02.02. The Testimony of Scripture

The Ministry of Healing Or, Miracles of Cure in All Ages by A. J. Gordon 2. The Testimony of Scripture In the atonement of Christ there seems to be a foundation laid for faith in bodily healing. Seems -- we say, for the passage to which we refer is so profound and unsearchable in its meaning that one would be very careful not to speak dogmatically in regard to it. But it is at least a deep and suggestive truth that we have Christ set before us as the sickness-bearer as well as the sin-bearer of his people. In the gospel it is written, "And he cast out devils and healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:17). Something more than sympathetic fellowship with our sufferings is evidently referred to here. The yoke of his cross by which he lifted our iniquities took hold also of our diseases; so that it is in some sense true that as God "made him to be sin for us who knew no sin," so he made him to be sick for us who knew no sickness. He who entered into mysterious sympathy with our pain which is the fruit of sin, also put himself underneath our pain which is the penalty of sin. In other words the passage seems to teach that Christ endured vicariously our diseases as well as our iniquities.

(Dr. Hovey commenting on this passage says: "The words quoted by the evangelist are descriptive in the original passage of vicarious suffering. It is next to impossible to understand them otherwise. Hence in the miraculous healing of disease, a fruit if not a penalty of sin, Jesus appears to have had a full sense of the evil and pain which he removed. His anguish in the garden and on the cross was but the culmination of that which he felt almost daily while healing the sick, cleansing the leprous or forgiving the penitent. By the holy sharpness of his vision he pierced quite through the veil of sense and natural cause, and saw the moral evil, the black root of all disorder, the source of all bodily suffering. He could therefore heal neither bodily nor spiritual disease without a deep consciousness of his special relation to man as the substitute, the Redeemer, the Lamb of God who was to bear the penalty of the world’s guilt." The Miracles of Christ, p.120.)

If now it be true that our Redeemer and substitute bore our sicknesses, it would be natural to reason at once that he bore them that we might not bear them. And this inference is especially strengthened from the fact, that when the Lord Jesus removed the burden of disease from "all that were sick," we are told that it was done "that the scripture might be fulfilled, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." Let us remember what our theology is in regard to atonement for sin. "Christ bore your sins, that you might be delivered from them," we say to the penitent. Not sympathy -- a suffering with, but substitution -- a suffering for, is our doctrine of the Cross; and therefore we urge the transgressor to accept the Lord Jesus as his sin-bearer, that he may himself no longer have to bear the pains and penalties of his disobedience. But should we shrink utterly from reasoning thus concerning Christ as our pain-bearer? We do so argue to some extent at least. For we hold that in its ultimate consequences the atonement affects the body as well as the soul of man. Sanctification is the consummation of Christ’s redemptive work for the soul; and resurrection is the consummation of his redemptive work for the body. And these meet and are fulfilled at the coming and kingdom of Christ. But there is a vast intermediate work of cleansing and renewal effected for the soul. Is there none of healing and recovery for the body? Here, to make it plain, is the Cross of Christ; yonder is the Coming of Christ. These are the two piers of redemption, spanned by the entire dispensation of the Spirit and by all the ordinances and offices of the gospel. At the cross we read this two-fold declaration: -- "Who his own self bare our sins."

"Himself bare our sicknesses." At the coming we find this two-fold work promised: -- "The sanctification of the Spirit."

"The redemption of the body." The work of sanctification for the spirit stretches on from the cross to the crown, progressive and increasing till it is completed. Does the work of the body’s redemption touch only at these two remote points? Has the gospel no office of healing and blessing to proclaim meantime for the physical part of man’s nature? In answering this question we only make the following suggestions, which point significantly in one direction.

