Practice of medicine in the West has long recognized that many physical ailments are related at least in part to one’s mental and emotional health. The effects of stress and anxiety on the cardiovascular system with regard to pulse rate and blood pressure was recognized long before the 1950’s when I was a medical student. But broadly speaking, Western medicine draws a sharp line of demarcation as it pertains to spiritual health and physical affliction. There is little understanding of the spiritual roots which have led to sickness ever since the Fall of man in the garden of Eden.
It doesn’t usually seem to register with Christian physicians (or many of those in church leadership) that when two million plus Israelites left Egypt with Moses, none were sick or feeble. There were more than enough in number to fill a dozen major hospitals today, yet none were infirm because all of them were under grace. The relationship of physical health to spiritual condition was obvious. Only three days after leaving Egypt, the God who had delivered them from bondage identified Himself as Jehovah-rophi….literally as a God who heals His people from their diseases.
Three days after their remarkable exodus, the Hebrew people arrived at Marah. We can imagine disappointment in finding the water too bitter for drinking. However God showed Moses a piece of wood symbolic of Jesus’ cross. When cast into the bitter water, the water became sweet. It was then that God told the people, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes…..I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD [Jehovah-rophe] who heals you” (Ex 15:26). Here we find the condition for both prevention and management of disease being described for the people of God.
The world rophe appears over sixty times in the OT and is always used in the sense of restoring, healing and cure, not only physically but in a moral and spiritual sense as well. At Marah, God pledged Himself to be their Healer on condition of obedience to His laws. The fruit of obedience would be health whereas sin would have consequences not only for the unsaved but saved alike. And the terrible toll sickness has extracted over the ages, plagues even threatening the existence of nations, demonstrates how the blessing of God assuring health has very often been withdrawn as a consequence of man’s disobedience against the righteous ways of a sovereign God.
The call to righteous living as a condition for good health is confirmed in Deuteronomy 28. Here we find fourteen verses (28:1-14) dealing with a blessing of good health when obedient to the revealed will of God. The remaining fifty-four verses (28:15-68) concern loss of God’s blessing of good health as a consequence of turning from God: “The LORD will plague you with diseases… wasting disease, with fever and inflammation…until you are destroyed.” Both Old and New Testaments emphasize God’s desire that we prosper in spirit, soul and body (3 Jn 2). Yet over the ages, we’ve come to ignore biblical conditions for receiving God’s blessing of health.
Could it really be that most disease has spiritual roots and that the healing, let alone prevention of disease, is directly related to overcoming spiritual issues? We see a direct connection between sin and healing in James 5:14-16: “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” The condition for being healed is dependent upon first dealing with one’s sin.
I fondly recall sitting at the pool called Bethesda in Jerusalem where my wife took a picture of me reading the story of Jesus healing a man who’d been an invalid for thirty-eight years (Jn 5:1-15). In this particular case, the man was healed without being required to have any faith whatsoever, showing the compassionate heart of God. Indeed the man had no idea who’d healed him. However, Jesus found him later at the temple and said, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Here a relationship between sin and health is quite apparent.
In these passages of Scripture, we see the direct relationship between physical disease and the spiritual condition of a person. But a relationship between disease and lack of sanctification has been poorly articulated by the Church for generations. So it is that we find believers have the same diseases and just as frequently as unbelievers in present times. It is unreasonable to expect gifts of healing if one is willfully living in a sinful condition. On the other hand, God is sovereign and blesses those He chooses to bless by miraculously healing unbelievers on occasion.
When the Word became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, the compassionate heart of God for healing of physical and emotional issues was fully manifested. There was not a single instance where the Son of God refused to heal a person who had come to Him. That the healing of physical infirmity should be a part of the church’s ministry today is denied by those whose lack of faith has led them to claim that we live under a dispensation where miracles and healing are no longer expected with a “prayer offered in faith.” It’s a most unscriptural way to explain the fact that sickness is just as rampant in the body of Christ today as in the world in general.
This dispensational argument is often associated with the doctrine of Balaam that would falsely teach grace makes allowance for sin without consequences. It’s a claim of false security that salvation is not lost by returning to worldly ways (see 2 Tim 4:9,10) or by abandoning one’s faith (see 1 Tim 1:19,20). But sickness in the physical realm simply can not be separated from sin in the spiritual realm. Rebellion against righteousness is at the root of most diseases experienced by man, be it personal rebellion or by our forefathers (Neh 9:2). However, the doctrine of Balaam has become so pervasive that healing by the wounds of Jesus is rarely in evidence today.
As we continue, we’ll see a connection between repentance of sin and healing of physical affliction. Hopefully we’ll also come to appreciate that the purpose for seeking divine healing should never be to pursue of one’s personal ambitions or indulging in worldly pleasures. Where the gift of healing is experienced, the Holy Spirit is manifesting His nature. And the Spirit of healing is also the Spirit of sanctification. Our sanctification should always be held in greater esteem than healing of any physical affliction. Indeed, “without holiness, no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). We must not allow ourselves to divide the offices of the Holy Spirit in the same way the offices of Jesus are often divided by claiming Him as Savior independent of His Lordship.
