Does God promise health to Christians?

Question

Is it God’s will that everyone should be healthy? Did Jesus die for our sicknesses and sins? Does it mean that if we oppose sickness that God in His time will take it away?

Answer

There is a lot of misunderstanding on this topic, primarily because of God’s promises to Israel to keep them healthy if they obeyed his law (see Exodus 15:26 compared with Deuteronomy 28:20-22).

While a few places in the New Testament indicate that physical sickness and death can result from sin (1 Corinthians 11:27-30; 1 John 5:16-17), there is no promise of health for Christians or indication that all illnesses result from sin. In fact, even under the Mosaic law for Israel, Jesus said that some sickness was to display God’s work (John 9:1-3).

We also see that God did not take away whatever Paul suffered (2 Corinthians 12:8-9), one of Paul’s friends almost died from sickness (Philippians 2:25-27), and he told Timothy to use wine as medicine for a frequent stomach issue (1 Timothy 5:23). All these show that there is no promise of physical health for God’s people.

Further, no, Jesus didn’t die for our physical health. The comment in Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24 that people are healed because of Jesus’ wounds refers to spiritual healing, not physical. Jesus didn’t die to keep me from having a headache.

Finally, God never promises to take away sickness, pain, and suffering until Revelation 21:4. Only in eternity will the former things finally be removed. There are many examples of godly people who suffer terrible physical diseases today. I recently lost a friend who had a disease for decades. From a human perspective, he lost out on a great deal of ministry and being part of his kids and grandkids as they grew. We don’t know why God allowed this, but I look forward to seeing my friend again in heaven, completely healed.