To be healed, we must love and long for Christ the Healer.
Book Reflections: Christ The Healer by F. F. Bosworth
“Jesus healing the sick” by Gustave Doré
Knowing allows us to experience, and experiencing will enable us to receive what we know authentically and concretely. F. F. Bosworth, in his book "Christ The Healer," delves into the topic of receiving the benefits of God's truth according to His will and character. As the author expertly explains, divine healing is part of the work completed on the Cross through Christ; it is not a matter of privileges; it is a matter of whoever believes in the Son of God, and the fullness of His sacrifice has access to may his body be redeemed from the penalty of sin. “Who can remove the curse but God, and how can God justly do it except by substitution? The Bible teaches, as one writer puts it, that disease is the physical penalty of iniquity. Since Christ has borne in His body all our physical liabilities on account of sin, our bodies are therefore released judicially from disease” (Bosworth, p.25).
What salvation is for the soul is healing for our body; that is the mark of redemption. When God finds us, He always leaves the evidence of His visitation in us. That mark remains with us as a memory of that extraordinary moment. He takes care of sealing every aspect of our existence with His blessing. When God arrives, we will never be the same again. The Gospel of Christ Jesus leaves us with marks of redemption.“Redemption is synonymous with Calvary. Therefore, we are redeemed from the entire curse, body, soul and spirit, solely through Christ’s Atonement”. (Bosworth, p.42).
Our life bears fruit only when we collide with the revelation of the living Christ, which can only be obtained through the Holy Spirit. “Jesus said, “When he, the Spirit of Truth is come, . . . he shall glorify me.” Could the Spirit glorify Christ to the sick by telling them that the age of miracles is past? He promised to do “these works . . . and greater works” (Bosworth, p. 86). The Spirit glorifies Christ in our reality and is constantly present in the sacred scriptures. There is no way to separate the Trinity from the scriptures; there is no way to separate God from the covenant that He established by swearing on himself so that He will be known. We cannot benefit from a covenant we do not know about through an unknown God.
Knowledge of His covenant goes hand in hand with knowledge of God's character. "It is impossible to boldly claim by faith a blessing that we are not certain God offers. The power of God can be claimed only where the will of God is known” (Bosworth, p.92). By knowing the God of the covenant through the Bible, our faith is built by knowing that God is not one to repent or retract but rather the one who is faithful to his promises. First, we seek to know him, then accept His covenant, and finally, we access the benefit hidden in His perfect will. Faith is the assurance that God will fulfill His will; it is "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).
Every word that comes out of the mouth of God is a seed of good fruit in our lives, and it is the believer's responsibility to allow those seeds to be sown in their mind and heart. “For each sick person to know that it is God’s will to heal him, it is necessary for the “seed” to be planted in his mind and heart. It is not planted until it is known and received and trusted. No sinner can become a Christian before he knows that it is God’s” (Bosworth, p.17). The fruits of God are the result of a constant sowing of His word and the care and hydration that comes from the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the measure of said harvest will be according to our perseverance in faith. Even when we do not see the results, He who trusts in Christ achieves the fruits only obtained through resting and confiding in God.
God's love flows in faithful rest. He decides to express His love when we surrender and surrender our control. He awaits our availability and our desire to accommodate Him. When we rest in His promises and understand that He not only can heal us, but He wants to, we stop fighting for our survival, we stop wanting to achieve things based on our merits, and we focus on the merits of Christ that are sufficient and superabundant. It is making the Cross our only focus, our healing focus, our liberating shadow. It is allowing Christ, as mentioned in John 12:32, to draw us to himself through His Passion.
Our shortcomings are the opportunity that Jesus uses for us to know him. He comes to meet our needs, but he only remains in those who decide to love Him. As the author mentions, “Christ is the expression of the will of God” (p.56). To love Christ is to love His will; to remain in Him is for His promises and His word to remain in us, and we are constantly renewed in spirit, soul, and body. We are healed when we allow Christ to write His statutes on our hearts: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD. I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). The key to being healed is that the God who heals is our focus; we do nothing when we decide to forget Christ the Redeemer and focus on our needs, only persevere in our condition.
Our focus determines what and who we persevere and trust. If we focus on ourselves, we have put our faith in ourselves and taken God out; We have put ourselves on a pedestal. As long as we are excessively concerned about ourselves, about what we can do and not do, living in the eternal race of searching for perfection and validation, we will cause an environment within us that will kill our faith. Making us unable to see the hand of God move.“There is something wrong when a man desires the blessing but not the Blesser; His mercy but not Himself. It is not proper to seek His mercy while rejecting His will. Do not ask for a little blessing while rejecting a big one” (Bosworth, p.97). To be healed, we must love and long for Christ the Healer.
Works cited:
Bosworth, F. F.. Christ the Healer. Baker Publishing Group, 2001. Kindle file.
