One Way to Salvation, Many Paths to Healing
By Ashley Moore
"Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing." - John 9:6-7, ESV
A friend of mine was hesitant about the recovery program she was encouraged to join with her loved one struggling with addiction. As a believer, it didn't “sit right” with her that the program made no mention of God, but instead mentioned a higher power and a god of your understanding.
And while I completely understand her desire to see her faith integrated into her loved one’s recovery, we can learn a lot about the unlimited ways God chooses to heal from secular programs such as this one.
Maybe you, too, have hesitations about certain modalities of healing. Are you curious if it's okay for Christians to participate in Clinical Therapy, take medications, or participate in secular support groups?
The answer isn’t always cut and dry, and ultimately my encouragement is always to first heed the Holy Spirit, and seek perspective through prayer, conviction, and wise counsel. But for the person who is seeking healing for some issue, may I encourage you with the following truths.
We know that the Bible speaks clearly about the path to salvation. There is one way to salvation. In the book of John, Jesus is telling the disciples that He is going to leave soon to prepare a place for them in His Father’s house. Because the disciples didn’t realize Jesus was talking about heaven, this statement confounded them. And Thomas asked Jesus how they would know how to get to where Jesus was going. To which Jesus replied the following about the path to salvation (John 14:3-5).
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.''' - John 14:6, ESV
But once we are saved and our eternity is secure, we have a new responsibility. We are to trust and follow Jesus. And often Jesus leads His followers to unexpected places. Sometimes this is because He desires us to go and be light to a dark and broken world that needs the hope of salvation that we have in Christ. And other times it's for our healing.
Jesus saves people one way, but He heals people in various ways. In our key verse, the disciples were passing by a blind man. They wanted to know who sinned to cause this man’s blindness, to which Jesus corrected their short-sightedness. Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him…As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:3;5). Then Jesus proceeded to spit into the dirt and heal the man’s blindness.
Jesus could have healed him in any way He wanted. But right after explaining that His purpose was to be the light of the world and that He allowed this man’s blindness to point others to God’s power, He chose a very peculiar way to complete this man’s healing.
And sometimes God will do that in our lives too. God may be allowing your brokenness or the ailments of your loved ones to occur so that God’s power can be magnified through healing. And that may mean He takes you to places you would never otherwise travel, such as recovery rooms, counseling centers, doctor’s offices, or support groups. Because we, as Christ's followers, are the light of the world too (Matthew 5:14). And Jesus may very well use those unexpected paths to bring healing, even if they are not explicitly “Christian”. If Jesus can spit and heal blindness, he can use anything else He created to heal us too.
Yes, listen to the Holy Spirit and wise counsel as you seek the right path to healing for your situation. But if the place God leads you is not what you expected, you can find peace knowing there is one path to salvation, but many paths to healing for those in Christ Jesus.
Dear Lord,
Thank you for being Jehovah Rapha, our healer. Thank you for using the messy broken parts in our life to point others to you, heal us, and glorify your name. Thank you that you are Lord over all and you can use anything you made to redeem and restore your people. Thank you that you don’t fit within our limited views of you, but that you always surprise and exceed our expectations and imagination. We praise you for salvation and healing. In Jesus’s name, amen.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/ginosphotos
Looking for authentic conversations about how to deal with body image, insecurity, and comparison issues as a Christian woman? The Compared to Who? Podcast is the show for you! Twice a week, we tackle tough topics like dieting, disordered eating, weight loss, aging, body dysmorphia, and more from a practical, grace-filled, gospel-centered perspective.
Originally published Tuesday, 29 August 2023.
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