The Difference Between Being Healed and Being Made Whole

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.”*
(Luke 17.11-19 ESV)

In this incident Jesus encounters and heals ten lepers leading up to His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. This minyan of outcasts keep their distance from the very Light of the World yet shout out ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us’ (v.13), where elsewhere lepers came straight away into Christ’s very presence, kneeling down and beseeching the Great Physician to make them clean (Mark 1.40-45), even being so careful to add the humble prerogative, ‘If you are willing.’ Not so with this band. These cry out ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’ Christ did have mercy on this clique of lepers, and ten were healed that day. All ten encountered the spirit of God. Every leper there experienced the healing grace of Yahweh. This mixed group of Samaritans and Jews coporately were affected to varying degrees by Christ’s atonement (on ‘microcredit’ in God’s forebearance - Rom 3.25), experiencing the reversal of the curse God placed upon creation thousands of years prior as a result of sin (Gen 3.17,19). All ten outcasts felt the wooing love of God that compelled them who were ‘far off’ (both with regard to society and God) to be ‘made nigh by the blood of Christ’ (Eph 2.13). Ten were healed - but only one was saved (the AV renders it ‘made whole’ in v.19). While all ten experienced temporal physical healing, nine would experience eternal separation from God as a result of their refusal to give praise to God, and only one was saved from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1.10). What is the conclusion of the whole paragraph? Being a believer, experiencing the New Birth is in no way, and under no circumstances, a prerequesite for meeting with Yahweh-Rapha.

This is what I refered to previously when I demonstrated that many fundamentalists (myself included) unintentionally limit the atonement of Christ to certain specifics, and in particular to those who do not believe; a.k.a., unbelievers, ‘the lost,’ infidels, kafirs, the heathen, the reprobate, etc. I did not do this in some half-hearted attempt to slip either Universalism or Word-of-Faith in the back door, but as a primer for an Irresistible Atonement Redux. Why some would wish to narrow the scope of Christ’s vicarious sacrifice through which an entire mass of souls which no one can number has been effectually called, harvested, and sanctified from amongst the legions of rebels that populate our family tree, is beyond my estimation (Lk 10.2, Jhn 4.35, Rom 8.31-33). There are varying degrees to which the atonement may sanctify someone. To some, it may cleanse them from sickness (the nine who left). To others, it may cleanse them from sin (the one who turned back to worship). Observe what Jesus said to those who will have prophesied, cast out demons and done many good works in His name - “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” Imagine all the things people have done in the name of Jesus, and yet have had not the slightest idea about what the normal Christian life was about.

Furthermore, Christ’s atonement can be resisted by creation only so far as God allows the rebels to resist it. In the example quoted above, it was not the cries of the lepers that cleansed them, it was the will of God that the healing provided for in the atonement should in some respect sanctify the minyan (Is 53.5, Mt 8.17, Rom 9.16). One Samaritan was cleansed, healed, saved and made whole, but what sacrifice is left for the other nine? None remains, spare a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the rebels (Heb 10.27). What intercession can be expected for the nine who did not turn back to worship (Lk 17.15)? How is it that nine may have been enlightened, may call Jesus ‘Master,’ may have an encounter with the Living God, have been made partakers with the Holy Spirit and tasted the power and grace of the world that is to come; the best of all possible worlds? How can these nine men taste such a thing, experience so much, and still turn away from what they knew to be true?

We might ask Judas. Like the other apostles, Judas denied Jesus. Unlike the other apostles, Judas never repented. Judas turned back from trusting Christ. Judas wanted his own way, Judas was reprobate, Judas, Judas, Judas. Synonomous with the word traitor, Judas Iscariot not only denied Christ, but lead His enemies to the very spot where they could quietly arrest Him at night without causing too much of a disturbance. What can be said for him? Jesus said in John 6.70 “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”

The book of Hebrews describes this class of people, the class that the nine lepers, Judas, and countless others who have forsaken Christ may be counted among. While they were among believers, have seen the power of the spirit and grace of God in action, have been in some manner sanctified by the Spirit and brought to that place of repentance, yet for reasons which are a mystery they turned away from believing, and followed their own lusts. The apostle writes:

For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.
(Hebrews 6.4-9 ESV)

Yet we know from hearing the word of Christ that with God all things are possible (Mk 10.27), spare lying; denying His own nature. Yet the author of Hebrews writes that it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have fallen away. If these people were brought to the place of repentance once, why would God not bring them again to the place of repentance so that this time they might not fall away? They have had their chance. Just as there is one death and after this the judgement (Heb 9.27), with no second chances beyond this life, there are no second chances within this life. The short answer is this: the reason God does not lead them to repentance again, the reason God does not save them, is because He does not want to save them. In 1 Sam 2.25, the author writes of Eli’s wicked sons saying: “[They] did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death.” Yahweh speaks later in chapter 3, saying: “Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

Strong words.

This then is the conclusion: Do not tempt the Spirit. Understand now and forever that all blessings, all grace and all peace, faith, hope, love, are gracious gifts of the Father of Lights, who causes the rain to fall on the just and unjust. Understand that we must all “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2.12). When you are dealing with the Great God who caused the Universe to come into being in a moment, who became a man and died a brutal death on the cross for the securing of your salvation; when he calls you to receive salvation, do not put it off! Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation! Arise you sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will give you life (Eph 5.14, 2 Cor 6.2)!

Do you know of your need for repentance? Do you desire God? Do you cry out for salvation and wisdom? Do you say as does the father in Mark 9, “Lord, I believe! Help thou my unbelief!” Then understand that at this moment you are more than human, for the scripture says of humans that ‘there are none that seek after God’ (Rom 3.11). If you have faith, if you are at that point of repentance, if you cry out for wisdom and ask God to help your unbelief, know that you did not posess these qualities yourself. You were not worked up into a state of repentance, any and all faith you have, any desire you have to repent is a gift of God, a true miracle, and not of yourselves (Eph 2.8). And just as God brought you to that place of repentance and faith, if you fall away hence, God will leave you to the reprobation you chose. Know that you will never again desire faith, repentance, wisdom, or salvation. All of these gifts were purchased for you in the atonement, and the Father of Lights distributes them all according to His will. It is the atonement which allows God to hold out his hands all day long to a sinful and disobedient people, it is the atonement which removed the wrath of God and allows God to both be just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus (Rom 3.26), it is the atonement which prevents the universe from being incinerated at this moment, and it was God’s forbearance, foreknowledge, and the atonement which allowed God to ask our ancestors “Where are you?” in the garden (Gen 3). The Atonement is too big to be limited, it is too big to be confined only to sin, it is the single event in the history of the cosmos that has proved once and for all, to all who will receive it, that the Eternal One loves righteousness and hates wickedness, that the judge of all the universe will do right. He can be trusted. He does love us. He has redeemed us. There is nothing left for us but grace, sovereign grace and grace amazing alone. Who else feels like praising God with groans words cannot express for the miracle and grace of His Unlimited Atonement?

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing

in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before

the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and

blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption

through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has

blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through

his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to

the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom

and insight making known to us the mystery of his

will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him,

things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained

an inheritance, having been predestined according to the

purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel

of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ

might be to the praise of his glory.

(Ephesians 1.3-12 ESV)

~ by Tyler on February 1, 2007.