Christ’s ministry was a two-fold ministry, effecting constantly the souls and the bodies of men. "Thy sins are forgiven thee," and "Be whole of thy plague," are parallel announcements of the Saviour’s work which are found constantly running on side by side. The ministry of the apostles, under the guidance of the Comforter, is the exact facsimile of the Master’s. Preaching the kingdom and healing the sick; redemption for the soul and deliverance for the body -- these are its great offices and announcements. Certain great promises of the gospel have this double reference to pardon and cure. The commission for the world’s evangelization bids its messengers stretch out their hands to the sinner with the message, "He that believeth shall be saved," and to "lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." The promise by James, concerning the prayer of faith, is that it "shall save the sick, and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him." Thus this two-fold ministry of remission of sins and remission of sickness extends through the days of Christ and that of the apostles.

We only suggest these facts, leaving the example and acts and promises of the Lord and his apostles to stretch out their silent index in the direction which our argument will obediently pursue throughout this discussion.

Only one other fact need be alluded to -- the subtle, mysterious, and clearly recognized relation of sin and disease. The ghastly flag of leprosy, flung out in the face of Miriam, told instantly that the pirate sin had captured her heart. Not less truly did the crimson glow of health announce her forgiveness when afterwards the Lord had pardoned her and restored her to his fellowship. And it is obvious at once that our Redeemer cannot forgive and eradicate sin without in the same act disentangling the roots which that sin has struck into our mortal bodies.

He is the second Adam come to repair the ruin of the first. And in order to accomplish this he will follow the lines of man’s transgression back to their origin, and forward to their remotest issue. He will pursue the serpent trail of sin, dispensing his forgiveness and compassion as he goes, till at last he finds the wages of sin, and dies its death on the cross; and he will follow the wretched track of disease with his healing and recovery, till in his resurrection he shall exhibit to the world the first fruits of these redeemed bodies, in which "this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality." From this mysterious and solemn doctrine of the gospel, let us turn now to some of its clear and explicit promises.

We will take first the words of the gospel according to Mark: "These signs shall follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with other tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17-18 -- See 13. Appendix, Note C)).

It is important to observe that this rich cluster of miraculous promises all hangs by a single stem, faith. And this is not some exclusive, or esoteric faith. The same believing to which is attached the promise of salvation, has joined to it also the promise of miraculous working. Nor is there any ground for limiting this promise to apostolic times and apostolic men, as has been so violently attempted. The links of the covenant are very securely forged, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," in any and every age of the Christian dispensation. So with one consent the church has interpreted the words, "And these signs shall follow them that believe" in every generation and period of the church’s history; -- so the language compels us to conclude. And let us not unbraid this two-fold cord of promise, holding fast to the first strand because we know how to use it, and flinging the other back to the apostles because we know not how to use it. When our Lord gives command to the twelve, as he sends them forth, "to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases," we might conclude that this was an apostolic commission, and one which we could not be warranted in applying to ourselves. But here the promise is not only to the apostles, but to those who should believe on Christ through the word of these apostles; or as Bullinger the Reformer very neatly puts it in his comment on the passage, to "both the Lord’s disciples and the disciples of the Lord’s disciples." And to show his belief in the fulfillment of the promise, Bullinger adds, "To this the Acts of the Apostles bear witness. Ecclesiastical history bares witness to the same. Lastly, the present times bear witness; wherein through confidence in the name of Christ numbers greatly afflicted and shattered with disease are restored afresh to health."

