God’s Word Heals

Carl Bloch, Christ healing the sick, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction”

Psalm 107:20

We all know how words can heal, words that are wise and kind, apt and helpful. That is most evident when they address what we think and feel about ourselves, and how we relate to others and how they relate to us. The words of a good counsellor can mend a broken heart and heal a broken relationship. Just as nasty words damage people badly, wise words can heal the worst hurts.

The power of words to wound and heal is explored at some length and in considerable detail in the book of Proverbs, the book that teaches the wisdom that comes from God for those who respect him and his provision for all people on earth. There the teacher of wisdom instructs his son, his student, on the power of wise words to heal (Proverbs 4:20-22):

My son, be attentive to my words,
incline your ears to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight,
keep them within your heart
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing for all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flows the springs of life.

The student is urged to take the wise words of his teacher to heart by listening attentively to them and looking for insight from them as they convey vitality and health to him from his heart to his whole being. Like good medicine, the words of wisdom bring life and health from the heart to the whole body (Proverbs 14:30). Like a spring of water, the outflow of healthy life from his heart into his body depends on the inflow of healthy life into it.

Wise words that are kind and gracious do more than just that. Good words make a sad heart glad (Proverbs 12:25). Like a honeycomb, they offer something delicious and sweet for the hearer to relish and enjoy and the speaker to provide satisfaction and enjoyment to others (Proverbs 16:24). So just as the tongue can be used recklessly as a sword to wound and kill, it can also be used wisely to bring healing and health to others (Proverbs 12:18). In fact, “the tongue that brings healing is a tree of life” (Proverbs 15:4 NIV). It is a little like the life-giving tree that God gave to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9; 3:22, 24). It restores some of the God-given vitality that they and their descendants had lost by their expulsion from Eden.

As the Creator of all people on earth the living God is the source of their physical life and health on earth. He conveys health to them through their nourishment by food and supplies healing for them through the medical care of doctors, nurses and health workers. In addition to that, he provides his people with spiritual health, the health of the whole person in body and soul, in mind and in spirit, partially through the words of his prophets and fully through the words of Jesus. Through Jesus he heals them completely from the inside out, from their spirits to their souls to their minds and their bodies. The healing that Jesus brings is a lifelong process of convalescence and recovery that begins now with the renewal of their spirits and culminates in the resurrection of their bodies for eternal life with God (Revelation 22:16; Titus 3:4-5). Paul refers to that divine work of spiritual recreation and renewal in this benediction: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; may your spirit and soul and body be kept completely healthy and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23 my translation).

In the Old Testament God presented himself to his people as their physician. He said, “I am the Lord, your healer” (Exodus 15:26). He promised the people that he had rescued from Egypt that if they listened to his voice and kept his commandments, he would not inflict any of the diseases on them that he had unleashed on the Egyptians (see also Exodus 23:25-26 and Deuteronomy 7:15). Like King Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:16), they therefore prayed to him for healing (Psalms 6:2; 41:4). And he kept his promise to heal them. Since he sent his word to heal them in answer to their cries for help (Psalm 107:17-20), they praised him for healing all their diseases (Psalm 103:3) and bandaging their broken hearts (Psalm 147:3).

Sadly by 740 BC, God’s people were so completely riddled with sickness from their rebellion against him (Isaiah 1:2-6) that they refused to heed God’s word and rejected his call to repentance (Isaiah 1:16-20; 5:24). By rejecting his word they forfeited the healing that they could have received from God (Isaiah 6:10). So when God called Isaiah to be a prophet, he told Isaiah that his word would have the opposite effect on them (Isaiah 6:5-10). It would not bring them healing but disclose the lethal outcome of their terminal sickness. The word that Isaiah spoke would make their sickness even worse by increasing their defiance of God and aggravating their refusal to listen to him. They would switch off to him deliberately and completely. His word would therefore make them harden their hearts and minds, shut off their ears and close their eyes to what God was saying to them and doing with them. By switching off to God, they would lose their capacity to receive God’s healing until the sickness had run its full course, and they would be ready to listen once again (Isaiah 6:11-13).

After that time of sickness, a day of healing would come for God’s people in the new city of Zion (Isaiah 33:13-24). God promised that he himself would come in judgment and deliverance to heal the spirits of his people completely from the guilt of their sin and their rebellion against him (Isaiah 57:18-19; Jeremiah 30:12-17; 33:6-8). He promised to usher in a new day that would bring righteousness and health to his people, a day when the sun of righteousness would rise with healing in his wings (Malachi 4:2). On that day his people would be healed by the wounds of God’s suffering servant who would bear their sin and guilt and sorrow (Isaiah 53:5).

That is what Jesus has done. He has healed us by bearing our sins, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). He uses God’s word as a scalpel to penetrate deep into our bodies and souls and spirits to perform a kind of open-heart surgery on us (Hebrews 4:12-13). He operates on us with his word that diagnoses our malady and heals it. He does not just treat the physical symptoms of our sickness but deals with the underlying cause of our infection, our sinful unbelief and mistrust of God. He does not just bring temporary relief from its effects, like remission from cancer; he grants us complete relief and lasting health by the gift of eternal salvation (Hebrews 5:9).

