The Message of the Healer

The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.
–2 Corinthians 12:12

Imagine if I stood at the pulpit one Sunday and said, “For two thousand years, Christianity has taught that the way to be forgiven of your sins is to trust in Jesus as your Savior. But I declare that God has initiated a new way of salvation. No longer do you need to trust in Jesus Christ; instead, if you come to the altar, stand on your head, and say ‘mumbo jumbo’ ten times, you will be saved.” How would the congregation know whether I was telling the truth? All they would have to do is turn to the New Testament, and they would realize I was preaching nonsense.

But what if there were no New Testament? What if there were no written authority that told us how to be saved?

In essence, that’s what the apostles faced in the early days of the church. They were telling their Jewish audience, “For fourteen hundred years, our forefathers have said the way to be in a right relationship with God is to offer the right sacrifices, observe all the festivals, and keep the dietary restrictions. But we’re here to tell you that the old covenant is null and void. God has initiated a new way of salvation, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.”

How would the audience know whether the apostles really were speaking for God? There was no New Testament yet. The only way to judge the authenticity of an apostle and his message was by his ability to perform signs and wonders. Hebrews 2:3–4 says, “After [salvation] was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit.”

That was the purpose of healing in the New Testament: to point to the message of the healer and affirm that their message came from God. In fact, healing became rarer as the doctrines of the church became more established. Outside of James, one of the earliest books in the New Testament, there is no instruction about healing in the church. Healing became rarer as the church progressed because its purpose was greater than the physical act of healing.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “Purpose-Driven Healing,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2021.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.