Healing Provided in the Atonement
As taught in the Pentecostal / Charismatic tradition
The theological link between Christ's suffering for sin and His bearing of our sicknesses.
The question that sits at the heart of the Pentecostal theology of divine healing is not merely whether God can heal, but whether He has already provided for the healing of the physical body as an essential component of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. In the Pentecostal tradition, the answer is a resounding affirmative: divine healing is "in the Atonement." This doctrine posits that the sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ addressed the totality of the human condition—not just the spiritual reality of sin and the soul’s alienation from God, but also the physical consequences of the Fall, including sickness, infirmity, and death. To the Pentecostal believer, the "Full Gospel" is incomplete if it does not include the provision for the physical body.
By the end of this lesson
- **Identify** the linguistic and theological connections between sin and sickness within the Hebrew and Greek texts of the three primary Scripture anchors.
- **Distinguish** between the "provision" of healing in the atonement and the "manifestation" of healing in the believer’s experience, understanding the Pentecostal tension of the "already but not yet."
- **Explain** how Matthew 8:16-17 serves as the definitive New Testament hermeneutic for interpreting the "suffering servant" passage of Isaiah 53.
- **Articulate** the historical context and the specific wording of Article 12 of the Assemblies of God Statement of Fundamental Truths regarding divine healing.
- **Trace** the development of the "Fourfold Gospel" (or Full Gospel) and the place of healing within that framework.
- **Defend** the Pentecostal reading of "by his stripes we are healed" against cessationist or purely spiritualised interpretations.
- **Apply** the doctrine of healing in the atonement to the practice of the "prayer of faith" and the laying on of hands within a local church context.
- **Compare** the Pentecostal view of healing with the views of mainstream Evangelicalism and Cessationism, highlighting the distinctive emphasis on the physical body’s redemption.
Scripture
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