From the book The Gospel of Healing
by A.B. Simpson, first published in 1885.
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Healing: The Scriptural Foundation
by A.J. Simpson (Part 2)
Jesus empowers others to heal
But was this blessed power to die with Jesus at Calvary? Jesus does not so indicate. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12). Jesus makes it emphatic -- "verily, verily" -- as if He knew it was something mankind was sure to doubt. It is no use to tell us that this meant that the church after Pentecost was to have greater spiritual power and do greater spiritual works by the Holy Spirit than Jesus Himself did, inasmuch as the conversion of the soul is a greater work than the healing of the body. Jesus says, "The works that I do shall he do also," as well as the "greater works than these." That is, Jesus' followers are to do the same works that He Himself did and greater also.
Even during His life on earth Jesus sent out the 12 apostles. Then He sent out the 70 as forerunners of the whole host of the Christian eldership (for the 70 were in effect the first elders of the Christian age, corresponding to the 70 elders of Moses' time) with full power to heal. And when Jesus was about to leave the world, He left on record both these commissions in the most unmistakable terms.
A twofold commission
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:15-18).
Here is the commission of the twofold gospel given to them and the assurance of Christ's presence and unchanging power. What right have we to preach one part of the gospel without the other? What right have we to hold back any of God's grace from a perishing world? What right have we to go to unbelievers and demand their acceptance of our salvation message without these signs following? What right have we to explain their absence from our ministry by trying to eliminate them from God's Word or to consign them to an obsolete past?
Christ promised the signs, and they followed as long as Christians continued to believe and expect them. It is important to observe Young's translation of verse 17: "Signs shall follow them that believe these things." The signs shall correspond to the extent of their faith.
By such mighty "signs and wonders" the church was established in Jerusalem, Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. The unbelief of the world needs these signs today as much as in the apostolic times. During the apostolic age these manifestations of healing power were by no means confined to the apostles. Philip and Stephen were as gloriously used as Peter and John.
In I Corinthians 12:9-30, "the gifts of healings" are spoken of as widely diffused and universally understood among the endowments of the church. But the apostolic age was soon to close; were the gifts to be continued, and if so, by whom? By what limitation was the church to be preserved from fanaticism and presumption? By what commission was healing to be perpetuated to the end of time and placed within the reach of all God's suffering saints?
The answer is in James 5:14, to which we turn again with deep interest: "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
Notice first who gives this commission. It is James -- James, who had authority to say, in summing up the decrees of the council at Jerusalem, "My sentence is..." He is the man who is named first by Paul himself among the pillars of the church (see Galatians 2:9).
Observe to whom this power is committed. Not to the apostles, who are now passing away; not to men and women of rare gifts or difficult to contact. It was given to the elders -- the men most likely to be within reach of every sufferer, the men who are to continue till the end of the age.
Notice the time at which this commission is given. It was not at the beginning, but at the close of the apostolic age. It was not for that generation, but for the one that was just rising and all the succeeding ages. Indeed, these New Testament letters were not widely circulated in their own time, but were mainly designed "for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."
Again, observe the nature of the ordinance en joined. It is "the prayer of faith" and the "anointing... with oil in the name of the Lord." This was not a medical anointing, for it was not to be applied by a physician, but by an elder. It must, naturally, be the same anointing we read of in connection with the healing of disease by the apostles (for instance, Mark 6:13).
Any other interpretation would be strained and contrary to the obvious meaning of the custom as our Lord and His apostles observed it. In the absence of any explanation to the contrary, we are bound to believe that it was the same -- a symbolic religious ordinance expressive of the power of the Holy Spirit, whose peculiar emblem is oil.
The Greek Orthodox church still retains the ordinance, but the Roman Catholic church has changed it into a mournful preparation for death. It is a beautiful symbol of the Divine Spirit of life taking possession of the human body and breathing into it God's vital energy.
Divine healing is a command
Divine healing ceases to be a mere privilege. It is the Divine prescription for disease, and no obedient Christian can safely ignore it. Any other method of dealing with sickness is unauthorized. This is God's plan. This makes faith simple and easy. We have only to obey in childlike confidence; God will fulfill.
Once more, we must not overlook the connection of sickness with sin. There is here the suggestion that the trial has been a Divine chastening and requires self-judgment, penitence and pardon. There is the blessed assurance that both pardon and healing may be claimed together in His name.
If more were needed than the testimony of James, then John, the last of the apostles and the one who best knew the Master's heart, has left a tender prayer: "Beloved, I wish [pray] above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth" (III John 2). By this prayer we may know our Father's gentle concern for our health as well as for our souls. When God breathes such a prayer for us, we need not fear to claim it for ourselves. But as we do, we must not forget that our health will be even as our soul prospers.
In Ephesians 5:30 we note a union between our body and the risen body of the Lord Jesus Christ: "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." We have the right to claim for our mortal frame the vital energy of Christ's perfect life. He has given His life for us, and it is all-sufficient.
"If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:11). This promise cannot refer to the future resurrection. That resurrection will be by the "voice of the Son of God" (John 5:25), not the Holy Spirit. This is a present dwelling in and a quickening by the Spirit. And it is a quickening of the "mortal body," not the soul.
What can this be but physical restoration? The physical restoration is the direct work of the Holy Spirit, and only they who know the indwelling of the Divine Spirit can receive it. It was the Spirit of God who wrought the miracles of Jesus Christ on earth (Matthew 12:28). And if we have the same Spirit dwelling in us, we shall experience the same works.
Not simply healing but health
Paul expressed his physical experience this way: "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (II Corinthians 4:10-11).
Paul knew constant peril, infirmity and physical suffering -- probably by persecution and even violence. But it came in order that the healing, restoring and sustaining power and life of Jesus might be the more constantly manifest in his very body. And this for the encouragement of suffering saints -- "for your sakes" (4:15). His life was a constant miracle that it might be to all persons a pledge and monument of the promise made to him for all who might thereafter suffer. This life, he tells us, was "renewed day by day" (4:16). The healing power of Christ is dependent on our continual abiding in Him and, like all God's gifts, is renewed day by day.
Christ did not say, "I will be with you alway." That would have suggested a break. He said, "I am" -- an unchanging now, a presence never withdrawn, a love, a nearness, a power to heal and save as constant and as free as ever, even unto the end of the world. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."
Thus have we traced the teachings of the Holy Scriptures from Exodus to Patmos. We have seen God giving His people the ordinance of healing at the very outset of their pilgrimage. We have seen it illustrated in the ancient dispensation in the sufferings of Job, the songs of David and the sad death of Asa. We have seen Isaiah's prophetic vision of the coming Healer. We have seen the Son of man coming to fulfill that picture to the letter; we have heard Him tell His weeping disciples of His unchanging presence with them. We have seen Him transmit His healing power to their hands. And we have seen those followers hand down this gospel of healing to us and to the church of God until the latest ages of time.
What more evidence can we ask? What else can we do but believe, rejoice, receive and proclaim this great salvation to a sick and sinking world?
This page Copyright © 1999 Peter Wade. The Bible text in this publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King James Version. This article appears on the site: http://www.peterwade.com/.
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