“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.” Mark 2:9-12

Real needs and obvious needs can easily be confused. Anyone observing the paralytic man would readily say that physical healing was the priority, for which he was brought to Jesus. The perspective of Jesus, however, was that an unseen spiritual need was the greater priority. What good is a whole physical body if spiritual illness would result in the destruction of that body in the lake of fire?

Much prayer is focused on the physical needs of people. Someone is having surgery, while someone else is battling cancer or some other life-threatening illness. These are serious concerns that should be remembered in prayer, but there are accompanying spiritual and emotional needs that ought also to be prayed for.

James 5:14-15 states, “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”

It is interesting to note that physical and spiritual healing are intermingled in these directives. In the original language, to be restored is primarily about being rescued from sin. The promise that “the Lord will raise him up” is closely related to resurrection. Prayer and oil anointing by elders may factor in to physical healing, but the primary need and focus is spiritual healing, as it was with the paralytic man that Jesus healed.

How thankful we are that the Son of Man has authority both to forgive sin and physically heal. The countless physical healings recorded in scripture are abundant evidence of this power and authority, but these were signposts pointing to the greater unseen healings which matter for eternity. Without the forgiveness of sins, physical healing in this age are of limited value and benefit.

If you have received the touch of the Master through faith, repentance, and the new birth, rejoice that your sins are forgiven, that your have inner spiritual health, and that the hope of abundant life in the age to come is yours.

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