The argument today among Christians is this, not that can God heal, but is healing in the atonement?  That’s a big difference.  One is totally an act of the sovereignty of God.  We know that Calvinism slants that way—right? —just like God picks and chooses to send people arbitrarily to hell, He’ll pick and choose whoever He wants to heal or was the blood of Jesus sufficient when He died on Calvary to redeem us from sin’s power, spiritually and physically?  Is healing in the atonement, that finished work of Christ in redemption?  And as we said, much of the Christian population believes God can heal, but not necessarily that it’s in the atonement.  It’s answered right here in this eighth chapter.  It’s so clear, and they brought these people to Him, and He healed them—how many?—that it might be fulfilled.  Isaiah 53, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah, the prophet, saying, “Himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses,” praise God!  He bore on Himself the great healing power of God. 

There are the two Greek words for healing, iaomai and therapeuo.  Therapeuo—we hear a lot about this today.  You hear, we have boatloads of people, “Where are you going?”  “Going to therapy.”  More people go to therapy today, it’s unbelievable.  “What do you got to do?”  “I got to go into therapy.”  Why?  “Because they’re going to bend my finger like this.”  I can do that at home, bend my finger.  Now, I know we’re not as disciplined.  There are things that I should be doing physically that I just don’t do habitually.  So, if you’re paying money for it, you’ll go, so probably might be a good idea.  I am not against therapy, I’m just old.  Therapeuo, we know that that has to do with the physical.  Iaomai is all inclusive—it’s spirit, soul and body, and that’s the benefits that we’re talking of here when we look at the finished work of Jesus.

We see God revealing Himself to His people in Exodus, Chapter 15.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t even begin to think of how many hours I’ve spent studying this topic, how many times I’ve read these Scriptures.  I get blessed and excited every time in looking at these great promises of God.  It’s kind of like your partner, you never get tired of hearing from them, “I love you.”  When I read these verses, I hear God speaking to me, saying, “I love you.  Here’s what I’ve done for you.  Here’s what’s available.  Here’s who I am in My very being, My very essence.  I am a healer.  I am a lover.”  God is love; amen?  God is a hater of sin.  God hates the consequences of sin.  God hates all of the corruption and the evil that’s in the world today.  God hates disease.  We should be healed because it’s God’s will.  It’s who He is.  It’s what He does.  They brought Him all, or they brought the masses to Him, and He healed them all.  Now, we can negate that because when Jesus went to His own hometown in Nazareth, it said, “He came into Nazareth and could not there do many mighty works because of their unbelief.”  Now, you can unbelieve.  You can doubt.  You can, as Christians, and God will upbraid us for our unbelief, but He won’t stop loving us.  Can you say praise God for that?  Our belief or unbelief doesn’t change the reality of what He’s done.  It’s true; it’s eternal.  It’s an everlasting covenant that we have in Christ.