While much of the Church celebrates the Gospel, many within the Church have forgotten or never understood what the Gospel truly is. The Gospel is more than forgiveness of sin, which is one part of the Gospel. The Gospel, as Jesus preached it, was the announcement of the coming of His kingdom. When He came, He brought His kingdom with Him to earth. Yet today, much of the Church is still waiting for the coming of His kingdom not realizing we are called to establish His kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven. Because of the forgotten Gospel, we’ve lost the core message of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God, and all His kingdom brings, including the Gospel of healing. In this blog, I want to talk about the forgotten Gospel of healing.
God is a healer. Scripture affirms this understanding in Exodus 15:26, Amplified Bible, “I am the LORD who heals you.” Gradually, God reveals who He is to men. Moses received that revelation of God as healer. But still, mankind didn’t understand. The Jewish leaders never fully understood the nature of God. Later, King David penned Psalm 103:2, 3, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases”. Notice, God forgives ALL our iniquities and heals ALL our diseases. Remember, this is under the Old Covenant not the New Covenant.
The natural question: If God could forgive ALL our sins and heal ALL our diseases under the Old Covenant, why the need for the New Covenant? Further, that begs the next question: If God showed Israel He would heal them under the Old Covenant, why were so many sick when Jesus came. Further still, why were the Pharisees and Sadduccees so upset with Jesus healing the sick? Didn’t they know God was a healer under the Old Covenant?
No, the Jewish leaders in Jesus’s day didn’t know God was a healer. They didn’t know scripture as well as they thought they did. Much as today, they likely read the scriptures, studied the scriptures, even memorized the scriptures, but when it came to knowing how to do them, they didn’t understand the scriptures. Until Jesus Christ came, the revelation of God as the One who forgives us and heals us was a mystery to them. They knew the scripture, but, like us, they really didn’t know the scriptures.
Jesus knew the scriptures. And He knew how to do the scriptures; He knew how God wanted and desired to forgive and heal people. Everyone. If that’s true, if God could forgive and heal ALL prior to the cross, why did Jesus die on the cross? It must have been Jesus wanted us to have something better than what they had — forgiveness and healing. What did Jesus bring? What is the better that He offers us? Healing and forgiveness is really good. What is the better?
I’m glad you asked that question. Jesus didn’t only bring forgiveness and healing. That was available under the Old Covenant. Jesus brought something better. What did He bring? Full and complete redemption. We are the purchased possession of Christ who redeemed us from Satan’s rule. Like the human slaves under the traffickers torture, that’s where all mankind was. Jesus paid the price for our freedom; the freedom we can now enjoy in Christ. Christ didn’t only bring forgiveness and healing, He brought redemption, freedom, and deliverance from the worst human trafficker in the history of the world — Satan — he is pure evil.
If healing and forgiveness were offered under the Old Covenant, are they still available under the New Covenant? Yes!!! Absolutely, yes! Remember, what we have is better, way better. That’s what the Apostle Paul attempted to communicate to the Corinthians: “Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it.” 2 Corinthians 3:10, ESV. The glory of healing and forgiveness were under the Old Covenant. The glory we have exceedingly surpasses what they had. It’s not less than what they had. The healing and forgiveness they had, we now have, and more.
"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15.
We have been cleansed from sin. What does that mean? It means what the writer of Hebrews states through their question: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebews 9:14. God has purged our conscience from dead works so we may serve Him with a clean conscience. In other words, we don’t have to carry the past around with us. We’ve been set free from our past sins through Christ’s blood. The blood of Jesus totally and completely sets us free from the power of sin.
Why, then, do we, even as believers, still struggle with sin? Why, then, do we, even as believers, still struggle sickness and disease? Much like ancient Israel, we don’t receive who God is or what He’s done, or what He will do. Even our leaders don’t accept, understand, or believe what scripture so clearly teaches. Hence, the great need for what Jesus did when He came to earth: “teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” Matthew 4:23.
What do we need? That’s right! Preaching, teaching, and healing. Why? Much like ancient Israel, we don’t really know our Bible. And even what we do know, we don’t know how to appropriate. As they struggled to receive what was progressively revealed, we have struggled to receive what was perfectly revealed by Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Yes, Christ perfectly expressed the nature of God. Jesus fully revealed God, the Father, to mankind. Now, it’s incumbent on us to relearn what they taught, to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15.
Yes, we must recover the forgotten Gospel, the Gospel full of God’s power. The Gospel that heals those who are sick. The Gospel that breaks the power of sin and Satan. The Gospel that makes demons tremble in fear, for we are walking in the fullness of the authority given to us by Christ: “power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” Matthew 10:1. And “power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Luke 10:19. Yes, “power from heaven.” Luke 24:49, NLT.
That’s what the forgotten Gospel brings. That’s the Gospel we need in our day — the Gospel filled with demonstrated power, the full Gospel of Christ.
Let us pray!
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