Healing and Discipline in the Light of Grace Gospel

Saturday, 5th December 2009

A fellow NTU graduate sent me an email about 2 weeks back asking some questions about healing and discipline in the light of the grace gospel. He has given me his permission to reproduce our email conversation here so that others can also benefit from our discussion.

From: name withheld
Subject: Healing and Discipline
To: "Malcolm Loh"
Date: Sunday, 22 November, 2009, 1:43 PM

Hi Malcolm,

I have read your testimonies as well as some of your articles in your blog. I am also a Christian raised up in a traditional background. Your sharing opens up a different perspectives and could be what you said like scales fallen off from your eyes and unveiling of the veil. As I try to understand further, may I seek your advice on a few clarifications:

a) Healing - am I right to say grace gospel strongly emphasize that Christ has already finished the work, by his stripes that he bore he has healed us from all sickness and diseases. Therefore, we just need to believe, have faith and claim it. Does that mean that Christians in NCC or who subscribe to the grace gospel will not suffer from sickness or will not die of sickness? If they do, is it due to a lack of faith or?

b) Discipline - am I right to say grace gospel emphasize on God's grace vis-a-vis parable of the prodigal son. It emphasize that God does not need to discipline us further and if we were to fall into sins and wandered away, God will patiently wait for us to come back to him, and will welcome us like the Father in the parable. Therefore, God uses a "patiently wait" approach and not discipline (as in Heb he discipline those he loves) like the traditional churches believe.

c) "Inconsistency" of God in healing/blessing - This is related to (a) in terms of healing. You mentioned "The trouble with holding on to the doctrine that sometimes God heals and sometimes He doesn't, or sometimes God blesses us and sometimes He doesn't, makes it difficult for us to know how to pray or what to ask for. Imagine if an earthly father were to behave like that. One day, when he is in a good mood, he will bring his kids out for a good meal. The next day, when he gets up on the wrong side of bed, he will beat up his kids just for the fun of it. Is our God really like that?"

I supposed the traditional churches does not mean that God is fickle minded....but rather He is sovereign and His ways are higher than our ways and there have been many godly Christians who themselves or their families have met tragedies in life due to accidents, incurable sickness, etc.....we can never comprehend why God did not heal every case. But their comfort is in maintaining the faith (like Daniel and his friends) even if God chooses not to answer (which sometime we do not know why...it may not due to sin). Dan 3 - If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

In the gospel there was also one ocassion the disciples asked Jesus why a man was born blind, the answer Jesus gave was neither he nor his parents sin, but this was so that God's name can be glorified.

Similarly in Habakkuk 3 - Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

So, is this teaching not right/accurate?

Here was my response to him...

To: name withheld
From: Malcolm Loh
Re: Healing and Discipline
Date: Tuesday, 24 November, 2009 12:51 PM

a) HEALING:

Actually one of the revelations that was recently unveiled to me is that faith is not just merely believing. There is a second element to it and that is “speaking it out”. I learnt that from Ps Charles Nieman, who was a guest speaker that NCC invited in Nov 08. His sermon was entitled "Faith = Believing and Speaking" and he quoted several portions of scripture to back that up.

You can read more about that sermon in the blog entry linked below

http://jimmytst.multiply.com/journal/item/49/Faith_is_believing_and_speaking_Sermon_notes

I suspect many word- of-faith Christians (and even those in NCC) may only have been believing in their hearts for healing, but are not speaking it out with their lips because the former is easier to carry out whereas the latter seem a bit more “far-fetched” and they have to overcome that mental barrier.

The Holy Communion is a means to keep oneself in divine health. When the Israelites departed from Egypt, every single one of them, young and old, were in perfect health because they partook of the lamb. If that was possible under the shadow, how much more for us today who have the substance. I have started to hear testimony upon testimony of God’s healing taking place in NCC. It is a progressive harvest that is being reaped.

So in essence, my answer to you is yes. Those who embrace the grace gospel ought not to suffer or die from any sickness. Rather, they should just be taken away the way Kenneth Hagin did. He was having breakfast and then he breathed his last.

b) DISCIPLINE:

My previous understanding of discipline was that of punishment. However, now that God has punished all our sin upon the body of Jesus, and Jesus declared that “it is finished!”, such punishment is not coherent with the grace gospel. The word “discipline” in the Greek means child-training. In the New Covenant, God corrects and child-trains us with His Word.

Take myself for example. I had the notion that prosperity was not for the Christian. However, as passages in His Word were being unveiled to me, I was being corrected in my thinking and now know that Christ became poor so that we can become rich (2 Cor 9:8) and that God gives us the power to get wealth (Deut 8:18)

c) APPARENT INCONSISTENCY

Don’t mind me saying this, but using the phrase “His ways are higher than our ways” is actually a cop-out when we don’t have the answers. If I tell my daughter or son “sorry, kid, my way is higher than yours” they may have no choice to accept it for now but once they grow up, they will not trust me anymore. Many Christians get bitter when told this and the more “daring” ones will give up on Him. The less “daring” will accept it reluctantly but there will be no true joy in the relationship with God.

In fact, if you look at the passage where that quote comes from (Isa 55), you realize that God is talking about Himself in a positive sense – it is an invitation to the thirsty, He talks about His word not returning to Him void but accomplishing its purposes. Yet, Christians have quote this verse in a negative sense – that God is shrouded in mystery and He can do whatever He wants with us, no questions asked. Sad to say, godly Christians may face tragedies in life because they do not know what belongs to them, what Christ’s blood has already purchased for them. They need not accept what the devil throws at them.

It is interesting that you have quoted Daniel and Habakkuk. These were men who lived during the time when the Old Covenant was still in effect. They had the mindset that God would not answer their prayers because of either their own sin or the sin of their forefathers. And God had every right to do so under that covenant, which was a performance-based one. We who are beneficiaries of the New Covenant need not see God that same way. When we look at the Sciptures this side of the cross, we see the author of Hebrews telling us to come boldly to His throne of grace, while the apostle Paul declares that all of God's promises are yes and amen.

But you are also right that God respects our choices; He will not force His blessings upon us. I remember attending this conference where a wheelchair-bound lady called Joni shared her testimony, about how she has embraced her wheelchair. I was touched and moved, and there is no doubt that God can use and is using her. Believers empathize and take pity on her. But there is no glory in her condition – a pre-believer will not be attracted to the gospel. I would rather she not embrace her wheelchair, believe in God for her complete healing and then, her testimony would achieve much more among pre-believers.