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What does the Bible say about healing? Does God still heal today?

EthicsCare noteMulti-view · no verdict

Short answer

Care note first: if you or someone you love is ill, this is not an abstract question, and nothing below is a diagnosis or a substitute for medical care. Scripture treats sickness with compassion, not blame. The Bible presents God as a healer (Exodus 15:26; Psalms 103:3), records healing through prophets (2 Kings 5:14), and shows healing as a central and constant part of Jesus' ministry (Matthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35), he heals out of compassion (Matthew 14:14; Mark 1:41), touches those nobody would touch (Mark 1:41), and heals on the Sabbath when it costs him (Luke 13:16). The apostles heal too (Acts 3:6; Acts 5:16), and James instructs the sick to call the elders to pray and anoint with oil (James 5:14; James 5:15). And Scripture is equally clear that not everyone is healed, including faithful people close to the apostles. Paul asks three times for his "thorn in the flesh" to be removed and is told no, with a reason given (2 Corinthians 12:8; 2 Corinthians 12:9); he leaves Trophimus sick at Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20); he tells Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach ailments (1 Timothy 5:23); Epaphroditus nearly dies of illness and recovers by mercy, not on demand (Philippians 2:27). Two questions are genuinely debated and are set out below with no verdict: whether the gift of miraculous healing continues today (continuationist and cessationist positions), and whether physical healing is guaranteed in the atonement in this life. What is not debated by the mainstream traditions is that sickness is not a reliable measure of a person's faith, Jesus rejected that reasoning explicitly (John 9:3).

Question

What does the Bible say about healing? Does God still heal today, and why are some people not healed?

Analysis

At a glance

StrandTexts
God named as healerExodus 15:26; Psalms 103:3; Psalms 147:3
Healing in Jesus' ministryMatthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35; Matthew 14:14; Mark 1:41; Luke 13:16
Healing through the apostlesActs 3:6; Acts 5:16; Acts 28:8
Instruction to the churchJames 5:14; James 5:15; James 5:16
Faithful people not healed2 Corinthians 12:8; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Timothy 5:23; 2 Timothy 4:20; Philippians 2:27
Sickness not a verdict on faithJohn 9:1; John 9:2; John 9:3; and the whole book of Job
The final answerRevelation 21:4

What healing means in the Gospels

Jesus' healings are not presented as displays of power for their own sake. They are repeatedly tied to compassion (Matthew 14:14; Matthew 20:34), to restoring people to community (the leper he touches, Mark 1:41; the woman bent over for eighteen years whom he calls a daughter of Abraham, Luke 13:16), and to signs of the kingdom arriving (Matthew 11:4; Matthew 11:5; Luke 4:18). Physical healing and forgiveness are set side by side rather than opposed (Mark 2:9; Mark 2:10; Psalms 103:3).

Faith appears often, but not as a formula. Jesus says "your faith has made you well" (Mark 5:34; Mark 10:52), and in one place could do few miracles because of unbelief (Mark 6:5; Mark 6:6). But he also heals people who did not ask, who did not know who he was (John 5:13), and even a man carried by other people's faith (Mark 2:5). The pattern does not support a rule that healing follows sufficient faith.

The passage that settles one common misuse

The disciples ask whose sin caused a man's blindness, his own or his parents'. Jesus rejects the premise of the question (John 9:3). The book of Job does the same at length: Job's friends insist his suffering proves hidden sin, and the book ends with God saying they have spoken wrongly (Job 42:7). Telling a sick person their illness reveals a deficiency in them is a move Scripture explicitly refuses.

What James actually instructs

James 5:14; James 5:15; James 5:16 tells the sick person to call the elders, who pray over them and anoint with oil in the Lord's name. Notable features that are often skipped: the initiative is the sick person's, it is the church's ministry rather than a specialist's, it involves prayer and confession together, and the promise is framed in terms of the Lord raising them up. Traditions differ on whether this describes ordinary pastoral prayer, a sacramental anointing, or a charismatic gift, but all read it as an instruction that still stands in some form.

The two live debates

① Do the miraculous gifts of healing continue?

PositionClaim
ContinuationistThe gifts described in 1 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Corinthians 12:28 were never withdrawn; God heals miraculously today as he chooses. Points to the absence of any text announcing their end.
CessationistMiraculous healing gifts were tied to the apostolic era and the authentication of revelation (2 Corinthians 12:12; Hebrews 2:4), and ceased with it. God still heals in answer to prayer; what ceased is the gift exercised by individuals.
Open but cautiousA middle position: no biblical warrant to rule miracles out, but wariness of claims and of the harm done by pressure and disappointment.

Note the agreement embedded here: all three hold that God can and does heal in answer to prayer. The dispute is about the gift, not about God's ability or willingness.

② Is physical healing guaranteed in the atonement now?

Some teach that Isaiah 53:5 and its citation in 1 Peter 2:24 and Matthew 8:17 promise bodily healing in this life to those with faith. Most Christian traditions do not read it that way, holding that the healing secured is ultimately of the whole person and is completed in the resurrection, with Revelation 21:4 as the horizon, and pointing to Paul's unanswered request (2 Corinthians 12:8; 2 Corinthians 12:9) as decisive against a present guarantee. The pastoral stakes are why this one matters: a guarantee makes the person who is not healed responsible for it, and that is precisely the reasoning John 9:3 and Job set aside.

Where this leaves someone who is ill

The traditions that disagree above still converge on the practice: pray, and ask others to pray (James 5:14; Philippians 4:6); use ordinary means, which Scripture nowhere disparages (1 Timothy 5:23; and Luke, a physician, is Paul's companion, Colossians 4:14); lament honestly, which the Psalms model at length (Psalms 6:2; Psalms 88); and hold the hope that the end of the story has no illness in it (Revelation 21:4). Trusting God and seeing a doctor are not presented as alternatives.

Sources, trace every one

Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.

  • Exodus 15:26bsb

    saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”

  • Psalms 103:3bsb

    He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,

  • 2 Kings 5:14bsb

    So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored and became like that of a little child, and he was clean.

  • Matthew 4:23bsb

    Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

  • Matthew 9:35bsb

    Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.

  • Matthew 14:14bsb

    When He stepped ashore and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.

  • Mark 1:41bsb

    Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!”

  • Luke 13:16bsb

    Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”

  • Acts 3:6bsb

    But Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”

  • Acts 5:16bsb

    Crowds also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed.

  • James 5:14bsb

    Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.

  • James 5:15bsb

    And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

  • 2 Corinthians 12:8bsb

    Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

  • 2 Corinthians 12:9bsb

    But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

  • 2 Timothy 4:20bsb

    Erastus has remained at Corinth, and Trophimus I left sick in Miletus.

  • 1 Timothy 5:23bsb

    Stop drinking only water and use a little wine instead, because of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

On contested questions we show every major view, attributed and cited, and pick no winner. Answers are synthesized from primary sources, truth you can trace, not opinion.

What does the Bible say about healing? Does God still heal today? · Bubble Bible