Bodily Healing in the Blood Atonement
Many people are Calvinist when it comes to Divine Healing. The Calvinist believe in Limited Atonement and many Christians believe in Liminted Healing. God is no respector of persons, end of arguement!!!. You can quit asking God if He is willing to heal you and start believing that His big heart of mercy and graciousness is ready to do the work. The truth is, God has healed you from your sickness in the exact sense in which He has saved you from your sins. The Blood Atonement of Jesus Christ, crucified before the foundation of the world, has vicariously borne your sins and your sicknesses in your behalf. Sin and sickness has passed from us to Calvary, that salvation and healing might pass from Calvary to us. (quoted). “It’s finished,” because Jesus said so.
Seven Redemptive
Names for Jesus
There are seven
redemptive names
(some say there
are as many as
ten) found in
the Old
Testament, each
providing hope
to the reader as
well as
prophetic
insight into
Christ’s death
and provision.
One of the first
of these in the
order they were
revealed was
Jehovah-Rapha
(Exodus 15:26),
spelled by some
authorities
Ropheka.
Translated that
means
“The Lord That
Healeth Thee” or
“I am the Lord
Thy Physician”.
The presence of
Christ in the
Old Testament
included along
with all His
other
manifestation,
His readiness to
heal. Let me
list the other
six
manifestations
as they were
revealed with
their redemptive
names.
Jehovah-Shammah: “The Lord is There or the Lord is Present.” (Ex.48:35). Men and women are separated from God by sin and one of the redemptive acts of Christ is to bridge that chasm and bring us back into the Father’s fellowship. We can be His intimate children having personal union with Him.
Jehovah-Raah: “The Lord is my Shepherd.” (Psalm 23:1) He doesn’t just save us from sin, He shepherds us by giving us His guiding presence and by teaching us that we might walk in His steps. He is the shepherd of our soul.
Jehovah-Jireh: “The Lord will provide an offering.” (Genesis 22:14) When Abraham was about to offer his son, the Lord stopped him and then provided a sacrifice. That was the setting for this redemptive title. Our sacrifice or substitute was the spotless Lamb of God.
Jehovah-Nissi: “The Lord our Captain.” (Exodus 17:15). When the enemy comes in like a flood we are not left to our own devices. He is our Captain and the battle is the Lord’s.
Jehovah-Tsidkenu: “The Lord our Righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:6, 33:16). Holiness is not the product of human will or determination. Will and determination are admirable traits but must bow to confess helplessness at His cross. Then and only then can acceptable righteousness clothe us in a new garment.
No one would dare suggest that the New Covenant is not better than the old. Whatever the supernatural help to man was in the Old Testament it became “Much More” (Romans 5) in the New. We must believe that healing for our bodies is no less available than redemption from sins, our deliverance in our temptations or righteousness for our unrighteousness. When you can name any of the other redemptive names and provision that have been withdrawn then you ought to question the provision of Jehovah-Ratha, The Lord our Physician.
He Hath Borne
Our Sickness
The Mount
Everest of
prophetic
foreknowledge is
found in Isaiah
53. Let’s look
at two verses
that remove all
doubt about
divine healing.
“Surely He hath
borne our grief,
(Gr.choli,
disease or
sickness) and
carried our
sorrows: (Gr.
makob, pain) yet
we did esteem
him stricken,
smitten of God
and afflicted.
But He was
wounded for our
transgressions,
he was bruised
for our
iniquities, the
chastisement of
our peace was
upon Him: and
with His stripes
we are healed.”
(Isaiah
53:4,5).
Disease of the soul is cared for with great mercy in these verses but not by excluding disease and pain of the body. Why should anyone penknife the Word of God with a view to denying the healing of suffering individuals? It seems so uncaring to watch men bear the afflictions of Satan while denying them the promises of God. The word”borne” in verse four means to bear away or carry off. Jesus took your sins and sickness upon His sinless and sickless body and by efficacious and judicial fiat He became a substitute for each of us. We are saved and healed by faith in His atonement. Our will to believe may fail but His will to heal cannot.
This great truth is compounded by the gospel of Saint Matthew. He shares a beautiful occasion of Christ’s healing power and then sets forth this Messianic prophecy of Isaiah with even stronger language. “When the evening was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” (St. Matthew 8:16-17). This direct quote of Isaiah 53:4 by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost makes the previous interpretation beyond argument.
