Objection: If Hebrews 13:8 Really Means What Faith Healers Say It Does, Jesus Will Be Healing Us Forever in Heaven as He Did on the Earth

The objector doesn’t doubt that Jesus Christ is the same Person forever, but he thinks that Jesus will act differently today from how He acted in the four gospels.  He assumes that the fact that Jesus will not heal anymore in heaven while He did heal on the earth in the past proves that He CAN act differently today as well as in the future – by NOT healing people.

One could add correctly that He will act differently during the Tribulation than He will act during the Church Age, despite the fact that He does not change.

So it seems that there can be a proper distinction between “Jesus Christ is the same” and “Jesus Christ acts the same.”  (In the Greek, there is neither a word is or acts; it’s just “Jesus Christ the same” – as the King James Version renders it.)  Can this distinction be used to prove that Jesus Christ does not ACT the same today as He did during His earthly ministry?

In some ways, He can’t act the same.  He ministered as a man on the earth empowered by the Holy Spirit.  He cannot do that today.  He has to use His Body, the Church.  He has empowered His Body by sending the same Holy Spirit who empowered Him.  That is why we can do the same works that He did – we do them as men on the earth empowered by the Holy Spirit.  He didn’t have to do the miracles in anyone’s name other than the Father’s.  We do works today in His name, as is evident both by His teaching and by the book of Acts, where mighty miracles were wrought in the name of Jesus.

What does it mean to do works in His name?  Does it just mean that we add the tag line “in the name of Jesus” to whatever we’re praying and that it’s some kind of incantation that will guarantee results?  No, when you do something in the name of Jesus it means that you do it by His authority.  You are taking authority that Jesus gave you.  He said that if you ask anything in His name, HE will do it (John 14:13-14).  So He still has an active role on the earth today, but He needs our cooperation.  Our part is to ask in the name of Jesus.  His part is to DO it.  We have the easier of the two parts.

He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15:5).  Our life comes from the vine.  We do things as His personal ambassadors on the earth.  He works through us.

Because Jesus IS the same, His WILL must be the same even if His actions are done through different means.  Given that it always WAS Jesus’ will to heal during His earthly ministry, and given that He IS the same yesterday, today and forever, His will must be to heal TODAY just as much as it was YESTERDAY.

The objector would probably like to jump into this book at this point and scream, “No, it WON’T be His will to heal TOMORROW in heaven because there will be no sickness.  So His will CAN change, as I said in my objection!”  Very well, let’s just rephrase this.  It was Jesus’ will for EVERYONE to be in health yesterday, Jesus’ will for EVERYONE to be in health today, and Jesus’ will for EVERYONE to be in health forever.  There is no change at all in His will.  The only difference is that in heaven, where only God’s will is ever done, there will be no opposition to everyone prospering and being in health even as their souls prosper (3 John 2), and hence there will be no new sicknesses to heal.

So Jesus will not be healing us forever, and thus His actions will be different from His actions today, when there is still a need to heal the sick.  But because He IS the same, His WILL concerning our health cannot change.  He wants the sick healed today just as much as He ever did.