So just as God had promised to be the healer of the Israelites who kept his laws, Jesus presents himself as a good physician, a different physician with different people with a different kind of healing (Matthew 9:12; Luke 5:31-32). He treats those who are penitent sinners with the medicine of forgiveness and provides them with relief from the deadly, pervasive sickness of sin. That is his divine mission.

The context of this mission statement by Jesus is significant. Jesus had healed a paralyzed man by forgiving his sins and telling him to get up on his feet and walk home (Matthew 9:1-8; Luke 5:17-26). After this, he called the tax collector Matthew to follow him and accepted Matthew’s invitation to take part in a meal for him in Matthew’s house together with a crowd of tax collectors and other guests (Matt 9:10; Luke 27-28). There he responded to the criticism of him by the teachers of the law and the Pharisees for eating and drinking with sinners with these words: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32). Jesus was sent by his heavenly Father to provide healing for the radical sickness of all people, healing for self-acknowledged sinners rather than self-righteous people who relied on spiritual self-diagnosis and self-medication for their health. Like the paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus by his friends, sinners like Matthew are unable to walk in the way of God’s law to gain and retain health for themselves. So Jesus calls them to repent by following him; he heals their spiritual paralysis by forgiving them.

The inspired singer of Psalm 107 thanks God for sending his word to heal the people who were infected with sickness by their rebellion against God and tormented by their iniquities (Psalm 107:17-20). This song envisages God’s word as a messenger that God had sent to heal people who were sick from sin and rescue them from certain death.

In his address to the Roman centurion Cornelius, St. Peter recalls the words in verse 20 of this psalm to tell him about Jesus (Acts 10:36, 38). God had sent his healing word to the people of Israel by sending Jesus to them and anointing him with the Holy Spirit as the promised Messiah. Through Jesus the Messiah, the Lord of all people on earth, the Lord God himself preached the good news of peace to them as he had promised in Isaiah 52:7. By preaching the gospel Jesus did good things for them and healed them from oppression by the devil (Acts 10:36). Thus Peter associates the proclamation of God’s word with healing and deliverance from the devil. Then later Peter connects both of these with the forgiveness of sins that is received by those who believe in Jesus as the Messiah and Lord of all (Acts 10:43). These four things – God’s word, healing, deliverance and forgiveness – all belong together as part of a single enactment by God. Healing comes from the proclamation of the gospel by Jesus, who had been anointed by God’s Spirit. The gospel brings the divine word of healing because it delivers people from oppression by the devil and offers forgiveness of sins to every believer.

It is therefore not at all surprising that the preaching and teaching of the gospel is correlated with various kinds of healing in the Gospels. Take for example the summaries of what Jesus did in Matthew. In Matthew 4:23 he reports: “And he (Jesus) went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and affliction among the people.” We find the same summary in Matthew 9:25 apart from a reference to “all the towns and villages” rather than “all Galilee.” Matthew implies that healing accompanies the proclamation of the gospel, because the gospel does not just announce the arrival of God’s kingdom but also brings healing to people who hear it and believe in it. Jesus did not just heal the centurion’s paralyzed servant with his word (Matthew 8:8) but also usually healed all kinds of sick and disabled people by what he said to them (Matthew 8:3; 9:1-6; 12:13). Jesus also used his word to heal people who were haunted and possessed by evil spirits (8:16; 15:28; 17:18). In both cases his words restored them to health.

Since Jesus healed people with his teaching and preaching, it was no wonder that people came from far and near to hear him (Luke 6:17-19). They came to hear him so that they would be healed of their diseases and be cured from the evil spirits that haunted them. They came to hear him because their spiritual health depended on his word. Their faith in him healed them (Matthew 9:22; Mark 10:52; Luke 17:19) and saved them from sin (Luke 7:50). The same verb is used by Jesus in all these cases. Jesus made them well by saving them; he saved them by making them well. Like them, we too depend on Jesus and his word for our health and safety. He also says to us, “Your faith has made you well.” His saving word makes and keeps us safe and well.

God’s word still has the power to heal us, whether it be as it is spoken to us in the divine service or as we meditate on it in our daily devotions. That’s why St Paul speaks about the sound, healing words of Jesus (1 Timothy 6:3; 2 Timothy 1:13) and the sound, healing teaching that is based on them (1 Timothy 1:10; 2 Timothy 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1). God’s word does not heal us partially and temporally, but completely and eternally in body, soul and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

Yet it does not do that all at once or on any single occasion. It repeatedly addresses those things that attack our spiritual health and cause various bouts of sickness as they arise in our life on earth. It treats us according to our needs in a lifelong journey of spiritual convalescence. It keeps us sound and healthy in faith (Titus 1:13). Thus, even though our bodies have been freed from some sickness by a word of healing, we will fall sick again and eventually die from physical sickness and infirmity. Even though our souls have been freed from guilt by a word of forgiveness, we will sin again and suffer the consequences of our iniquity. Even though our spirits have been freed from the devil and other evil spirits by a word of deliverance, we will be attacked by them again for as long as we live on earth. These episodes of sickness and ill health will require further treatment by Jesus. All of them give us a foretaste and pledge of our final healing with the resurrection of our bodies as Jesus has promised (John 5:25): “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live.”

by Dr John W. Kleinig

This article is taken from Chapter 10 of God’s Word: A Guide to Holy Scripture - Lexham Press . It is used with permission from the author.