GOD WANTS TO HEAL

Isaiah 53:5 … And by His scourging, we are healed.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL J. I. Packer God’s love to sinners involves His identifying Himself with their welfare. Such an identification is involved in all love: it is indeed, the test of whether love is genuine or not…It is not for nothing that the Bible habitually speaks of God as the loving Father and Husband of His people. It follows from the very nature of these relationships that God’s happiness will not be complete till all His beloved ones are finally out of trouble:… He has in effect resolved that henceforth for all eternity His happiness shall be conditional upon ours. Thus God saves, not only for his glory, but for His gladness.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Distorted Views of Healing Greeks – saw God as essentially emotionally removed from human beings and uninterested in their welfare. They regarded the body as evil, the spirit as good, and therefore a relationship between the two as impossible. This dualism between the two worlds made it unthinkable for the Deity to be moved by human suffering or to act on behalf of the sufferer.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Distorted Views of Healing Islam – teaches that God has decreed blessing for some and pain for others and that nothing we do may alter the circumstances. This kismet or fate determining health for some and sickness for others makes the thought of praying for the sick ludicrous.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Jesus, the Revelation of God Matthew 11:27 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son, except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Hebrews 1:1-2 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son…

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Logos – John 1:18 No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He as explained Him. He has explained Him – exegesis. Jesus is the only exegesis of God. He alone explains the character and being of God. He uniquely explains the inner life of the Father.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL A revelation of the Father without the Son would be like speaking without words. Jesus Himself says in John 5:19 Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. Thus, Jesus is not only dependent on the Father’s will but also faithful in accurately revealing it.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Jesus, the Revelation of God’s Heart Jesus reveals that God is concerned even for our relatively trivial pains. -Shortage of wine at Cana of Galilee. Minor embarrassment but Jesus attended it -Hungry multitudes in Matthew 15 were not starving but Jesus gladly fed them

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Jesus revealed that God is so concerned to heal our sickness that He may not even take into account the sins which cause them. Karl Barth Jesus does not just look at their past, and then at their tragic present in light of it. But from the present He creates for them a new future. He does not ask, therefore, concerning their sin. He does not hold it against them. He does not denounce them because of it. The help and blessings he brings are quite irrespective of the sin. He acts exactly in the same way as His Father in heaven, who causes the sun to shine on the good and evil, His rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL On every page of Luke’s Gospel is apparent the deep sympathy of Jesus for men and women, their wrecked lives, their physical and mental sufferings, their heart rending- sorrows, the tragedy of their sins. Not less apparent is His determination to right their lot.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL The Heritage of an Emotionless God Some may not think of God as being emotional. But His is deeply feeling and caring. God’s attitude towards us and His activity in History are not rooted merely in divine wisdom and will but spring from an emotional life, deep within His being.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Jesus’ Compassion Greek word for compassion, splanchnizomani, gives exquisite testimony to God’s caring for our pain and His determination to alleviate it. The word stems from the word for bowels and often denotes the intestines of a sacrificial animal. In Hebrew a similar relationship exists between the words that express the intense feelings if close natural bonds, such as that of mothers for their children, and words that refer to the belly or womb. The kind of compassion Jesus had for people was not merely an expression of His will, but an eruption from deep within His being.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Matthew 14:14 Like a good shepherd He was concerned for the total welfare of His people. Matthew 9:35-36 His preaching and healing came out of His heart’s compassion. Mark 8:1-2 He is moved at the sight of His people deprived of spiritual or material food.

GOD WANTS TO HEAL Luke 7:13 A woman in Jesus’ day alone without a man to care for her was in serious trouble so He raises her son. Mark 1:40-41 Jesus is overwrought with compassion for a man who embodied all the physical, social, and spiritual disintegration of a sinful world.