Whatever practical difficulties we may have in regard to the fulfillment of this word, these ought not to lead us to limit it where the Lord has not limited it. For if reason or tradition throws one half of this illustrious promise into eclipse, the danger is that the other half may become involved. Indeed we shall not soon forget the cogency with which we heard a skillful skeptic use this text against one who held the common opinion concerning it. Urged to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," that he might be saved, he answered: "How can I be sure that this part of the promise will be kept with me, when, as you admit, the other part is not kept with the church of today?" And certainly, standing on the traditional ground, one must be dumb before such reasoning. The only safe position is to assert emphatically the perpetuity of the promise, and with the same emphasis to admit the general weakness and failure of the church’s faith in appropriating it. ("The reason why many miracles are not now wrought is not so much because faith is established, as that unbelief reigns." -- Bengel.) For who does not see that a confession of human inability is a far safer and more rational refuge for the Christian than an implication of the divine changeableness and limitation. There is a phrase of the apostle Paul which has always struck us as containing marvellous keenness and wisdom if not covert irony -- "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh." The law must not be impugned by even a suspicion; "the law of the Lord is perfect." But there has been utter failure under its working -- the perfection which it requires has not appeared. Rashly and dangerously, it would seem, the apostle has arraigned the law, telling us what it "could not do" and wherein it was "weak" -- and then, having brought us to the perilous edge of disloyalty, he suddenly turns and puts the whole fault on us where it belongs -- "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh." The one weak spot in the law is human nature; there is where the break is sure to come; there is where the fault is sure to lie. In like manner this great promise, with which Christ’s commission is enriched and authenticated, has failed only through our unbelief. It is weak through the weakness of our faith, and inoperative through lack of our co-operating obedience. ("It is the want of faith in our age which is the greatest hindrance to the stronger and more marked appearance of that miraculous power which is working here and there in quiet concealment. Unbelief is the final and most important reason for the retrogression of miracles." -- Christlieb’s Modern Doubt, p.336.) We believe therefore that whatever difficulties there may be in us, there is but one attitude for us to take as expounders of the scripture, that of unqualified assent. The treatment which the commentator Stier gives to this passage is truly refreshing. It is a brawny Saxon exegesis laying hold of a text, to cling to it, not to cull from it; to crown it with an amen! not to condition it with a date. For he puts the two sayings side by side and bids us look at them. "He that believeth; shall be saved:" "Them that believe; these signs shall follow." And then he gives us these strong words. "Both the one and the other apply to ourselves down to the present day and indeed for all future time. Every one applies the first part of the saying to ourselves: teaching everywhere that faith and baptism are necessary in all ages to salvation, and that unbelief in all ages excludes from it. But what right has any to separate the words that Jesus immediately added from his former words? Where is it said that these former words have reference to all men and all Christians, but that the promised signs which should follow those who believe referred solely to the Christians of the first age? What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

It should be observed however, that while the same word is employed in both clauses of this text, there is a change in number from the singular to the plural form. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." The promise of eternal life is to personal faith, and to every individual on the ground of his faith. "Them that believe, these signs shall follow." The promise of miracles is to the faithful as a body. The church has come into existence so soon as any have believed and been baptized; and thus this guarantee of miraculous signs seems to be to the church in its corporate capacity. "Are all workers of miracles? have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues?" asks the apostle. Nay, but some employ these offices, so that the gifts are found in the church as a whole. For the church is "the body of Christ," and to vindicate its oneness with the Head it shall do the things which he did, as well as speak the words which he spake. How significant the place where this promise is found! It was given just as the Lord was to be received up into heaven to become "Head over all things to his church." It is Elijah’s mantle let fall upon Elisha; so that having this, the disciple can repeat the miracles of the Master (2 Kings 2:9; 2 Kings 2:15). Oh timid church, praying for a "double portion of the Spirit" of the ascending prophet, and having his promise "greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to my Father," and yet afraid to claim even a fragment of his miracle working power! We conclude therefore that this text teaches that the miraculous gifts were bestowed to abide in the church to the end, though not that every believer should be endowed with them. This promise given in Mark emerges in performance in the Acts of the Apostles. But it is significant and to be carefully observed, that the miraculous gifts are not found exclusively in the hands of the Apostles. Stephen and Philip and Barnabas, exercised them. These did not belong to the twelve, to that special and separated body of disciples with whom it has been said, that the gifts were intended to remain. It was not Stephen an apostle, but "Stephen a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost --" "Stephen full of faith and power" that "did great wonders and miracles among the people" (Acts 6:5; Acts 6:8). We in these days cannot be apostles: but we are commanded to be "filled with the Spirit," and therefore are at least required and enjoined to have Stephen’s qualifications. According to the teaching in Corinthians it is as members of Christ’s body and partakers of his Spirit, that we receive these truths. ("You say that Christ Jesus and his Apostles and Messengers were endued with power from on high not only to preach the word for conversion but also with power of casting out Devils and healing bodily diseases. I answer, as an holy witness of Christ Jesus once answered a Bishop, ’I am a member of Christ Jesus as well as Peter himself.’ The least Believer and Follower of Jesus partakes of the nature and spirit of him their holy head and husband as well the strongest and holiest that ever did or suffered for his holy name." Roger Williams Experiments of Spiritual life and Health, 1652.)

