ANOINTING WITH OIL THE ORDINANCE FOR DIVINE HEALING
In the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles we have the record of our Lord's unlimited Divine healing for "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people."
In I Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul refers several times to the "gifts of healing," and in James 5 we are given a formula for the Church to use in order for God to bestow upon the sick person the "gift of healing" and "raise him up" to renewed health again.
The original body of man, into which God breathed the spirit of life, was a perfect body. God Himself pronounced it "very good." We believe that body was, in its original state, both death-free and disease-free. When sin entered the human family, mortality was the inevitable result. Both disease and death are, therefore, an integral and a normal part of sinful man's condition and experience. Disease and death, however, are not always a direct result of sin. Our Lord clearly explained this in John 9 when He said, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents" that he was born blind. Jesus did not mean that these persons had not sinned, for the Bible declares that "all have sinned," but He did mean that the blindness was not a direct result of specific acts of sin.
Jesus did not say that disease or physical disability is never a direct result of specific acts of sin. The epidemic proportion to which venereal disease has spread over the country is a striking example of disease as a direct result of sin. The diseases which often follow the use of tobacco and strong drink would be other examples of sickness resulting from sin.
In the experience of Israel there were individuals like Miriam, Gehazi, Uzziah, and perhaps others, who were suddenly afflicted with the disease of leprosy as a direct result of a specific sin. Sometimes an epidemic or plague would spread rapidly through the nation of Israel because as a group they had sinned. Numbers 16:47, 48 and Numbers 21:1-9, would be pertinent examples of this. In many of these experiences the Divine Record declares that atonement needed to be made in order for the plague or sickness 'to be stayed. On such occasions, since the epidemic was a direct result of specific sin, the sin had to be taken care of before the plague could be healed. It goes almost without argument, therefore, that it was the sin that was atoned for rather than the disease or the plague. When the specific sin which caused the sickness was taken care of, then the sickness which was a direct result of that particular sin was also taken care of. It was for the sin that atonement needed to be made - not for the sickness.
Sometimes people argue that the atonement of Christ provides healing for sickness. They point out Matthew 8:17 where, in connection with Christ's healing ministry, it is stated that "Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." This word "bare" is translated from the Greek word "bastazo" - the same word from which "bear" in "bear ye one another's burdens" comes. When Peter says, He "bare our sins" the word "bare" comes from the Greek word "anaphero". The one word means to bear sympathetically and the other one to bare vicariously. If sickness needs atonement for healing, then sickness would also sever one's relationship with God. If physical healing were in the atonement, those saints who die from some kind of disease or sickness would be dying 'outside of the atonement. When Matthew says "then was fulfilled" he means at that very moment and at that very place. He was in Capernium when he "bare [sympathetically] our sickness" and not at Calvary.
There were no limits to our Lord's healing accomplishments. God gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him. He never attempted anything and failed. Generally, He worked in an unostentatous manner. He did not advertise His accomplishments and often requested that healed ones keep quiet about their healing. He also warned the seventy, when they returned from their mission, not to glory in their accomplishments.
Present-day so-called healing evangelists are far removed from such a spirit of humility and, we believe, just as far removed from such miracle-working power.
Our Lord bestowed upon His immediate disciples special miracle-working grace to confirm them as His initial agents to spread the Gospel in the world in an undocumented era. They did not have the miracle of the New Testament Scriptures to carry with them. God also wrought special miracles by the hands of Barnabas and Paul. As the New Testament Scriptures were given and the undocumented era came to a close, the era of special healing and miraculous power was also changing. Paul, who had wrought special miracles of healing, had left Trophimus at Miletum sick, and Paul himself was told that he would be given grace to live with his infirmity rather than to be healed of it.
At the close of the apostolic era as the Holy Scriptures were being formed, the Holy Spirit moved James to provide a formula for healing that would be a guide to the true children of God and a safeguard against the wholesale fake or counterfeit healing programs. James 5 provides the only formula for divine healing found in the New Testament Epistles.
In this passage no one person is said to possess healing powers. A local congregational setting with a local ministerial body is in focus. The elders as a group are to be called to the sick person - by the sick person. There, the elders as a group are to pray over the sick and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. Since the elders are to pray and the "prayer of faith shall save the sick," the responsibility of faith for the occasion rests upon the elders. The sick person has previously indicated his faith 'by calling for the anointing. The repeated use of the word "brethren" in the context would indicate that this practice should be kept within the Church brotherhood. Our innocent children who are stricken with illness can be properly prayed for and miracle healing can be expected apart from the anointing. Infant anointing is no more consistent than infant baptism. The context would also indicate that the Lord will heal in His own way, at His own speed, and in His own time. In verses 7-11, the virtue of patience is repeatedly emphasized with 'the holy prophets and the patriarch Job held forth as examples of patience in suffering affliction.
"Let them pray over him., and "the Lord shall raise him up" would suggest that the anointing of oil by the elders is for serious and chronic or lingering illnesses. Doubtless the call for anointing should be more frequent among us, but on the other hand, we should not allow it to become too commonplace by using it for every it-came-to-pass illness.
While this immediate passage does not so indicate, there are other Scriptures which would teach us that God may want the afflicted or sick one to glorify Him through continued patience in suffering as He did the Apostle Paul. It is always important to be resigned to God's will, and it is never wrong to follow the example of Jesus when He said, "Thy will be done."
Since James 5 presents the only formula for healing in the New Testament Epistles, and this formula involves a plurality of elders, why should the Apostle Paul specify the "gift of healing" for certain individuals in the church? In I Corinthians 12:8-10, nine different gifts of the Spirit are mentioned, including the "gifts of healing." When one is given the gift of "wisdom" or "knowledge" or "faith" or "prophecy" or "discerning of spirits" etc., it is understood that he possesses that gift within himself rather than that he can impart such a gift to others.
Perhaps the same application could be placed on the "gift of healing." The man of Acts 3, who was lame from birth, received the gift of healing and went with Peter and John into the temple "walking and leaping and praising God." In Acts 14:8-10, another "being a cripple from his mother's womb" received the gift of healing when he was told by Paul to "stand upright on thy feet, and he leaped and walked." The Apostle Paul was denied the gift of healing in this sense in II Corinthians 12:7-10, and glorified God in his continued infirmity. My own father was anointed once after a lingering illness and received the gift of healing. The Lord raised him up immediately. At a later time during a chronic illness, he again called for anointing and did not receive the gift of healing but soon thereafter moved on into eternity.
This interpretation or application of the "gift of healing" may have some objections raised against it, but it is consistent with most of the other gifts of .the Spirit given in the context. It is altogether compatible with the only formula for Divine healing found in the Epistles.
"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church: and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him" (James 5:14, 15).
Aaron M. Shank
Myerstown, Pa.
June 1976