CHAPTER NINE

Gifts of Healings

IT IS CLEAR from Genesis 2:9; 3:22-24, Ezekiel 47:7-12, and Revelation 22:2 that bodily sickness is not natural for humanity, which was to be, and again will be, kept in health through eating of the Tree of Life. Had Adam been allowed to continue eating of this Tree he would in spite of his sin have lived for ever. Death and sickness then are not the inevitable results of sin, but spring from the loss of the Tree of Life, which was the necessary food of men. The loss of this Tree has resulted in the slow but steady deterioration of the human body until the present expectation of life is about 70 years, and sickness from time to time is almost universal. Hence the problem of Divine Healing is urgent, since the best efforts of doctors and surgeons are so often fruitless: and the Bible is full of instances of this Divine Healing from Exodus 15:25-26 to Acts 28:8-9.

       In the actual practice of Divine Healing however many difficulties arise, and much disappointment is met, so that it is fair to say that as a whole our Pentecostal Movement is greatly perplexed to find an explanation for the situation, and it is increasingly normal for us to go to doctors and surgeons when we are ill, simply because our prayers are apparently not answered, and we are forced to do something about it. Before then coming

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to consider the spiritual Gifts of Healings, it may be wise to attempt to understand the whole subject.

Is Healing In The Atonement?

       This question is often asked and opinions about it differ. In attempting to find an answer it is necessary first to consider a matter of translation. The word for "atonement" in Romans 5:11 is in every other case translated "reconciliation", Romans 11:15, 2 Cor. 5:18-21, and that was the meaning of the word, at-one-ment, when the 1611 translation (A.V.) was made. Later on the word "atonement" took on instead the totally different meaning of expiation or reparation, which it still has, cf. English Dictionary. Now sin does need expiation and the Lord's death was to make reparation for the sin of the world and make the law honourable and establish it by the death of those who broke it, Romans 3:31, Isaiah 42:21. On the other hand sickness is not an offence against the Law of God, and does not therefore need any expiation, but is simply a human misfortune due to the loss of the Tree of Life in Eden, and it falls upon men without any regard to their character. Cf. Psalm 73:1-15, Job 2:1-8, 1 Timothy 5:23, James 5:15.

       In the At-one-ment then, or reconciliation, is included not only healing but all the myriad blessings that come to men through our Lord's sacrifice for sin. "He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). But the "atonement" in its later meaning of expiation for sin did not include men's sicknesses, for they were not sinful nor abhorrent to God's righteousness, and did not call for the death

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of a Saviour. Christ had to suffer for sin, but not for sickness. Yet, having purged our sins and so reconciled us to God, he also brought us physical healing as one of the "all things" of Romans 8:32.

       Furthermore it seems clear from the Hebrew of Isaiah 53:2-4 where the mistranslated "sorrow and grief" of the Authorised Version were correctly translated in Matt. 8:17 by "infirmities and sicknesses", (c.f. R.V.), that our Lord Himself not only had no comeliness, nor any beauty, but also was a "man of infirmity and acquainted with sickness ". "For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities (the same word as in Matt. 8:17), but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15). This part of His experience we are told brought upon Him the rejection of His contemporaries who longed for a warrior Prince such as David to lead them against the Romans, and had no time for one who lacked beauty and strength and tasted the sickness common to man. It is sin and sin alone which requires an atonement; sickness does not.

       Finally in Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24 the Hebrew and Greek words mistranslated "stripes" are in both cases singular and not plural, and the Revised Version and margin render "bruise", which refers to His death on the Cross, not to His scourging by the soldiers. The Greek and Hebrew words for "healing" are also often translated "salvation" so that Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24 can quite rightly be translated "by whose bruise we were saved", and in 1 Peter 2:24 there is no reference to healing but only to Calvary.

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       In conclusion, then, in my opinion, physical healing like every other blessing from God is in the At-one-ment or reconciliation, but not in the Atonement or expiation for sin. For sickness is not morally wrong and does not call for the sentence of death as sin does, nor did it need any kind of expiation by Christ.

