The apostle Paul likened our spiritual condition by nature to that of a physically dead man (Ephesians 2:1-5). This should come as no surprise to us if we understand that the healing miracles–historical though they were–are really spiritual parables for us. They are parables that carry our minds back to Eden and the awful effects of Adam’s sin; and, they are parables that carry our minds forward to see the glory of Jesus, the second Adam, and the King of God’s Kingdom who came to heal the souls and bodies of His people.

If you put together all the maladies  of those whom Jesus miraculously healed during His earthly ministry (i.e. those having to do with eyes, ears, tongues, arms, hands, legs, skin and blood) you would have a perfectly deformed man or woman–both internally and externally. Isaiah used the figure of a person entirely deformed from head to toe to describe our spiritual condition of depravity by nature (Isaiah 1: 5-6). The apostle Paul likened our spiritual condition by nature to that of a physically dead man (Ephesians 2:1-5).

This should come as no surprise to us if we understand that the healing miracles–historical though they were–are really spiritual parables for us. They are parables that carry our minds back to Eden and the awful effects of Adam’s sin; and, they are parables that carry our minds forward to see the glory of Jesus, the second Adam, and the King of God’s Kingdom who came to heal the souls and bodies of His people. This is most fully symbolized in the resurrection miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. Here are five observations, drawn from Herman Ridderbos’ outstanding book The Coming of the Kingdom, about what the healing miracles of Jesus teach us:

1. God’s Kingdom has already arrived, but is also yet to come. 

Ridderbos made the following observation about the miracles of healing in the Gospels:

Jesus’ miracles have an eschatological character as messianic deeds of salvation. This follows from the connection that the gospel points out between the activity of the devil and the diseases, maladies, and disasters that threaten man. It also appears from the fact that the cure of diseased persons, the raising of the dead, etc., are to be considered as the renewal and the re-creation of all things, manifesting the coming of the kingdom of heaven. These miracles, however, are only incidental and are therefore not to be looked upon as a beginning from which the whole will gradually develop, but as signs of the coming kingdom of God.1

The kingdom of God was manifest in the coming of Jesus into the world. The “healing” miracles were signs that pointed to the reality that the Kingdom of God had already come. There was however a suspension of the full coming of the Kingdom until the Gospel is preached throughout the world and Jesus comes again to consummate the Kingdom. It is for this reason that we must understand the miracles to be temporal signs of the eternal reality of what Jesus had come to do. Jesus only healed so many. He often told those whom He healed not to tell anyone about the healing. The only explanation for this seemingly strange response is that Jesus did not come to be a miracle worker–some supernatural entertainment. He was the Savior, come to atone for the sins of His people. Yes, He came to make all things new, but that would only happen in connection with His death and resurrection–and only in the true and full sense in the echaton.

2. Jesus, the second Adam, has come to undo what Adam brought into the world. 

All of the sickness, sorrow and miseries of this life are directly related to the fall and the sin of our federal representative, Adam. Adam’s disobedience brought two things into the world–sin and misery. The Westminster Shorter Catechism explains this so well in questions 17-20:

Q. 17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind? A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell? A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell? A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? A. God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life,  did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

Because the first Adam brought all of the sin and misery into the world, it would take a second Adam to undo what the first had done. This is the clear teaching of Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:42-49. Jesus, the Last Adam, “came to do all that Adam failed to do and to undo all that Adam had done.”3

3. Our need for spiritual healing is more important that our need for physical healing. 

While it is true that God cares for His people, body and soul, healing from the misery in the world (that is a consequence of the sin of Adam) will not secure for us the ultimate healing of soul and body. The forgiveness of sin and freedom from it’s power is the greater need for our souls. Everyone who has their sin forgiven will one day know the complete restoration of both soul and body.