“Which is easier?” Jesus asked his critics: “To say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or (turning to the paralysed man) ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk.'” (Mark 3, Luke 5, Matthew 9). In the time of Jesus, people believed in God’s healing power; after all, had God not healed people through the prophets of old? But to the idea of anyone but Almighty God forgiving sins was just not on!
These days things are reversed. Most people believe that Jesus forgives sins but deny that he also heals the sick. But forgiveness and healing are inseparable, being but two sides of the one coin.
People separate healing from forgiveness for these seven reasons:
1.) They mistake “healing” for “miracle” and if no change takes place as soon as they are prayed for, they stop believing.
2.) They believe that God is thought of as selective, and so although willing to save every sinner, He is less willing to heal every believer. That don’t know that God’s forgiveness and healing are hand in hand.
3.) They believe that God wants to save everyone, always but not to heal everyone, always. So, they seek reasons as to why He does not
4.) They ignore the fact that God created the human body to repel infection and to recover itself from illness. Physicians do not heal; they prescribe remedies that might well help the body’s healing processes.
5.) They would prefer that those who are terminally ill be permitted to “die with dignity” — even if they die disillusioned. But the motto of physicians is “Do No Harm”, so they do everything possible to keep them alive.
6.) They ask, “If God can heal everyone, then why does He not do so? The answer is that God can save everyone but not everyone will allow Him to save them. The reason Jesus could do no great miracles in Nazareth, where he had grown up, was that familiarity had bred contempt. The people even referred to him not by name but as “this man”. They said, in as many words, Charity begins at home!
7.) They say that God, being Sovereign, decides whom He will heal or not heal. However, the Bible reveals God’s will, which is to heal His people. And the Word that was made flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth spent much of his time healing, and at times “healed them all”!
It is as easy for Jesus to heal as to forgive. It is not a case of “Yes!” in the matter of forgiveness and “Maybe” in the matter of healing. Here are some Bible texts that link healing to forgiveness: Isaiah 33:24, James 5:14-15, Psalm 103:3 (where “Bless the LORD, O my soul” means, “Bless the LORD, I say to myself”), Isaiah 53:4-5 makes God’s will clear: “Surely he has borne our grief’s (sicknesses) and carried our sorrows (pains)…” (Matthew 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24).
The NT Greek word “sozo” (pronounced “soodzo”) is used not only for forgiveness, but also for healing, preservation, and deliverance — in fact, for everything from Conversion to Resurrection. “Your faith has saved you” means “from your sins” in the case of repentance, and “healed you” in the case of illness.
So, live by faith and just as you reject the doubts that arise about your forgiveness, likewise, do not allow doubts to arise about your healing. Why do many allow doubt to enter? Why do they accept forgiveness yet question healing? Why do they make hard that which God has made easy?
Healing is cross-stitched with forgiveness into the fabric of salvation. You know better than to doubt His forgiveness, so why would you doubt that His healing is equally yours through Jesus Christ? Physical healing is not an add-on that some receive but not others.
So, decide now that from this day forward you will affirm healing with the same heartfelt conviction that you affirm forgiveness! “Which is easier”? Neither! Healing is as straightforward as forgiveness the moment you believe that the twin benefits of Psalm 103:3 are all but inseparable.