Objection: Healing is a GIFT (1 Corinthians 12:28), Proving That It Is Not Earned by Our Works or Our Faith, Which Would Be Pelagianism

Ah, there’s nothing like a nice scary theological term that few people outside of seminary would have heard to add credibility to an argument.  Pelagianism!  Eek, that sounds awful; better stay away from divine healing, then!  Now what is it, anyway?

A man named Pelagian (you probably guessed that) who lived a long time ago is blamed for spreading the heretical idea that you earn your salvation through good works.  It is unclear whether he really preached all the bad stuff that he got blamed for or if people just kind of “hung it on him.”  But anyway, Pelagianism is a Galatian-style heresy that would send people to hell who believe it, as they will see no need to trust Jesus’ work to save them when they can supposedly save themselves.

Is believing in divine healing really in that category?  We’ll see.

First, the objector would have been better served by studying the Word more and studying the history of little-known heretics less.  If he had, he would know that the “gifts of healings” in 1 Corinthians 12:28 refer to a ministry office (the office of evangelist would equate to this) along with that of apostle, prophet, teacher, etc., and not to people receiving healing as a “gift” – even though it is a gift of God’s grace.  So right off, the very first premise of this argument involves a completely misapplied Scripture.  For more on this, see the related objection.

The objector only gets half of the rest of it right.  If we earn salvation – any aspect of it – with our works, that is indeed Pelagian thinking.  But the difficulty comes in the objector’s self-contradictory assertion about “earning” something by faith.  Faith by definition doesn’t earn anything; it receives what God’s grace has already provided.

Let’s apply The SAVED Test to this and see what happens:

“Salvation is a GIFT!  Earning your deliverance from hell by grace and faith is heretical Pelagianism!”

This helps you see the problem with this objector’s logic.  To believe the quoted statement above, you’d have to think that God just flows in “gifts of salvations” and just drops salvation on you irrespective of your faith.  But the Bible does not teach that God just zaps people with salvation.  We are saved by grace through faith.  A person must exercise faith in what God’s grace has provided before he can enjoy it. 

So why it is unreasonable that healing would be any different, especially when the same word sozo (see the article Saved!) is used for both physical healing and spiritual salvation?  God does not drop healing on you irrespective of your faith.  The Bible does not teach that God just zaps people with healing.  We are healed by grace through faith.  A person must exercise faith in what God’s grace has provided before he can enjoy it.  If you are OK with the paragraph above, why would you not be OK with this one?

Faith is not “works” in the Bible sense, but some people think that anything involving the slightest effort is “works.”  Well, James would have no problem with the idea that faith INVOLVES works because he said that faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26).  The works don’t earn you anything (sorry, Pelagian) but real faith is always expressed in works.  But seeing faith as “works” is a common theme among healing objectors.  If you have to apply any effort, supposedly it isn’t grace anymore.

Let me ask you something, then – does it take any WORK to put the flesh under and run the race in such a way as to win it, pressing forward toward the high calling of God?  No one ever said that being a Christian would not involve any work!  (No one with any sense, at least.)  You hear of people in the New Testament who “labored” in prayer.  Prayer can be work, even though it is a delight to fellowship with God.  Your flesh will fight you, and it takes effort on your part to put your flesh under.  Now there is the “effortless” aspect to changing – AFTER you do some real WORK getting into the Word, you’ll find yourself changing seemingly automatically because that Word becomes such a part of you.  But even then it takes EFFORT to study the Word.  God never told Christians that everything would just be dropped on them without their faith or involvement.  Although healing is actually very easy to receive, we have an enemy who runs around trying to trick people out of their inheritance in Christ.  It involves effort to resist his thoughts and replace them with Bible thoughts.

So if you can labor in “works” in these other areas, why isn’t it reasonable to assume that you have to do something to receive healing rather than have it dropped on you?  It’s still a gift provided by Christ, but you may need to make some effort to learn the Word on the subject before you act in faith – just as you might have to learn the Word on other subjects (marriage, money, etc.) before you can act in faith.

Let’s be clear that the objection is misleading – faith by its very definition does not earn anything.  It receives something that is given for free.  But you still have to exercise your faith, just as you had to exercise faith in Christ’s atonement to be born again.  That isn’t Pelagianism, that’s Christianity!