We come now to consider the promise in James 5:14-15. "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him."

Now let us note the presumption there is that this passage refers to an established and perpetual usage in the Church. That command in the great commission -- "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," appears in the Acts of the apostles in constant exercise; and in the letters of the Apostles as explained unfolded and enforced. Romans 6:3-4; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21. The injunction given at the institution of the supper "This do in remembrance of me" appears in the Acts of the Apostles in constant exercise; and in the letters of the apostles as explained and unfolded, and enforced. Acts 46(?); 1 Corinthians 10:11. The promise given also in the great commission, "They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover" appears in the Acts of the Apostles in constant exercise, and in the letters of the apostles as explained, unfolded and enforced. 1 Corinthians 12:29; James 5:14-15. Thus this office like the great ordinances of Christianity rests on the three-fold support of promise and practice and precept. And we cannot too strongly emphasize this fact that what was given by our Lord in promise before his ascension should appear as an established usage in the church after his ascension. For we all insist that the church of the apostles was the model for all time. When we are called "followers of the Lord" we might rightly protest that though his followers, we surely could not be expected to walk in his steps as he enters the field of the miraculous. When we hear Paul saying "Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ" we might well insist that we could not imitate him in working wonders since he is an apostle and we only humble disciples. But when we read "For ye brethren became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ" we say "Yes! in every point and punctilio. For these are the pattern for all churches in all time." So we all hold and teach. We believe that there is nothing in all the ordering and furniture of the church which was present in the beginning which should be absent now. And if we rejoice in having the laver and the bread of the ordinances, the ministry of the word and prayer; not the less should we willingly be without the primitive miraculous gifts which were like the Shechinah glory, the outward visible signs of God’s presence among his people. To return now to the text which we are considering. Here is the calling for the elders of the church -- a voluntary appeal to the ministry and intercessions of the servants of God. Oil is applied as a symbol of the communication of the Spirit, by whose power healing is effected. It does not seem reasonable to suppose, that it is used for its medicinal properties. Because observe, it is the elders of the church, not the doctors of physic, who are called to apply it; and it is accompanied by prayer, not by manipulations and medications. As in Baptism the disciple confesses his faith in the cleansing power of Christ’s atonement, by the use of water; or, as in the Communion he declares his dependence on Christ for spiritual sustenance, by the use of bread; so here he avows his faith in the saving health of the Spirit by the use of oil. (Lange commenting on Mark 6:13: "And they anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them" says that oil here is "simply a symbolic medium of the miraculous work;" and that "the anointing was a symbol of the bestowment of the Spirit as a preliminary condition of healing.") In other words, this whole ceremony is a kind of sacramental profession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Divine Physician acting through the Holy Ghost. Such public profession of faith in Christ as the Healer, the Lord seems rigidly to require, just as he demands baptism as a confession of faith in him as the Redeemer. Neither in the forgiveness of sin nor in the remission of sickness will he permit a clandestine blessing. There are many who would gladly secure his healing virtue by stealth, laying hold of it secretly, but avoiding the publicity and possible reproach of having applied to such a physician. But this cannot be. The Lord will have an open acknowledgment of our faith. It will be remembered that from the woman whom he healed of an issue of blood, he drew forth a public confession before he pronounced that full and authoritative absolution from sickness, "go in peace and be whole of thy plague." ("Therefore when she held her peace trusting that she might still be undescribed, he looked round about upon the people. This looking about was a gesture of him that courteously required a confession of the benefit received. He would not utter her by name, lest he should have seemed to hit her in the teeth with the good turn heshamefacednessas a prick or provocation given to make her to put away that unprofitable shamefasteners and to wring out of her a wholesome confession." - Thomas Key.) The promise of recovery is explicit and unconditional -- "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him." Doubtless the words "prayer of faith" should be strongly emphasized. It is the intercession accompanied by the special miraculous faith alluded to in the scriptures as "the gift of faith," and "the gift of healing" -- a faith which we believe to be not wanting in this age, though comparatively