Does God Promise Healing? What Does the Bible Actually Say?

“It’s God’s will for EVERYONE to be healed.” That was the foundation of the entire belief system. This was news to me. After all, don’t we all know good, godly people who suffer physically? People who have lost battles with cancer? Those born with or who have acquired disabilities that have shaped their lives? Haven’t we all seen a child—pure, innocent, and undeserving—endure immense suffering?

But they had verses. They rattled them off: “By His stripes we are healed!” “Jesus healed them all!” “God made all things GOOD!” And I semi-recognized those Scriptures. They were in the Bible. And they had clever sayings—quips and brain-stoppers that shut down arguments and kept the narrative intact:

“The only thing preventing healing is us!” “Faith and doubt cannot coexist.” “You have to take your healing by force!” “If you don’t believe, you won’t receive!” “You’re already healed! Your body just needs to catch up!” God doesn’t want you sick! Sickness is from the devil!”

Unfortunately, I took the bait. From there, it was a domino-like deconstruction of whatever traces of doctrinal clarity I once possessed. If it was truly God’s will for everyone to be healed, then the only thing standing in the way was my lack of faith. And it turned out my “faith” was actively being attacked by pesky things like reason, conscience, logic, common sense, and reality. Even Scripture had to be brushed aside when it conflicted with that message, because that belief was the linchpin of their certainty.

And what a mess that followed.

I’ve often wished I could go back in time and erase this chapter of my life, but I do realize that through the astonishing grace of God, good ultimately came of it. (Romans 8:28) It was the traumatic aftermath of this doctrinal trainwreck that stirred a desperation in me to seek out the legitimate Gospel. Thank God for His unparalleled mercy! Untangling from these teachings was a harrowing process, but it instilled in me a passion for Scripture handled carefully and accurately. Let’s examine this claim through the lens of God’s Word read in context.

What Does the Bible Actually Say?

Is it God’s will for every person to receive complete physical healing in this life? Are believers guaranteed healing through the atonement? One of the most commonly quoted verses used to justify guaranteed healing is Isaiah 53:5. Almost anyone with a church background will recognize, “By His stripes we are healed.” The full verse however, reads: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah isn’t talking about physical healing. The context of this passage is about reconciliation between God and man through Christ’s atonement.

Peter clarifies this in 1 Peter 2:24, tying it directly to salvation rather than physical ailments. He writes: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed”. The emphasis here is on Christ bearing our sins, not our sicknesses. The phrase “die to sin and live to righteousness” makes it clear that Peter is speaking about spiritual restoration—being made right with God—rather than physical healing. The immediate context of the passage refers to Christ’s suffering for our sins, pointing to the ultimate healing of our souls through His atoning sacrifice. Nowhere in the New Testament do the apostles interpret this passage as a promise of physical healing in this life. Instead, they emphasize the sufficiency of Christ’s work in securing our reconciliation with God.

The Reality of Suffering in Scripture

If healing was a guaranteed promise for every believer, the Bible wouldn’t be filled with accounts of faithful saints enduring suffering, sickness, and even death. Consider:

• The martyrs of the faith, those who gave their lives for the Gospel, suffered physically. Their suffering was not a sign of weak faith but of God’s sovereign plan to use their trials for His glory. Hebrews 11 speaks of those who “were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life” (Hebrews 11:35), showing that suffering is sometimes necessary for the fulfillment of God’s greater plan.

• Paul had a “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) that God did not remove, despite his pleading.

• Timothy was advised by Paul to drink a little wine for his stomach ailments (1 Timothy 5:23) rather than being told to “claim his healing.”

• Trophimus, a companion of Paul, was left sick in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20).

• The early church faced persecution, imprisonment, and death—none of which were removed through “enough faith.” Jesus explicitly told His followers that they would face suffering: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

• Paul wrote to the Philippians that it was granted to them not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for His sake (Philippians 1:29).

• The book of Acts records the brutal persecution of the early church, with Stephen being stoned to death (Acts 7:54-60) and James executed by Herod (Acts 12:1-2). Their faith did not spare them from suffering.

Did Jesus Heal Everyone?

It’s often said that “Jesus healed them all,” citing verses like Matthew 8:16 (“He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick”) and Matthew 12:15 (“And great crowds followed him, and he healed them all”). However, these were specific instances, not a universal guarantee. There were times and places where He didn’t heal everyone. For example, in John 5:1-9, He healed only one man at the pool of Bethesda while many others remained unhealed.

Why Did Jesus Perform Miracles?

When I first began untangling from faith teachings, I actually avoided the Gospels for a while. Early on, the accounts of Jesus performing miracles just left me feeling raw. I had seen such putrid fruit under the banner of faith healing that I couldn’t reconcile what the purpose was. When I finally found the courage to read the Gospels again, however, I realized Jesus wasn’t performing miracles to teach us to embrace and promote sensationalism.

He was proving He was the Son of God.

Believe it or not, at the core of many faith teachings lies a deeply insidious idea: that salvation is about restoring a kind of lost divinity to mankind. This belief claims that Adam, before the fall, had absolute dominion over creation—including sickness—and possessed the ability to speak things into existence, just like God. According to this teaching, Adam lost this divine-like authority when he sinned, and Christ’s death and resurrection were not just about saving us from sin, but about restoring those lost attributes to mankind.

