RPG Adults
WHY DID JESUS HEAL?
SATURDAY, JANUARY 8
Mark 1:29-38
Acts 2:22-32
“…that I may preach there also:
for therefore came I forth.”
WHY DID JESUS HEAL?
Jesus had a ministry of preaching and healing, but which was His primary or essential ministry? It was preaching, not healing. When all came to Him for healing, he told his disciples, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth” (Mark 1:38).
There is no question Jesus healed many people and they got healed miraculously. He healed because He had compassion on the people (Mark 1:41). Another reason is because He wanted to prove His person and ministry as the Messiah—the Christ, the Son of the living God (Acts 2:22).
The healing miracles of Jesus also had a teaching purpose. They visibly demonstrated the fact that Jesus is Saviour, and as Saviour He came to save not only our souls but also our bodies. His healing points to the resurrection body which all His people will have one day—a perfect and powerful body without any sin, sickness, disease, suffering, pain etc. The most stupendous healing miracle that Jesus performed must surely be the raising of the dead (eg. Lazarus in John 11). That miracle was to teach powerfully the doctrine of the resurrection. Jesus used that event to declare, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25,26).
The healing ministry of Jesus did not overshadow His preaching ministry. In fact, when He said, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also,” it tells us that the focus of His ministry was on the preaching or teaching of the Word—for that is the means by which God has ordained that we should be saved—“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the [preached] word [rhema] of God” (Rom 10:17). That was why the Apostle Paul himself said, “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:17,18).
THOUGHT: The spectacle of miracles does not save; it is faith in the Gospel that saves!
PRAYER: Lord, I believe in Thy Gospel. Raise me up on the last day.