Many times I have stood at the side of patients suffering from injuries or sickness and wished that I could miraculously make them whole again. Some people tell me that through faith my wishes can become reality since God wants all His children to be well. They say that healing is in the atonement, and if a Christian has enough faith his health can be restored.

When a man who claimed to have the gift of healing came to town some people claimed to be helped but others were disappointed. One patient told me that he had been cured of several problems, but unfortunately could get no help for the more serious condition for which I had been treating him. Yet he believes that people are miraculously healed today just as they were in the time of our Lord and of His apostles.

How Did Jesus Heal?
Since it is true that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8), and since we live in the same dispensation as the apostles, isn’t it logical to assume that what Jesus did back then, He is still doing today? To answer this question we must compare the biblical healings of the Lord and His apostles with today’s claims of healing. The New Testament refers to healing more than 70 times. Healing occupies a large part of our Lord’s public ministry and the disciples’ activities. How did they heal? How do the characteristics of those healings compare with what is taking place today? Let’s consider eight comparisons.

1. The diseases healed by the Lord Jesus and the apostles were incurable then, and for the most part still are. They were organic rather than functional disorders. The patient I referred to above thought his functional problems were better, but his organic illness had not changed. William A. Nolen, MD (author of seven books and many AMA journal articles on medical practice) makes a clear distinction between functional and organic disease. A functional disease is one in which a good organ is not functioning properly. An organic disease is one in which the organ is physically destroyed, maimed, or crippled.
   According to Doctor Nolen, infections, heart attacks, gallstones, hernias, cancers of all kinds, broken bones, congenital deformities and lacerations are all included in the organic disease class. He maintains that these are the ones the healers cannot cure, whereas Jesus and the apostles did cure them, including blindness and crippled bodies.

2. Christ healed with a word or touch. Sometimes those healed were not even present, such as the nobleman’s son and the centurion’s servant (Jn. 4:46-54; Mt. 8:5-13). There was no need for theatrics as there is today.

3. Jesus healed all who came to Him (Lk. 4:40; 9:11). Unlike healers today, Jesus did not leave long lines of disappointed people to return home on their crutches. There is not one instance in the Bible of anyone coming to the Lord to be healed and going away disappointed. There were no failures because of their lack of faith.

4. Jesus healed both believers and unbelievers. He healed people who had faith as well as some who didn’t. Faith wasn’t a requirement for being healed (Mt. 8:1,14; 9:32; 12:10), although in some cases he attributed peoples’ healing to their faith (Mt. 9:22; Mk. 10:52; Lk. 7:19). Jesus restored the ear of Malchus, a man without faith (Lk. 22:50-51). Peter healed a lame beggar who was looking for money rather than healing (Acts 3:1-8). And Jesus healed the maniac of Gadara in spite of his protests (Mk. 5:7-8). In some examples, sick people were healed through the faith of others (Mk. 2:1-12; Mt. 8:5-13). In contrast, contemporary healers often attribute their failures to the lack of faith of those who would be healed.

5. Jesus healed instantly and completely. This demonstrated His divine power. No time was needed for natural healing processes. The centurion’s servant was healed “that same hour” (Mt. 8:13). The woman with the bleeding problem was healed “immediately” (Mk. 5:29). Peter’s mother-in-law could get up immediately and serve others (Mt. 8:14-15). When the lame man in Acts 3 was healed, immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened, enabling him to jump up and continue walking and leaping. Today people are often told that they are healed but that their symptoms are not yet gone. This differs from the scriptural accounts.

6. The Bible never records a relapse or recurrence. Yet many today who claim to be healed of organic diseases have again fallen victim to the same disorders after a short time. This is so common that healers have become a laughing stock in the medical community. One famous healer supposedly healed many with cancer, yet everyone with proven incurable cancer whom she “healed” later died of that same disease.

7. Jesus raised the dead and so did the apostles. Although there are rumors today of dead people being raised, none has been substantiated.

8. Jesus did not want His miracles publicized. (Lk. 8:56; Mt. 9:30; 12:16; Mk. 7:36; 8:26). How different from the theatrics and publicity which accompany healings today. Jesus came to die for us, “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk. 19:10). Although the miracles were part of His credentials, they were not His purpose for coming. He came as a man to glorify God and provide salvation for our souls. He did not want His miracles to detract from that.

Why Did Jesus Heal?
Why are there such differences between the healings of the Lord and the apostles, and the so-called “healing miracles” we hear about today? The answer becomes clear when we understand the purpose for supernatural signs. Although the Lord displayed His goodness and compassion in healing the sick, the real purpose for His miracles was to show that He was the true Messiah. His miracles displayed His divine power.

After His resurrection, according to the writer of Hebrews, God again used miracles to authenticate the apostolic message: “God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will” (Heb. 2:4). When Paul wrote about the miracles he performed, he referred to them as “the signs of an apostle” (2 Cor. 12:12). God’s revelation to us is now complete. Through the inspired Word of God we can know that the things concerning Jesus are true; and we can believe in Him through the Scriptures (Jn. 21:24). We need nothing further to authenticate God’s message.

The Most Important Healing
God can still heal people’s bodies in a supernatural way today and may do so in response to prayer, but it is no longer the norm. Often He does not even heal those we consider to be most deserving. Multitudes of earnest Christians pray to be healed but are not. But it is different with the healing of our souls. Those who come to Christ with contrite hearts will be saved, and their souls will be healed from the deadly disease of sin (Ps. 41:4; 1 Pet. 2:24). This is God’s message for today in the Epistles.

It is interesting that the Epistles never refer to the miracles of Jesus. In fact, after Christ’s resurrection, except for Dorcas who was raised from the dead by Peter (Acts 9:36-42), we never read of a believer being miraculously healed from any disease. However, at least six times we read of believers being ill. Timothy, Gaius, and Paul himself suffered in this way. Although Paul had used the gift of healing in a mighty way to authenticate his message concerning the resurrected Christ, he had to leave his friend Trophimus in Miletus because he was sick (2 Tim. 4:20).

God’s emphasis, and that of the completed Bible, now concerns the redemption of souls. The redemption of our bodies will have to wait until we are raptured into the presence of the Son of God (Rom. 8:23). Until then, we need to encourage each other in the faith, realizing that “we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

We look forward to the day when “God shall wipe away every tear from our eyes. Then there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying or pain” (Rev. 21:4-5). Then, and only then, will all things be well. Praise God for such a great salvation!

By Theo Habel, MD