Have you wondered why God apparently doesn't intervene to heal more sick people, miraculously? Medical science does heal many--but does that mean that the Great Physician has virtually abdicated His healing role to the medical profession?
Could there be a different circumstance today than there was 2000 years ago when Christ and His apostles did heal the sick, cleansed the lepers, gave sight to the blind, even raised the dead?
We know that (a) the message of the cross was more vividly proclaimed then (1 Cor. 2:1-3; Gal. 6:14, etc.), resulting in (b) deeper, more thorough conversions, (c) making it safer for the Lord to work these miracles because (d) the healed persons would "henceforth" be "constrained to live unto Him who died for them, and rose again" (2 Cor. 5:15). Today a wise writer reminds us that "often some form of vice is the cause of feebleness of mind or body. Should these persons gain the blessing of health, many of them would continue to pursue the same course of heedless transgression of God's natural and spiritual laws" (Ministry of Healing, p. 227). In other words, why bother pumping up a tire that has holes in it?
Nevertheless, we know Christ "is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8), which means He is still compassionate. He doesn't like to see people suffer, for He suffers with them (Isa. 63:9).
Therefore we can only conclude that the most important ministry of healing is proclaiming the only message that can reconcile alienated hearts to God--the genuine gospel of His grace, unmixed with any element of legalism or Babylonian confusion. We are told that in the final work, "miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed" (The Great Controversy, p. 612). That must mean that in that same final work, the pure true gospel will again be recovered and proclaimed. If the Lord can give us the grace to be humble in heart today, we can begin at least to recover that blessing, and that will be Good News.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
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