strongly differ with you on another point. You said that ” the cross is the climax of God’s plan to restore the earth to his Kingdom rule.”
The cross is central, but not the climax. Need to make that clear. The climax of God’s plan is when Christ returns and the last enemy, death, is finally put under and we get new glorified bodies. Sin will be judged and rooted out of the universe at that point. Not by the cross but by judgment. The cross releases mercy and salvation for the elect. But only resurrection and judgment finally establishes God’s unprotested rule in a new earth.
Your quote above is an “over-realized eschatology”. That is, expecting absolutely now, what is only fully promised at the true climax of earthly history: the return of Jesus.
The cross does not lift the curse of death until Jesus returns. Our bodies remain mortal and the world remains filled with devils and rebels until He appears. The cross is not the climax. But it is central, and will be so even after sin and death are forgotten.
Dane,
Thanks for you thoughtful comments. I disagree, but see where you’re coming from. I think of the cross as climactic from the standpoint that it is upon the cross that Jesus finished his work. When Rev 21 is fulfilled, it will simply be the full appropriation of that finished work. As to the claim that my eschatology is over-realized: I think the work of the Holy Spirit as a down-payment guaranteeing our future inheritance is perhaps a better down payment that some realize. The Kingdom isn’t 100% financed. There’s a pretty hefty down payment we can spend now in advance of that day. How much? Not sure. But quite sure it’s more than I’ve currently laid hold of.
Alan,
I get you on the fact that there’s more “financed” than any of us walk in yet. I’m not proposing that we all shoot a little lower! So I hear you loud and clear.
But my point is that while Jesus finished His work on the Cross for believers, He didn’t finish all His work in ridding the universe of sin and rebellion on the cross. The final installment of cosmic salvation is waiting for our Lord’s glorious return. He doesn’t come back with no work to do. He comes back and kicks butt. What the cross didn’t do for the universe, Christ will one day do through His wrath and judgment. Then there will be no more tears, and no more pain, and no more dying, and a new heaven and a new earth. But not until then. The cross didn’t save the earth or the heavens or destroy the devil. Judgment will. Then His work will totally be finished. Until then, Jesus still has a work agenda. And we can’t appropriate some of these things, as they are simply not done yet.
The “finished work” theory is powerful as it relates to what has actually been finished at the Cross. But when people try to appropriate the finished works of Christ in areas that are really not finished yet….well, that’s when wierdness can really come in. It’s a danger when logic pushes the finished work theory beyond actual biblical revelation.
I suspect you and I are not far apart on this. Anyway, bless you brother, for all the good work you’re doing in encouraging and training God’s people to overcome.