Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1Co 9:24-27)
The Bible tells us two important things: how to get to Heaven and how to live the Christian life on this earth until we get there. Many people confuse these two things. Salvation is of the Lord and not of what we can do: Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: (Php 1:6)
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: (Col 2:9-10) In Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in bodily form. Then Paul says we are complete in Christ. We can add nothing to Christ to help Him get us saved. It is by His stripes we are healed of our lost condition before God:
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1Pe 2:24)
This verse is about healing our lost spiritual condition and has nothing to do with healing physical disease. I believe strongly in Divine healing of physical diseases. God healed my eyes, damaged from Guillain Berre’ (French Polio) at 11:00 a.m. January 1, 1987. The right eye was turned inward, so that I saw two of everything. I was scooting my damaged feet along, six inches at a time, facing the cold north wind….and praying with great intensity. I saw two trees.
All at once, two trees became one tree when my damaged eye returned to a normal position. The eye doctor had examined me and said it would take at least six weeks for the eye to heal, IF…it ever healed. It healed in less than ten seconds. I have witnessed enough healings that it would take more than the rest of this page to include them. My hands have felt the heat coming from a shattered leg bone being completely healed.
My mother was healed of a failed bladder surgery as she walked the length of the hall in her house. The eyes of a little girl in Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, TN were healed while 300 people were on their knees praying for her at Temple Baptist Church in Rossville, GA. I was one of those 300 people praying for the little girl. So, I believe strongly in Divine healing.
But physical healing is not in 1Peter 2:24. Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree so that we would live toward righteousness. The enabling of our living a righteous and holy life is that the moral condition has been healed by the stripes laid on Jesus’ back by the Roman soldiers who put Him to death. I have a hard time understanding why good people are content to twist 1Peter 2:24 which is a quote from Isaiah 53:5, to make it mean something it does not mean.
Everybody dies of something that is wrong with the body. Oral Roberts is dead. Many such people whom God used to heal hundreds of people are dead. If healing is in the Atonement, then the only thing that keeps saved people from being healed is their flawed faith or sin in their life. Do all old Christians die because they won’t repent of their sins? Do you see what a royal mess you get into if you say that physical healing is in the Atonement? We're still discussing running the race of the Christian life and I've seen some stuff in my 63 years of Christian ministry.
It’s not nice for a healthy Christian to look at a sick Christian and say: “Oh, you could be healed if you would get right with God!” Well, my friend. I try to patient with people like that. I assure you that you will die of something wrong with your body and then you can repeat what you have been telling other sick Christians. I know you mean well, bless your heart, but you simply don’t have it altogether. Physical healing is not in the Atonement.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary, written by the faculty of Dallas Seminary makes this comment about it: “Peter made a general reference to salvation: by His wounds you have been healed (Isa_53:5). This does not refer to physical healing for the verb’s past tense indicates completed action, the “healing” is an accomplished fact. The reference is to salvation. Christ’s suffering (lit., “wound”; mōlōpi, “stripe left by a lash,” referred to Jesus’ scourging) and death accomplished “healing,” the salvation of every individual who trusts Him as his Savior.” (Bible Knowledge Commentary)
We will do a Part 2, and maybe more, to continue “Running the Race.”
Read Through the Bible in a Year
MAY 24, 2017 – WEDNESDAY
A.M. 1Chron 11-13 P.M. John 9:1-23
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
Memory Verse This Month:
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. (Luke 24:44)
Song for Today:
He Giveth More Grace (3:07) (Gaither Group)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN9-Ri6qjZY
If music is better than this in Heaven, I’m sure to have a spell…
(Wait several seconds. You may have to delete an ad.)