Do you see how dangerous this is? It subtly shifts the focus of the atonement away from Christ’s redemption of sinners and toward the idea of restoring our own divinity. It makes salvation less about reconciling us to God and more about reclaiming a supernatural authority that was supposedly ours in the first place.

But Scripture does not teach that we are to regain dominion over sickness or speak reality into existence. Nowhere are we instructed to work miracles as Christ did, nor are we given His sovereign power over life and death. Instead, the Bible makes it clear that miracles were a unique mark of Christ’s divinity and apostolic authority —never a universal right for all believers.

The faith healing movement often teaches people to demand miracles, as though they are entitled to divine power. But attempting to wield authority that belongs to God alone is not faith—it is presumption. It is the same temptation Satan presented in the garden: “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).

Jesus’ Miracles Were About His Identity, Not Ours

The Bible consistently emphasizes that Jesus’ miracles were about revealing who He is:

• John 2:11 – “This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
• John 20:30-31 – “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”
• Matthew 9:6 – “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”
• Luke 7:22 – “And He answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.’”
• John 11:43-44 – Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, not simply as an act of compassion, but to demonstrate His power over life and death.

Jesus’ miracles were not a formula for us to follow—they were a revelation of His identity as the Son of God. To twist them into a pattern for all believers today shifts the focus from Christ’s glory to human entitlement.

The belief that the atonement restores divine power to mankind is a dangerous distortion of the gospel. It elevates human authority and minimizes God’s sovereignty. Rather than seeking to exercise divine power, believers are called to surrender to the One who alone holds it.

The Ultimate Healing: New Bodies in Eternity

The Bible actually does promise complete healing—but not in this life. Our true hope is in the resurrection, when we will receive glorified bodies, free from sin, suffering, and death (Philippians 3:20-21; Revelation 21:4).

I realize that faith healers habitually dismiss this point as a “cop-out,” arguing that it’s “our responsibility” to fight sickness and ailments spiritually. That infirmity is a ‘spiritual problem’ and that “weak Christians” evade their ‘spiritual responsibility’ by appealing to the sovereignty of God. But is that true? Is infirmity a spiritual problem? And is trusting the sovereignty of God a sign of weakness?

Let’s examine that claim.

Scripture overwhelmingly refutes the idea that all sickness is due to spiritual failure. While some ailments can be tied to sin (John 5:14) or demonic oppression (Mark 9:17-29), many instances show godly people suffering for reasons beyond their control.

In addition to examples given above there’s also:

Job’s Suffering (Job 1:8-12; 2:3-7)
Described as “blameless and upright, one who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8) his suffering was explicitly permitted by God, not as a punishment for sin, but as a test of faith.
Job’s friends wrongly assumed that his afflictions were due to sin (Job 4:7-8), but God rebuked them for this false assumption (Job 42:7).

The Man Born Blind (John 9:1-3)
The disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” This passage explicitly refutes the idea that all sickness is caused by sin.

Lazarus (John 11:1-4)

When Lazarus was sick, Jesus said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” There is no mention of sin or judgment.

Elisha’s Death from Illness (2 Kings 13:14)

“Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die…” Elisha, a great prophet who performed miracles, still suffered a terminal illness. His sickness was not due to sin, proving that even the godly can suffer physically.

Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 4:4)

Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, became crippled when he was dropped as a child. His disability was due to an accident, not a divine curse.

The faith healing movement scoffs at the promise of eternal healing, dismissing it as a “cop-out,” But eternal healing is not an insignificant detail—it’s a foundational hope in Christ. (Romans 8:18-25; 1 Corinthians 42-44) The Christian faith clings to certainty that one day, every tear will be wiped away, and death, pain, and sickness will be no more (Revelation 21:4). Our hope is not in temporary healing, but in eternal restoration.

Philippians 3:20-21 reminds us:

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”

One day, our broken bodies will be made new. But until then, we trust God—not because He always removes our suffering, but because He is sovereign over it.

Conclusion

The claim that “it’s always God’s will for everyone to be physically healed” is not only unsupported by Scripture, but it also places an unbearable burden on believers. It forces them to wrestle with guilt and doubt, questioning the character of God when healing doesn’t come. It turns suffering into a spiritual failure rather than an opportunity to trust in the goodness and sovereignty of God.

The Bible does not promise us a life free from sickness and suffering—it promises us a Savior who is with us in the suffering. Jesus never told His followers that faith would exempt them from pain; rather, He assured them that in this world, they would have tribulation (John 16:33). The apostles suffered. The early church suffered. Even Christ Himself suffered, not because of sin or lack of faith, but because it was part of God’s sovereign plan.

It’s not always His will to remove suffering, but to use it for His glory. Sometimes He heals, and sometimes He allows suffering to accomplish a greater purpose that we may not fully understand in this life. Paul understood this when he prayed for his thorn in the flesh to be removed, only to hear the Lord’s response:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

While we may not always understand suffering in this life, we can trust God who does. His Word is clear: our eventual, total healing is certain, but it will be complete in His time, not ours. Until then, we walk by faith, knowing that His grace sustains us, His sovereignty upholds us, and His promises never fail.