Healing through the Word 

To speak of health is to speak of God’s promise of life. Not merely life that endures for a few decades with the strength of the body, but life that flows from the living God through his living word. The Scriptures do not shy away from our frailty, our sickness, or the reality of death. Yet again and again, they proclaim that in God’s word there is healing, restoration, and fullness of life. “With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation” (Psalm 91:16). This promise points beyond mere length of years to the deep satisfaction that comes when the soul is anchored in God’s saving presence.

The Bible does not only speak comfort to the sick but brings the power of God to heal. “He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction” (Psalm 107:20). God’s word is not distant; it is living and active, carrying the healing touch of Christ into the brokenness of our lives. When Isaiah prophesied that the Servant of the Lord would bear our griefs and carry our sorrows, that by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:4–5), he was pointing us to Jesus, who in the Gospels made the kingdom visible by restoring the sick. “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean,” said the leper, and Jesus touched him: “I will; be clean” (Matthew 8:2–3). Every healing was a sign of the greater healing purchased at the cross.

Matthew tells us that Jesus “healed all who were sick” to fulfil Isaiah’s words (Matthew 8:16–17), and he went throughout all the towns and villages “healing every disease and every affliction” (Matthew 9:35). The crowds came, bringing their lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others, and he healed them (Matthew 15:30). Again and again, the Gospel writers record his compassion. “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed” (Mark 5:34). To Bartimaeus he said, “Go your way; your faith has made you well” (Mark 10:51–52). The power of healing was never abstract; it was bound up with faith in the living Christ.

This ministry did not end with his earthly life. The risen Lord commanded, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel… these signs will accompany those who believe… they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:15–18). Luke tells us that when the sun was setting, “all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them” (Luke 4:40). And in Acts we see that Jesus continues his healing work through the Spirit. Peter called people to repent so that “times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). We are told that Jesus “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).

James exhorts the church to embody this same ministry: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church… and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:14–15). Peter anchors it all in the cross: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

Health, then, is not an idol to be pursued for its own sake, but a gift flowing from the living word of God. It points us to Christ, who heals not only bodies but souls, not only for a time but for eternity. To ascribe to living health is to ascribe to him, to submit ourselves wholly to his word, trusting that every promise finds its “Yes” in Jesus. The Scriptures call us to believe, to obey, to repent, to pray, and to hope. In them we find the Christ who is both healer and Saviour, who gives life abundantly now and forever.