Matthew 8 is a blessed revelation of Jesus entering, in sympathy, into all the sufferings of humanity. His tender heart felt it all: "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying. Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." Matt. 8:17.
In Isa. 53, a distinct line is drawn between His life-suffering and sympathies. and His atoning death. He was despised and rejected by the Jewish nation in Isa. 53:1-3. Then in Isa. 53:4, "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Then the following verses speak of His atonement. "But He was wounded for our transgressions," etc.
It gives great comfort to our souls to see that He not only bare our sins, but also our griefs and sorrows; He entered into them, bare them, made them His own. Every sorrow and affliction we feel. He in sympathy bore them first. Thus in His living ministry, as in Matt. 8:17, we sec Him in tender sympathy casting out evil spirits and healing all that were sick. So in the other scripture, Mark 9:23, only here it is the terrible case of a child possessed of an evil spirit; this was a case which He alone could deal with, and the father's faith must own this.
It is a very affecting case; surely no Christian doubts for a moment that the Lord Jesus both had, and manifested His power to heal the sick, to cast out devils, and to raise the dead, Life, death, and the elements of nature were all subject to Him, for He is God over all, blessed for evermore. He acted in divine sovereignty in the exercise of this healing power.
Indeed, such had been the display of miraculous power even in the prophets, as He Himself shows in the case of Naaman, and the widow of Sarepta.
We find the same sovereignty in the action of the Holy Ghost since He has been sent down from heaven. "God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will." Heb. 2:4. Then, also, the same divine sovereignty is seen in 1 Cor. 12:9, 11. "To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit... dividing to every man severally as He will." Thus the Godhead of the Holy Ghost is seen in connection with this very question-"As He will.”
Thus so far we learn that when the Lord Jesus was on earth, He exercised the power of healing. And further, when He had finished the work of redemption, and, though rejected on earth, was received up to heaven, He then sent down the Holy Ghost, who in His divine sovereignty, imparted the power, or rather, gift of healing to whom He would.
Now we must not ignore the Holy Spirit, as is often the case, and act and argue as if Jesus were still on earth in His body, as He was once, to heal the sick. We must not forget, that since He has accomplished redemption, and has risen from the dead, an entirely new order of things has been introduced by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. If you will look through the Acts, you will find that the gift to heal the sick was limited to the apostles and a few others. James 5:14-16 is quite a different matter. It is the prayer of faith on the confession of our faults one to another. The Church of God was then still in its unity, but now, where is either The Church in its unity, or the elders of the Church?
Do we see, then, that the Holy Ghost is pleased, in these days of sad division and utter failure, to impart to any man or men the gift of healing? Surely we might suspect any man who made such pretensions. That the Lord is pleased to answer earnest, believing prayer is surely true, as every Christian holds.
The deduction from the above scriptures is "that Christ is the Savior for the body as well as for the soul. And if the health of the body is defective, He also is the only one to restore it." Yes, He is the giver of every grain of wheat also. But does that imply that there must be no farmers, millers, or bakers? He uses the means to supply our needs. And does He not bless the means used in clinics, hospitals, etc? We do not find in the Scriptures the setting up of faith-clinics to set broken bones, or cure sickness.
We do not doubt that every blessing to man flows through Christ's atoning death, but that does not imply that all medicine and medical skill must be laid aside, and that we must expect to be healed by faith, any more than that we may dispense with food and expect to eat our dinner by faith.
Yet, the Lord Jesus when He was here below, both healed the sick and fed the hungry, and the Holy Ghost, who is still on earth, "dividing to every man severally as He will," did, while the Church remained in its unity, impart the gift of healing. But in these last days you find the pretension of such power more in connection with some delusion of Satan, as in spiritism.
Just lately, a book was sent to us from a spiritist, a converser with demons, who denied the atonement of the Lord Jesus, yet was a wonderful medium of power to heal the sick, giving abundant cases equal to any of Bethshan. There could be no doubt that this was the direct work of Satan.
Another scripture, 1 Cor. 13:8, certainly shows that miraculous gifts would fail or cease. But love never faileth. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. What a blessed fact! We do not have to love Him, in order that He may love us. We do not have to serve Him, in order that the Holy Ghost may be given to us. But we must ever remember we are not to judge that love by things under the sun, for whom He loveth He chasteneth. Now in all ministry, love is of immense importance. Thus, between the sovereign distribution of gifts in 1 Cor. 12 and their exercise in 1 Cor. 14, we have this chapter of love (1 Cor. 13) coming in between. The Lord grant that we may ever follow after love, and desire spiritual gifts. We need this all the more, as Satan is busy preparing the way for antichrist. (See 2 Thess. 2:3-12.) Every movement of the present day is either preparing the way for antichrist, or leading the true saints of God to wait for His Son from heaven. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come!”
C.H. Mackintosh