The great danger in claiming physical healing through Calvary’s cross is that well-meaning and desperate people often overlook the real ‘spiritual healing’ that is now available through the Cross. Many Christians erroneously focus on the temporary healing of a body that will go to the grave, rot and decay, rather than an emphasis on the salvation of the spiritual “body of Christ” that will last forever.

One day, we who have believed and relied exclusively upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect sacrifice at Calvary for our sins, will receive our new glorified bodies, fashioned like His resurrected body (cf. Philip. 3:20-21). In 1Cor. 15:51-55 Paul goes into great detail about the coming bodily resurrection of Christians at the Rapture, when Jesus Christ comes to take the members of “the Body of Christ” into the heavenly places. You can read more about that in your own personal Bible study.

Paul wrote often of our present sufferings and coming glory.

“¹⁸For I reckon (count) that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us…. ²²For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. ²³And 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.’ ²⁴For we are saved (delivered) by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” (Romans 8:18, 22-24)

In the above verses, Paul talks about how we suffer under the effects of the curse of “sin’ in the flesh” body (cf. Rom. 8:3). Sickness is evidence of “Sin and death” in the body, which will be with us until we shed this “body of Sin.”  Thus, as all men, including Christians, our bodies grow sick and eventually die. Being a child of God doesn’t insulate us from illness and it does not guarantee us good health. Yet, miraculous physical healing will be the norm for Israel in the Millennial kingdom on earth, but not until then. As long as God continues to operate our program of sustaining grace, Israel’s program of healing is postponed, and as long as Israel’s program is postponed, the curse of ‘sin’ being lifted in Israel’s coming kingdom is also delayed. Whoever says otherwise is not sound in his or her theology.

This below was Paul’s focus, and it should be ours also.

“… we faint not; but though our outward (body) man perish, yet the inward (soul) man is renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; ¹⁸ While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor 4:16-18)

For all their “faith-healing testimonies,” “miracle water,” and other religious trinkets, all TV preachers will ultimately have to admit they are growing older and weaker, with balding heads, and getting more and more wrinkles on their skin. 2 Cor. 4:16 paraphrased, says “Our outward bodies are perishing (decaying and dying).” As one man said, “All the healing claims aside, the death rate is still one-a-piece!”

So, in contradistinction to the erroneous “healing-in-the-Atonement” doctrine, the Bible view is that… we are still subject to sickness, we can and do have sickness, but… whether well or sick, we still have “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” within our “spirit of man” to sustain us… inwardly. We have sickness, but we also have His life to sustain in us in the midst of our physical trials. It’s not that “We have Jesus and therefore not sickness.” Frankly, whether or not we live with a sickness for the rest of our earthly physical lives is essentially irrelevant… we look to eternity with Him… in our glorified spirit-bodies.

God’s grace is still sufficient in all our troubles, just as Paul learned in his own trials, tribulations, and illnesses (2 Cor. 12:7-12). Just as Paul wrote, we can glory in our tribulations (Rom. 5:1-5), finding value in those trials and troubles that teach to “not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead” (cf. 2Cor 1:8-10). Whether or not that sickness is takes our life is irrelevant. God has given us the grace to endure all of life’s troubles (Philip. 4:13). We can use our eyes of faith to see that our problems are only temporary. They’re not forever. Compared to eternity, we endure them only are as a simple blink of the eye, for a fraction of a second. For the Lord Jesus Christ is with us, in health and in sickness!

Research into the history of the false doctrine of “healing-in-the-Atonement” yields proof that it has left many deceived, disappointed, and dead people in its wake. Innumerable souls have actually disregarded necessary medical advice because they did not understand God’s Word “rightly divided,” as to what applies today. Men have played fast and loose with “the word of God.” Until the day that their lives were taken by the various diseases that religion told them they did not suffer from, they kept quoting God’s healing verses for Israel as if those verses were given to them in today’s current dispensation. Sadly, they found false hope and pseudo-peace in divine words given to others. Not only were they deceived by others, they also deceived others by twisting God’s Word.

There is spiritual healing available through Jesus Christ’s work at Calvary’s cross. In Christ Cross, there is forgiveness of sins, abounding grace, unparalleled peace, everlasting love, and the promise of eternal life in heaven. All that we need is ours “in Christ.” We have not been promised miraculous bodily healing during today’s “dispensation of the Grace of God.” God has given us medical professionals, medicine, and immune systems, and if they cannot help us, all the more reason to move on into heaven and get that new glorified spirit-body, one that will never grow sick or old, and will last forever!

Our eternal “house” is in the heavens: “… we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved (decayed), we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). The fact is that Christians worldwide live in physical bodies that are falling apart—we have cataracts, malnutrition/starvation, arthritis, hearing impairments, amputations, brain damage, heart disease, forgetfulness, cancer, thinning bones, high blood pressure, speech difficulties, limited mobility, and so on. While we should take care of our bodies as best as we can by taking advantage of medical science, exercise, and nourishing diets, the fact is that these bodies are not going to last forever anyway.

All “healing” claims aside, lost and saved alike are buried in the same crust of earth! To concentrate so much on maintaining these temporal bodies is a most serious error in the modern world. People without hope in the next life will try to make the absolute most of this one… our confidence is in Him.

Short of the Lord’s coming at the Rapture, this “outward man” of ours, our bodies, will succumb to the ultimate weakness — mortality — and thus they will “sleep” in the dust of the earth. Using the word “our,” Paul included himself in the verse below. As “our outward man” of the body grows ever weaker and closer to physical death, the “inward man” of the soul is growing stronger in God’s grace.

“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward (body) man perish, yet the inward (soul) man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

A steady, daily, intake of God’s Word rightly divided will continually “renew” the mindset of our “inward man”! It was Jesus who said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth (makes alive); the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life (Gk. Zoë, spirit life). (John 6:63)

It’s clear that Our Apostle, Paul, was more focused on what would be the condition of our “inward man” who will stand before Him at “the Judgment Seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:9-10). The physical body will return to the ground, the grave, to one day be resurrected as a glorified spiritual body, a literal body just as real, but far more advanced; one no longer subject to death, and not limited by time or space.

What would last forever is: 1) our soul, which is currently living within our decaying physical bodies is eternal, and 2) our coming glorious resurrected body is ot be “eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5:1b), in which our souls will reside forever. These two eternal things should be our focus! Sadly, again, and again, as we study “the word of God” rightly divided and in context, we find that the often-quoted traditional religious views are mistaken since they are based upon twisted, fast and loose, interpretations of Scripture. They are most often Scriptures that apply to Israel only, not us as members of “the body of Christ” during today’s age of “dispensation of the grace of God.”