Christ’s Victory Over Sickness

Christ’s mandate

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

(1 John 3:8)

 The Lord Jesus never changes (Malachi 3:6). With that truth in mind, we can look more closely at the passage above. The apostle John teaches us that when our Lord Jesus walked in the earth He destroyed the works of the devil. Jesus did that by healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, and preaching the gospel to the poor (Luke 7:22). Because the Lord never changes, He continues to do the same works today through His body, the church. Jesus Himself declared that those who believe in Him would do the works He did—and even greater works (John 14:12).

Therefore, there can be no doubt that every believer, when ministering to the unsaved, should be healing the sick, casting out demons, and preaching the gospel to the poor. Raising the dead, however, is not intended for the unsaved, and we will examine that point in greater detail in the following section.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

(Acts 10:38)

This passage reveals the nature of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Notice that the Holy Spirit specifically records that Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. The text does not say He healed everyone who was sick, but rather everyone oppressed by Satan. Clearly, the Holy Spirit wants us to understand that sickness and disease originate from the devil.

Thus, when God sent His Son into the world, He gave Him the mandate to invade Satan’s territory—for Scripture tells us that Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4)—and to destroy the works of sickness and disease that Satan had imposed upon mankind.

It is important here to address an incorrect teaching that claims God cannot place sickness on anyone because only Satan has sickness to give. This idea is inconsistent with Scripture. The Bible clearly teaches that God is the Creator of all things (Revelation 4:11), which includes the viruses and organisms that cause disease. If anyone doubts whether God can afflict with sickness, they need only ask Moses (Exodus 4:6) and Miriam (Numbers 12:10), both of whom experienced God placing sickness upon them.

So how does Satan fit into this? Satan, a created angel, has no ability to create sickness on his own. Nevertheless, God has permitted him to use what already exists in creation—viruses, diseases, and other means—to afflict humanity. This explains why Acts 10:38 tells us that Jesus healed those oppressed by the devil.

The Lord Jesus still carries the same mandate today: to destroy the works of the devil. The difference is that He no longer physically walks the earth, and so He fulfils that mandate through His body, the church.

Christ’s provision for our healing

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."

(Matthew 8:16-17)

 The Lord Jesus not only bore our sins on the cross, but Scripture also teaches that He bore our sicknesses and diseases. The passage above makes this truth unmistakable: He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. Most Christians readily accept that Jesus bore their sins, yet many struggle to believe that He also carried their sicknesses. Nevertheless, that is exactly what God’s Word declares.

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.

(1 Peter 2:24)

Here the apostle Peter confirms that by the stripes of Jesus we were healed. Notice the past tense: were healed. This means healing is already accomplished, and every child of God has the right to experience it now. Again, believers have little trouble accepting the first part of this verse—that Jesus bore their sins—but many hesitate to embrace the second part, that by His stripes they were healed.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),

(Galatians 3:13)

The apostle Paul teaches us in the above quoted passage of scripture that our Lord Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law. The curse of the law that Paul is referring to is recorded in Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight, which if you read you will see that every sickness and every disease is included under that curse. Therefore Paul is telling the church that Christ has redeemed us from all sickness and all disease.

The bible teaches us that out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word will be established (2 Corinthians 13:1). I have quoted three different writers from the New Testament who all say the same thing; for all three tell us that when Jesus took our sins on the cross He also took our sickness. Therefore we can clearly see that as far as God is concerned it has already been accomplished, and whether we choose to believe it or not does not change the fact that Jesus has redeemed us from all sickness and disease.

Salvation works in exactly the same manner; for our Lord Jesus has died for everyone and He has born everyone’s sin. Therefore whether people choose to believe that or not does not change the fact that Jesus has done it. Those who choose not to believe that Jesus has born their sins do not experience salvation through the new birth. On the other hand those who do choose to believe that Jesus has born their sins experience salvation through the new birth.

In the same manner those who choose not to believe that Jesus has born their sickness do not receive divine health for their physical bodies. On the other hand those who choose to believe that Jesus has born their sickness will experience divine health in their physical bodies.

So why is it important for Christians to believe the truth that healing and divine health belong to those who have been redeemed in Christ? The answer is simple; if the saints do not believe that it is the Lord’s will for them to be healed, then they certainly won’t believe that it is the Lord’s will to heal the unsaved either. Therefore those saints cannot fulfil the Lord’s mandate for the church to lay hands on the unsaved for their healing.

In order for us to more clearly understand this point we can look at the example of salvation again. The concept would be the same as an unbeliever witnessing to a fellow unbeliever, telling them that they need to believe the gospel to be saved. Nothing will happen. In the same manner it is impossible for believers to have faith for others to be healed if they cannot exercise faith for their own healing and health.

You will recall that I emphasized in the previous section that faith is required for the laying on of hands to work. Therefore for the child of God to be effective in laying hands on the unsaved, they must have an unwavering faith in both the healing power of the Lord Jesus and that it is the Lord’s will to heal all, including the unsaved.

There is an added dimension to this point; which is that believers will have to walk in divine health if they are going to testify to the unsaved about the healing power of the Lord Jesus. Paul referred to it as being living epistles, known and read by all men (2 Corinthians 3:2-3). In other words believers must practice what they preach, for it would be impossible for a saint to convince an unsaved person that God can heal them if the saint is themselves in a state a poor health.

Michael E.B. Maher

Laying on of Hands

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