Crippled Woman
Loosed of
Infirmity
This remarkable
story we will
discuss gives an
excellent view
from which to
identify the
source of all
diseases. She
was bowed over,
crippled and
could not
straighten
herself. It
surely was not
an infirmity we
would identify
with an evil
spirit. Jesus
did! Neither was
she identified
as a sinner but
as a daughter of
Abraham. She was
at a Jewish
worship service
when she was
healed. Note the
facts.
“And behold,
there was a
woman which had
a spirit of
infirmity
eighteen years,
and was bowed
together, and
could in no wise
lift up herself.
And when Jesus
saw her he
called her to
him and said
unto her, ‘Woman
thou are loosed
from thine
infirmity.’ And
He laid His
hands on her and
immediately she
was made
straight and
glorified
God…and ought
not this woman
being a daughter
of Abraham whom
Satan hath
bound, lo, these
eighteen years,
be loosed from
this bond on the
Sabbath day?”
( St.
Luke 13:11-16).
This story establishes several valid facts. He associated disease with the work of a spirit from Satan. We must come to understand that every ounce of sickness and pain is the result of evil powers in our world. There was no sickness until Satan usurped control from the first Adam and there will be no disease when the second Adam reconciles all things unto Himself. THE FIRST FRUITS OF OUR BODILY REDEMPTION IS DIVINE HEALING AND THE FINAL FRUIT OF THAT REDEMPTION WILL BE A GLORIFIED BODY. WE MUST ATTACK SICKNESS WITH BELIEVING PRAYER AND INTERCESSION JUST LIKE WE ATTACK SIN.
The human body was created in the Father’s likeness to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. If that body isn’t garrisoned or preserved by the Spirit it will eventually be invaded by the forces of destruction. This woman was bound and imprisoned by her captor (I do not suggest she was possessed but oppressed. Oppression is a dominating factor in much sickness) but marvelously healed when a stronger than her captor took control. Jesus said a remarkable thing in Saint John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” One of the two master forces are in control of your life. Jesus is by far the stronger but cannot rule unless He’s invited. Satan will seek control by deception, default or by invitation.
Jesus absolutely desires our physical heath and wholeness. It is His will to heal us. He never acted in behalf of anyone but as an extension of His Father’s will for the human family. Neither is He a respecter of persons in picking or choosing those to receive His atonement.
She was healed because she was a daughter of Abraham and Jesus came to guarantee the Abrahamic promise. Again, all believers are heir of those blessings that Father Abraham assured to his sons and daughters. “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galations 3:19).
Sin Is A Cause
of Sickness In
Some Cases
There are many
cases where
disease is a
direct result of
willful sin
against the laws
of God. Jesus
was prone to
tell a person
whom He healed
“to go and sin
no more lest a
worse thing come
upon thee.”
Anytime a
Christian goes
back into open
sin they are
vulnerable to an
explicit attack
of the spirits
of infirmity.
James told the
Jewish believers
to whom he
addressed his
letter that
“the prayer of
faith shall save
the sick and the
Lord shall raise
them up; and if
he (she) hath
committed sins
they shall be
forgiven him
(her).”
(James 5:15).
It was very apparent in the primitive church that sin and sickness was closely related and when one area was addressed both needs were met with deliverance. There are exceptions but no reason to believe that the obedient Christian was not eventually healed or the healed person was eventually saved.
The Blood
Atonement
Every promise of
the Bible, every
act of
redemption and
every work of
God in behalf of
man is by the
blood of the
Testator. The
Old Testament
was established
by the blood of
calves and goats
which were a
figure of the
Lamb slain from
the foundation
of the world.
(Hebrews
9:19-22). The
New Testament
was purified
with a better
sacrifice
because it
represented not
the shadow but
the Heavenly Act
of Redemption
itself. The two
Testaments (Holy
Bible) are in
the cup which we
drink at every
communion
celebration. (1
Corinthians
11:25).
Jesus said that He purchased the church with His own blood. (Acts 20:28). Apostle Paul said that our cup of blessing is the communion of the blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). The Blood will make every soul under its Judicial authority unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. (Colossians 1:20-23). We can enter the Holy of Holies for divine communion and fellowship by the blood of Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 10:19).
Jehovah-Ratha: “Jesus Christ, our Physician”is present in His church to heal every willing individual. Settle it in your heart that He delights to extend His promises and is grieved when we trust the arm of the flesh instead of the provision of Calvary. Once you have anchored your faith in His Blood Atonement then you should give praise for your healing and begin to conduct your life in expectation of His faithfulness. Making provision to be sick is an act of unbelief. If there is sin it must be confessed, forsaken and released to His cleansing. The Holy Spirit is pleased to say, “Rise and be healed in the name and by the blood atonement of Jesus.
Joseph Chambers