The Good News of Christ is a gospel of healing for the whole person.
Isaiah 53:5 prophesies the healing that will come in Jesus Christ. I Peter 2:24 declares the healing that was finished and completed in Christ’s finished work of grace. Some believe that Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24 speak only of spiritual healing. But Jesus revealed that His healing is not just spiritual when, following the physical healing of the sick, he declared that Isaiah’s prophecy had been fulfilled (Matthew 8:16-17). The healing Jesus accomplished for us was complete. It lacks nothing.
When we were born again—thoroughly and completely forgiven by the grace of Jesus—we were spiritually reborn a new person. We were spiritually healed.
“Flesh gives birth to flesh, and spirit gives birth to spirit (John 3:6, PHILLIPS).
Our spirits were reborn by the Holy Spirit.
“By His stripes we were healed” (1 Peter 2:24, NKJV) does not speak of the rebirth and healing of our spirit. It speaks of the results that the spiritual healing of our spirit brings. When Christ destroyed sin, He destroyed the root of all sickness. We were healed spiritually and physically in Him. And we are “complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:10, NKJC).
We are created in God’s likeness. He created us in three parts—spirit, soul (mind), and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23), and it is only in our born-again spirit that we have been completely reborn, made new, and complete in Christ. It is only in our born-again spirit that we have received the righteousness of God and are whole.
For us to receive Christ’s healing in our minds and bodies, we have to know and believe who the new person is that the Holy Spirit has birthed in our born-again spirit. We must be renewed in our minds by God’s truth. When we believe in our minds the truths that are real in our born-again spirit, those truths of who we are in Christ are planted in our hearts. They impact our spirit, mind, and body. We believe we are newly recreated no matter what our physical eyes may see or our physical body may experience. By faith, we put on our new identity that is complete in Him. We put on the new creation—the new person—which God has created within us in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:23-24).
If we are going to understand the healing power of the finished work of Jesus, it is imperative that we understand that it is only within our spirit that we are completely reborn as a new creation in Christ. Our minds and bodies are not perfectly reborn. In our minds and bodies, we still deal with temptation and destructive emotions, and pain. When we look at ourselves, it is hard to believe we have been made new in Christ. But when we look into the mirror of God’s Word, we can see the new person that Christ has made us (James 3:23-25).
We need to press on to believe the truth of the new person God reveals in His Word. “By His stripes, you were healed.”
“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17, NKJV). We are joined to the Lord spirit to spirit. Our spirit is one with His.
“For in Him (Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:9-10, NKJV).
All the fullness of the Godhead—is complete within our born-again spirit. We must be renewed in our minds by the Word to conform to the truth of the new person God has made us (Romans 12:2).
Christ, the healer, is in you. In your born-again spirit, you are thoroughly forgiven, healed, delivered, and filled with all the fullness of God. For all three parts of you—for your mind and body to be impacted by the truth of healing that is yours in your born-again, be renewed by God’s Word over and over. Hear it in your heart again and again until you see His truth as your outcome. Praise Him for your healing. Just as you stir up faith to walk in holiness, take the grace that is yours in Christ and walk by faith and not by what you think or feel. Walk by faith in the healing that He died for you to receive.
© 2023 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2023/04/healing-for-the-whole-person.html
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