Big Healing Book - Our Bodies Are Not Yet Redeemed, So We Are Still Subject to

Objection: Our Bodies Are Not Yet Redeemed, So We Are Still Subject to Sickness

We are still “subject” to sin only in the sense that it is possible for us to sin. We are still “subject” to sickness only in the sense that it is possible for us to get sick. Neither will be possible when we receive our glorified bodies, but neither has to be the case today, either. Sin is not to rule us, and sickness, which is also a work of the devil, has no right to be in us.

Paul said that Jesus purchased your body in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. He said that your body was a member of Christ in 1 Corinthians 6:15. Your body is still mortal (subject to death), and it is subject to sickness in the sense that you can get sick, but you don’t have to stay sick. You are redeemed from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13), which includes every sickness and every disease (Deuteronomy 28:61).

But doesn’t Romans 8:23 say that we are waiting for the redemption of our bodies? (This is a favorite verse for the anti-healing crowd.) Not when you read it in context! The context is that the creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. This is not a current event, but a future one, when our bodies will be changed from mortal to immortal. This “redemption” of the body is a completely separate event from the purchase of your existing mortal body by the blood of Jesus, as proved by 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. The Holy Spirit will quicken (give life to) your mortal body throughout this life (Romans 8:11). You will get an immortal body after that in the time spoken of in Romans 8:23.

In case there are any doubts in your mind about Romans 8:23, let’s dissect the verse itself.

Romans 8:23:
“And not only they [the whole creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves...”

Are we groaning because we need the latest 12-hour relief pills? No, read this in context with Romans 8:26, where the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. This is referring to praying in the Spirit, not to being sick. Groaning is also referred to as something all creation does in verse 22, and all creation is certainly not sick! The Holy Spirit helps your infirmities; He doesn’t give you infirmities! We groan because we want to have our bodies changed into immortal ones so that we can get on with our eternal lives with our new bodies. This is our hope that we wait for with patience (verses 24-25).

Here is the entire passage:

Romans 8:22-26:
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself [Himself] maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Romans 8:23 actually states a plain case for physical healing. Paul said that we have the “firstfruits” of the Spirit. We don’t have everything we’ll have in heaven, but we have the firstfruits, a down payment, of what we will have. “Firstfruits” in Scripture are the beginning of a larger collection, and are made up of the same substance as the larger collection. (For example, we are told to honor God with the firstfruits of our substance. That is part of our money, which is a subset of all our money.) So Paul says clearly that while we don’t have everything we’re going to have later, we have a sample now of what we’re going to have later, through the Spirit.

When we receive new bodies, healing will be unnecessary because we will never be sick. We will be in eternal good health. However, we can enjoy the “firstfruits” of our salvation on this earth and receive healing when we are sick. The Spirit Himself is the down payment of what we will have eternally, even though our mortal bodies will never be like the glorified ones we will get in the future.

There is a future redemption not only for our bodies, but for all of creation in the context of this verse. If you look back in verse 18, Paul says, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” The glory will not be revealed in us at the present time – that will be in the future. In verse 21, we read, “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Creation will have a new glory then, too.

Your current flesh-and-blood mortal body would not be able to handle eternity in heaven. But your body will be changed: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (That’s 1 Corinthians 15:52-53.) Paul taught that the day is coming when we will get new immortal, spiritual bodies to replace our current fleshly unrighteous bodies. Your spirit is born again, but your body is not. It is the same as it was before, though fortunately God has promised to impart His life (zoe) into your mortal body – so you can still be healed now – a glorious fact Paul brought up only 12 verses earlier (Romans 8:11)!. Paul taught that as we bear the image of the man of dust (Adam), we SHALL bear the image of the heavenly Man (1 Corinthians 15:49). THAT is what Paul means when he refers to the redemption of our bodies in the future. He did not teach that you just have to suffer everything out until Jesus returns. If he believed and taught that, he would not have gotten EVERYONE who was sick on an island in Acts 28:8-9 healed! (See the Paul’s Thorn objection reply for other healings that Paul did.)

After Jesus rose from the dead, He could teleport Himself at will while still being able to eat in front of people. When you think about it, the angel did not have to roll the stone away to let Jesus out of the tomb – He could have gotten out of there with the sealed stone still intact, and He probably did. The stone was rolled away to reveal to MAN that the tomb was empty. We do not have bodies like that yet, because they are not “redeemed” – but the day will come when we have a body like the one Jesus has and we can do the kinds of things we saw on I Dream of Jeannie and Star Trek in real life. When our bodies are redeemed, we will no longer have unspiritual, unrighteous bodies that operate solely according to sense knowledge. We will never have to “put the flesh under” again because we won’t have our current “flesh” (an unrighteous body) anymore!

The fact that your body has been BOUGHT shows that it HAS been redeemed in one sense already, as Jesus has paid a price for the privilege of owning your body, of which you are now the steward but not the owner. But your full redemption, when you get a glorified body, will not happen until Jesus returns.

The fact that we now have the “firstfruits” of our eternal reward points toward, not away from, the fact that we can have physical healing now.

“Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

Here, the adoption is equivalent to the redemption of our body. If you follow the objector’s logic, you might conclude that we do not have the Spirit of adoption yet, but we have to wait for it. Of course, verse 15 of the same chapter just said that we had received the Spirit of adoption. (“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”) The fact that there is a certain adoption we are waiting for does not mean that we are not adopted as God’s children now. The fact that there is a redemption for which we wait does not mean that we are not redeemed from sickness now.

Romans 8:23 clearly refers to the change of our bodies from mortality to immortality, so it cannot be used to disprove our redemption from sickness. This verse does not mention sickness. You will have a body that cannot get sick in the future, but that does not prove that the body that you have now needs to be sick – Romans 8:11 refers to this lifetime!

You will have to wait for the “redemption” of your body referred to in Romans 8:23. You do not have to wait at all to receive the healing of your mortal body. The fact that you have to live in a mortal body for now does not mean that you have to live in a sick one! Jesus destroyed sickness, a work of the devil, in people’s mortal bodies, and He continues to do so today. Jesus’ ministry made it abundantly clear that we do NOT have to wait for the ultimate redemption of creation to receive healing – the people He healed didn’t have to wait, did they? If He didn’t make them wait, then Jesus, who never changes, will not make you wait either.