Objection: If Healing Is in Christ’s Atonement, Sick People Must Be Unsaved

The argument here is that if healing and forgiveness were really purchased together at Calvary as one package, you would have to be healed the moment you are born again.  Therefore, supposedly, anyone who is sick must be unsaved, because he has not received God’s package deal of salvation.

This ignores the fact that Paul said in Philippians 2:12 to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”  This does not mean that you are saved by works or that you work for salvation.  It is a gift.  Paul did not say to “work for” your salvation; he said to “work out” your salvation!  However, if you instantly walked in the reality of all of it, Paul would not have told you to “work out” your salvation.  Everything you need is provided, but you have to work it out.  The blessings of God do not manifest automatically just because you are born again.  You will have to put some work into studying the Bible and discovering what is yours in Christ.  If you want a quick overview, check out the discussion about Who You Are and What You Have in this book.

The punishment that purchased your peace was laid upon Jesus.  Isaiah mentions this fact just before he says that we are healed by Jesus’ stripes.  You have a right to constant peace because of what Jesus did on the cross for you.  Do you conclude that if anyone isn’t at peace, he must be unsaved?  Of course not.  Yet that is the same argument made by this objection concerning healing.  By this logic, you would have to walk in constant peace if peace and forgiveness are part of the same package.

Peace and healing were both purchased for you by the same atonement that bought your forgiveness.  As you grow in God, you should walk in more and more peace and healing.

You also had the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit when you were born again (Romans 5:5), but it does not manifest itself automatically.  You have to renew your mind to what you have inside you before you will act on it consistently.  If you make a mean comment about your boss, does that mean you are unsaved?  No, it just means that you did not take advantage of your covenant right to walk in God’s kind of love.

Jesus Christ has already provided everything you need in this life through His sacrifice for you.  Throughout your life, you will learn to walk in more and more of His provision.  It is a process, not an instant thing that happens the minute you are born again.  The more you renew your mind to what you have in Christ, the more of your inheritance you will walk in.  You get it all instantly the moment you receive Jesus, but you’ll spend your lifetime finding out what you got and walking it out.