There are abuses with every doctrine in Scripture. And based on what you have experienced in your life, you will add your “Yeah but what about….” after reading certain biblical passages. 

When John says that 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness..” (1 John 1:9) some of us respond with, “But what about those people who abuse this and just keep on sinning?” Because that has happened. I did it in my early years.

When the writer of Hebrews tells us to "Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority.." many of us object: "But what about the leaders who abuse their authority!" 

When Paul told wives to submit to their husbands (Eph. 5:22) some of us state “But what about those husbands who abuse this verse and treat their wives as doormats?” 

When Paul told husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, its easy to wonder, “Does that mean husbands have to make the most sacrifices and do whatever their wives want them to do?"

When we read scriptures about God’s sovereignty like "Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases" (Psalm 115:3) some of us protest, "But that makes people go passive about prayer and doing good!"

And when we read about Jesus healing by faith in his atonement, some of us think, “This sounds like that guy on tv who told people to mail in 100 bucks as an act of faith and then they'd get healed."

All those doctrines -- and more -- have certainly been abused. Some of us have felt the personal pain of those abuses and manipulations. Our concern about those abuses are valid. 

So the two questions that have arisen since yesterday's message about Healing in the Atonement  are:

• Are you saying that if someone is not healed that it’s because they don’t have enough faith?
• Does God not use trials and pain to do mighty things for his kingdom? And doesn’t emphasizing faith in healing run counter to the scriptural truth that God also sometimes works through trials to create Christ-like character in us?

First off, there is a reason we started off the series with me sharing about my journey with healing. The miracles and the let-downs. We are teaching this doctrine of healing with fervor, but not at the cost of denying reality, not at the expense of empathizing with the losses that are represented in our church.

It’s why we teach topics over the course of weeks, if not months, so that we can hit things from multiple angles that are taught in Scripture. Thus, if you missed the first week, listen here: Origin of Sickness and God's Response. 

Now to the questions: 

1. Are you saying that if someone is not healed that it’s because they don’t have enough faith?

Even after we trust in Jesus as Savior, even though we are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:18), Christians still have this tendency to sin.  Nobody argues with this.

Why do they continue to sin? Because the “old man”, the flesh, is and will be a part of our being until we meet Jesus face to face. Because the world is still broken and it temps us to act like we're not saved.  

In the same way, even after accepting Jesus as Healer, sickness still comes after us. Why? Because we still live in a broken world with fallen, mortal bodies.

One day, after Jesus comes back and ushers in the new heavens and new earth and gives us new bodies, there will be no more struggle with sin and no more sickness. At all. Zero. 

In the meantime, we continually lean into Jesus as our Savor and believe for the power to overcome sin, and we lean into him as Healer and believe for healing to combat our battles with physical, emotional and psychological illnesses. 

So when someone doesn’t get healed, we don’t automatically say it’s because of a lack of faith. That would be both cold and theologically incorrect. It would be like telling a Christian who falls into sin that they must not have trusted in Jesus as Savior.

But to say that faith has nothing to do with it would be theologically incorrect as well. 

Jesus healed many on account of their faith:

• “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:34)
• "Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you" (Luke 17:19).
•  “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you” (Luke 18:48)

We cannot stop teaching about Jesus' power over sin and his power over healing just becasue some of us still struggle with addiction and others still struggle with sickness.  Teaching the full council of Scripture causes us to emphasize different things at different points, and there are many passages where faith in Jesus for healing is strongly affirmed. 

But this is not faith in faith, where our healing is based on how much faith we have or how positive the people around us are. This is faith in the God who created the heavens and the earth, and who died to free us from sin and its consequences. 

As for the 2nd question: Does God not use trials and pain to do mighty things for his kingdom? And doesn’t emphasizing faith in healing run counter to the scriptural truth that God also sometimes works through trials to create Christ-like character in us?

When you read scripture, you see God's will from two different vantage points. You see his moral prescribed will, which is how he wants the universe to operate despite the brokenness of the world. It's how we are to live, what we are to beleive, how we are to treat each other, and how we are to pray.

Then you see his sovereign mysterious will (also called his permissive will), where he allows things that seem to be contrary to his moral prescribed will, and in which we must trust and rest when those difficult things happen. 

Confused?

A few examples:

- Proverbs 22:6 tells us to "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." But how many parents in our church are now having to rest in God's ultimate sovereignty over their adult children's wayward lifestyles?

- 1 Peter 2:9 tells us that "God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." And yet, God allows people the free choice to reject his saving grace.

- And James 5 says, "Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well." (James 5:13-15). But clearly not everyone is healed.

So we are are to fight for, live for, pray for and believe for his moral prescribed will, while at the same time trusting in his sovereign mysterious will when our prayers are not answered as we would like. This is a great tension that we are living in, and it's very difficult to explain these paradoxes. But we must seek to embrace this tension rather than pick a side in order to resolve that tension. Human logic doesn't always answer all the questions raised in a Book inspired by an infinite and omniscient God.

But we do not use his sovereign mysterious will as an excuse to not train up our children unto Jesus, or tell others about the gospel, or pray expectantly for healing. 

In summary, we live in the overlap of two kingdoms -- Jesus' kingdom and the kingdom of the world. We believe for and live for and pray for the former while acknowledging God's sovereignty over the latter.