A Biblical perspective on Faith and Healing

“God, why won’t you heal me?” 

Have you ever found yourself asking God a question like this? If so, you are not alone. Joni Eareckson Tada, for one, asked this question in the early months of paralysis following her 1967 diving accident. She, like many believers, looked at Scriptures such as James 5:15 as an offer from God of physical healing. As the verse says: 

“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”  

Of course, experience shows that not every healing prayer affects sickness or disability, at least not in the ways we expect. Now, after living for many decades with quadriplegia—in addition to chronic pain and two bouts with cancer—Joni can personally attest to the fact that God doesn’t always offer physical healing, but that he often provides a deeper kind of healing that breaks the mold of human expectations. 

The second edition of our Joni and Friends Beyond Suffering course explores this and many other topics in depth. Here are some key insights from its treatment of questions surrounding faith and healing… 

God’s Sovereign Action in the World 

Some propose that God does not heal today the way he did in the New Testament period. According to this suggestion, healing and other supernatural gifts of the Spirit ceased with the end of the apostolic age. At Joni and Friends, we affirm that God continues to heal in the present—in whatever way he sovereignly chooses—although God’s ordinary way of healing does not include the type of miracles Jesus performed. 

According to his divine providence and sovereignty, God continues to act through the world. As the following verses from Psalm 103 and Exodus 15 make clear, all healing comes from God, our Lord who heals us: 

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases”

Psalm 103:2–3 

“If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

Exodus 15:26  

How does God heal? 

God heals through creation, through doctors and medical intervention, through prayers, and through miracles. In every instance, healing comes from God; this is not something humanity can control or determine. 

Great damage gets done when people misinterpret Scripture and propose that people with disabilities remain so because of sin or a lack of faith. Those who hold this position point to various passages where Jesus heals people with incredible faith. They point to Jesus’s declaration to the woman healed after touching the hem of his garment: “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace” (Luke 8:48).  

Evangelists and faith healers often point to narratives like this one to affirm their position: Jesus heals those who have faith; those without faith are not healed. Yet, other stories in the gospels show Jesus healing in a variety of ways, some of which do not involve the faith of the person being healed. 

Jesus dispels the myth that disability results directly from sin… 

Look at the story told in John 9, where Jesus heals a blind man who does not show faith beforehand. In fact, the man does not even know who Jesus is until some time later. On this occasion, Jesus dispels the myth that disability results directly from sin, instead noting that the man was born blind “that the works of God might be displayed in him” (v. 3). This encounter contradicts the notion that disability is always due to unconfessed sin. 

This story also uncouples the connection between faith and healing. John the apostle tells us Jesus heals the man and then departs, and the man does not know who Jesus is until much later. After the man has a confrontation with the religious leaders, Jesus encounters him again in the following verses: 

• Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 

• “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” 

• Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” (vv. 35–37) 

Only then does the man testify “Lord, I believe,” worshipping Christ as his Lord (v. 38). In this passage, the man only displays faith after the miraculous healing. 

God’s Reasons for Healing 

Turn now to the story in Mark 2 where a man receives healing not based on his faith but on “their faith” (referring to his friends) as well as the religious leaders’ disbelief (v. 5). In the passage, four friends bring their paralyzed companion to Jesus, but seeing the crowds and realizing they are unable to enter the home through a door, they climb on the roof and lower their friend down to Jesus.  

Jesus, noting “their faith,” declares the paralytic’s sins forgiven. Jesus shows that spiritual healing matters more than physical healing (a theme we will return to later). Indeed, Jesus only performs the miraculous healing in response to the disbelief of the religious leaders! When the religious leaders question whether Jesus has the authority to forgive sins, Jesus heals the man to prove his divine authority to forgive (vv. 9–11). Jesus heals the man not on the basis of faith—his or anyone else’s—but in response to the religious leaders’ unbelief! 

When God Doesn’t Heal 

Finally, in 2 Corinthians 12, we encounter Paul and his sufferings for Christ, one of which he calls a “thorn in my flesh” (v. 7). Here, there is evidence of faith without healing. Paul recounts the three times he prayed for God to remove the thorn, which may have been an impairment or some physical suffering, and yet he heard God say, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9). God’s grace and power were manifested in Paul’s life through his weak condition. God sovereignly chose to leave Paul’s “thorn” so that his will and power would be accomplished through the apostle. 

These passages, as well as others, teach us that miraculous healing is always God’s decision. Neither faith nor a lack of sin forms the basis of healing, instead, God ultimately chooses to sovereignly give good gifts to his children. As Joni says: 

“At the end of the day, it’s not a question of who has the most faith, but what God in his wisdom, love, and sovereignty chooses to do.”