Does God today offer healing of our physical infirmities as Jesus of Nazareth was seen to do during His 3-1/2-year ministry on earth unto the Nation Israel (Rom. 15:8, Matt. 15:24)?

Does God today heal as He once did through the Twelve Apostles during the early Acts period before they ceased to be inconsequential as Paul’s ministry was inserted?

If does God today offer healing of our physical infirmities, on what is its basis during today's "dispensation of the grace of God", in which we have His life ever-present in our spirit?

Let’s search the Scriptures to see what exactly God is doing in the lives of believers today, how He operates today, as to whether or not we as believers can expect physical healing from the Lord, during this unique grace age of “dispensation of the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24).

In Matthew 8:17 Jesus fulfills a prophecy of Isaiah 53:4 for Israel which said, He “Himself took our [Israel’s] infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” This was fulfilled by his healing the sick in the previous verse (Matt 8:16) and during Jesus of Nazareth’s earthly ministry to the Nation Israel.

At that time, healing miracles during Christ’s ministry to Israel (cf. Amt 15:24, Rom. 15:8) were actually meant to be “signs” for Israel in order to substantiate Jesus’ offer of the long-promised “kingdom of God” to come for Israel. Thus, Jesus explained here exactly why He then, and the twelve Apostles healed the sick. This healing would be proof of the “Kingdom of God Is Come.”

(Jesus to the Twelve Apostles) “And heal the sick that are therein [those cities], and say unto them, The Kingdom of God Is Come Nigh Unto You.” (Luke 10:9 (KJV)

At that time Jesus was presenting Israel a taste of the kingdom being offered to Israel. His miracles were to be ‘signs’ for Israel such that they could believe and trust in Jesus as “the Son of God” and trust in what He promised for the faithful of Israel …. but few ever did.

Signs?

Note how that the account of Jesus’ first recorded miracle at Cana in John 2 is mistranslated as “This beginning of miracles [Grk., semeion, meaning ‘signs’].”So, from the Greek it properly is “This beginning of ‘signs’” All of Jesus’ eight miracles in the Gospel of John were to be a “signs” for Israel, confirming that Jesus was “the Son of God” as He was preaching to Israel that the promised Messianic Kingdom was “at hand.”

“This beginning of miracles [Gk. semeion, SIGNS] did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples BELIEVED on him.” (John 2:11)

Then also, after Jesus resurrection and ascension into heaven, the miracles of Jesus’ Twelve Apostles in the early Acts period were also to be “signs” to add veracity to their ‘offer of the kingdom’ if only Israel would believe to receive “the gospel of the kingdom.” But, of course, we know Israel rejected the message of God yet again.

Finally, when Stephen spoke reminding Israel’s leaders about the awful and consistent history of Israel’s rejection of the Lord, warning them, they stoned him death in Acts 7. Soon after that account we read how that the Apostle Paul was converted in Acts 9 to become “the Apostle to the Gentles” (Rom. 11:13) with and entirely new “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24), under which “all men” as believers are “not under the law [Israel’s Mosaic Law program].” (Rom. 6:14).

With that act of stoning Stephen to death Israel had “fallen,” and became “cast away.” As Paul explains below, Israel’s program and promise of the ‘Kingdom to come on earth’ was ‘set aside,’ for a time, while Paul brought His new “gospel of the grace of God” to the lost and dying world of all mankind as Gentiles. Not until the Rapture of “the church, the body of Christ” will God again turn to Israel and pick up where He left off in Israel’s program… with Tribulation judgement that are to then come.

“Let their eyes [Israel’s] be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. ¹¹ I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their FALL salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them [Israel] to jealousy. ¹² Now if the FALL of them [Israel] be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them [Israel] the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? … ¹⁵  For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?”)…
²⁵  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery [Greek, musterion, meaning, the secret plan of God], lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, UNTIL the fulness of the Gentiles [to be saved] be come in.” (Romans 11:10-12, 15, 25 (KJV)

So, Israel’s long-promised “kingdom of Heaven” on earth was not then nor is it today being implemented during today’s Gentile “dispensation of the grace of God,” since Israel rejected the King and with that, they rejected His kingdom.

With Israel’s rejection of the Kingdom the promise of the healing of infirmities then soon passed.

We of the Gentile “body of Christ” today are not Israel nor are we living in the times of Israel’s kingdom or even its “signs.”

God has provided us today a different way to understand and deal with our infirmities and sufferings.

Well then, what is the way of the sick and weak living under today’s “the dispensation of the grace of god”?

Being made in the “likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom 8:3), Jesus was made like us in that He could be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb 4:15), enabling Him to die for our sins (1 Cor 15:3). Thus, we know that He knows our needs and we can trust that whatever way He provides us is His will for us today in this age of “the grace of God.”

Obviously, Christians today under grace are not spared from sickness and death. Even Our apostle Paul suffered physical infirmities “for Christ’s sake.” We need to note that though Paul prayed three times for healing the Lord did not remove those infirmities. Why, this was so that the power of Christ by his grace might rest on Paul in his weakness. Interestingly, Paul often traveled with the beloved physician Luke, who helped Paul with his ailments.

Note below how Paul, who often healed during the Time of the Acts period, no longer could.  Paul could not heal himself in 2 Cor. 12 or anyone after the time of the close of the book of Acts. The book of Acts ends with Israel’s full rejection of the offer of Christ as the Son of God, and with that His offer of the Kingdom.

“For this thing I [Paul] besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. ⁹ And he [the Lord] said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. (2 Cor. 12:8-10 (KJV)

“Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.” (Colossians 4:14 (KJV)  
“[Paul to Timothy] Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.” (1 Timothy 5:23 (KJV).

Timothy suffered infirmities often as did other companions in Paul’s ministry (Phi 2:26; 1 Tim 5:23). There is no record of Paul healing them, rather Paul offered Timothy advice to “take a little wine for his stomach’s sake.” Paul knew and wrote of our ‘bodies of sin’ (Rom. 6:6) that manifest itself in sin, sicknesses and death.

“Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin [noun] entered into the world [kosmos, today’s disorderly arrangement], and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12 (KJV)

Paul was not staunch and thus not presumptive with regard to expecting physical healing from infirmities and sicknesses.

In the next installment we will see what Paul knew and understood concerning healing of infirmities and sicknesses, Paul was ready to yield to “the will of God” knowing God’s mercy, come what may.