Objection: Saying That Healing Depends on You Creates a New Gospel of Works

This objection came from someone who didn’t like a statement I made that you don’t qualify for the health and protection in Psalm 91 unless you meet the conditions of Psalm 91.  The person went on to tell me that I was advocating a new gospel of works.  Actually, most of God’s promises are conditional and are based somewhat on your works!  See Some of God’s Promises Have Conditions for ample proof of this.

God does want works from you – works of faith.  Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God.  Almost everything depends on you anyway.  You don’t get saved until you do something – believing that God raised Jesus from the dead and declaring him as Lord with your mouth.  Based on this objection, the entire gospel is a gospel of works because your salvation depends on something you do!

If you want to do the works of God, Jesus told you how to do them: “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:28-29).  The works of God are done by faith, not by human effort.  We are not talking about the kind of works that make you earn or deserve something.  The works of God are done by believing God’s promises and acting on them.

You are not working for your healing.  You are not doing anything to get God to heal you.  You are not making a “deal” with God as so many desperate people in magazine articles have done (e.g., “God, if you just heal me, I’ll never touch a drop of alcohol again.”).  You are not twisting God’s arm.  You are doing nothing to establish your own merit for healing in God’s eyes.

All you are doing is receiving a gift.  God has provided the gift and you are accepting it.  That is the only “work” you need to do.  You are just taking something that God has been freely offering to you all along.  This is not works; it is simply the humility to accept a gift on God’s terms without having to do any work for it.

You don’t need to work for something that Jesus Christ has already paid for.  All you do is receive it as a gift.  It is 100% because of what Jesus did and 0% because of what you’ve done.  Far from being a gospel that exalts the works of man, the true gospel exalts the finished work of Jesus Christ.