Three Methods of Healing

       To continue then in our consideration of Divine Healing, it would seem that in the Bible it falls under three heads:
(1) The healing of unbelievers through evangelists in order to confirm the Divine nature of their message, and convince their hearers that God is a God of love (Mark 16:15-20).
(2) The routine healing of members of the Church of God through the prayer of the elders and the anointing with oil. This is a matter of corporate Church Life, when the determined prayers of the whole church may be needed, and where sins, if any, may need to be confessed (James 5:14-18).
(3) "The Gifts of Healings" given by the Lord to one of His servants to hand on to anyone whom He may desire to heal for some purpose of His own. Each separate healing is a separate gift and there is no such thing as a "gift" of being able to heal everybody at will. It is not a "gift of healing", but "gifts of healings".

       Typical cases of these gifts are to be found
(a) in the Old Testament, 2 Kings 5:8, where Elisha had Naaman's healing in his hand, though there were many lepers in Israel for whom he could do nothing! (Luke 4:27), and Isaiah received the gift of Hezekiah's healing just after he had told him that he was going to die! (2 Kings 20:4-5),

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and
(b) in the New Testament when Ananias was sent to Saul, much against his will, to heal one whom he regarded as an enemy, as Elisha did Naaman (Acts 9:12-17). And Peter had in his hand the healing of the cripple whom Jesus must have passed by hundreds of times without healing him! "Such as I have, give I thee," he said (Acts 3:6).

       In modern times too there are many instances of these gifts in the ministries of God's people. In my own church in Clerkenwell in a small prayer meeting of sisters, after the leader had spoken to encourage faith, one of the sisters rose from her knees and said to another "Here is your healing" as she laid hands upon her. This sister was due to have a very serious operation on her eyes in a short time, but having been told by a leading Evangelist that Pentecost was of the devil, had become unable to receive the gift of her healing through doubt and perplexity, and was asking the Lord to cause her again to speak in tongues if it was from Him. A few days after, when hands were laid upon her, she spoke again in a flood of tongues, and received this "gift of healing", which has lasted for years.

       Like any other gift, these gifts have not only to be given, but also received! Hezekiah after being told by God that he was to die was unable to receive Isaiah's "gift of a healing" until his faith had been raised by the wonderful miracle of 2 Kings 20:8-11. Naaman had a similar difficulty in receiving Elisha's gift (2 Kings 5:10-14). Saul had been warned by the Lord that a man called Ananias was coming with his healing (Acts 9:12), and Ananias left his house with Saul's healing in

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his hand but without any desire to help Saul, the enemy of God's people!

       There is then a double act of faith in the operation of these particular gifts. The one has to receive the gift from God, and the sick person has to receive it from the one sent to hand it on. The marvellous case of Betty Baxter seems to have run on these same lines. For the Lord appeared to her and to her mother, and told them the exact day and hour upon which He would heal her. She believed and made herself ready: had she not prepared herself in faith by buying the articles of dress which she would require she would not perhaps have been able to receive the blessing! It is possible then in this way to receive a gift of a healing either for oneself or somebody else. In either case faith is the channel of reception as in all God's dealings with man.

       Finally then whereas the healings which follow the preaching of the Gospel, or which come to church members through the prayer of the elders, do not require those who pray the prayer of faith to be baptized in the Holy Ghost—simple faith in the word of God is sufficient—these "gifts of healings" can only come to those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells and so is able to communicate His special will. The Spirit is of course "with" all believers but is only "in" those who have received Him into their bodies in the Baptism of the Spirit.

       To sum up then, the Lord has made His will clear for universal healing of the body as He has for universal salvation of the soul; for those as yet unsaved, the preaching of the Gospel accompanied by the healing of the body (He healed them all, Matt. 12:15); for those who are members of

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His Church, the prayer of the elders accompanied by anointing with oil; for special cases, e.g. those who have never heard the Gospel, or those who like Saul of Tarsus could not call for the elders of the Church, Gifts of Healings taken by a son of God filled with the Holy Ghost. Salvation of the soul and healing of the body are freely given to all upon one condition only, Faith. "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." There is no instance in the Bible of our Lord refusing either salvation or healing to anyone who was able to accept: and delay is not denial.

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