so rare. And the words which Bengel italicizes in his Commentary ought to be strongly marked -- "Let them use oil who are able by their prayers to obtain recovery for the sick; let those who cannot do this abstain from the empty sign." If the peculiar miraculous faith of which we speak had utterly disappeared from the church, then it would certainly be best that the usage of anointing should be wanting also, rather than continue as a hollow sign, or as in the extreme unction of the church of Rome, a standing sacramental confession of inability to render any help to the diseased. But we are persuaded better things than this. We believe that there are those in our own time who have humbly sought, and manifestly obtained this gift of prevailing faith. If the larger majority of Christians, either through wrong teaching or indifference have willingly consented to surrender this primitive birthright of the church, and have learned to say without emotion to the sick, that lie at their doors "thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is ggrievous there is none to plead thy cause that thou mayest be bound up;" there are some who are more jealous for the Lord’s honor in this matter. Because they believe that the miraculous gifts are for all ages, they have thought it not covetous to seek them for themselves -- and yet not for themselves, but that through them the Lord might still show forth his glory. And why should it be thought a thing incredible that they may have obtained what they sought? In the old dispensation were miracles of healing shut up within some narrow and special age? Run through the list and see: -- Abraham healing Abimelech and his household by his prayers to God; Moses crying unto God for Miriam, "Heal her now, O God I beseech thee," and the Lord, answering with the promise that after seven days her leprosy should depart; God’s cure of the bitten Israelites in answer to Moses’ prayer, and through a look of faith at the brazen serpent; Naaman the Syrian recovered of his leprosy by the faith of Elisha; Hezekiah raised up from his death bed in answer to prayer and his life lengthened out fifteen years, and other instances which we have not space to refer to. These miracles of healing were not confined to the opening of a dispensation, but belonged to its entire history. Indeed intercession for healing was a part of the very ritual of Jewish worship and its answer a part of God’s explicit covenant with his people. Hear Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple. "Whatsoever sore, or whatsoever sickness there be: then what prayer, or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, then hear Thou from heaven Thy dwelling-place, and forgive" (2 Chronicles 6:28-30). And hear God’s promise in reference to this same matter. "I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house to put my name there forever" (1 Kings 9:3). "If I shut up heaven, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:13-14). Here is a broad promise conditioned indeed by the repentance and faith of the people of Israel, but fenced by no statute of limitations, shutting up God’s mercies within a certain miraculous era. And we know from the history of prophets and saints how constantly this promise opened to the key of faith and poured forth its treasures. This under the old covenant! How much greater things might we expect under the new, after that the Lord had ascended up on high and given gifts to men -- the Comforter the greatest and supreme gift to abide perpetually in the church; and with him and through him, "miracles, gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues."

It is comparatively easy indeed to credit miracles in these olden times of patriarchs and prophets, because of the enchantment of distance and the halo of superior sanctity through which the men of these times are seen. But antiquity has no monopoly of God’s gifts, and ancient men as such had no entry into God’s treasure house which is denied to us. How very significantly James enforces the doctrine, "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." After the exhortation, "pray one for another that ye may be healed" -- as though reading the thoughts which might come into our minds, of the superior faith of prophets and the higher privilege of apostles, the Spirit adds, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are" -- Not some privileged courtier of the King of kings, not some high and titled chancellor of the exchequer of heaven having rights of access and intercourse with God of which we know nothing -- "and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months, and he prayed again and the heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit." If he could shut and open heaven, not the less can you the children of today, since he is a brother and kinsman in the same bonds of frailty, and fear, and also a son and disciple of "the same Lord over all who is rich unto all that call upon him."

Such is the Spirit’s practical enforcement of this great promise of healing. How much we need to ponder it! How much we need to relearn the truth, that, though Christ who heard the cry of the suffering and touched them with healing, has gone far off "above all heavens," and ages have been added to his eternal years "whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting," still "his hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear."