Here is the account in Matthew. It can also be found in Mark 6:53-56.
34 And when they were gone over, they came into the land of Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased; 36 And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.
Matthew 14:34-36
This passage reminded me of the first line to that great hymn, Whiter Than Snow. The songwriter says, Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole… Now this first verse is of course is the song of the sinner; not the saint. We saints sing it in remembrance of that wonderful day that we too touched the hem of Jesus’ garment; when we were saved and made perfectly whole.
But I wonder, do we truly believe that we’ve been made perfectly whole? Do we live in the reality of the work of the Great Physician? We’ve heard it been said many times, that we’re two-thirds saved. Our soul is safe. Our spirit is renewed. And we’re still waiting on the last third, these mortal bodies. If we are truly a trichotomy, the mortal body part of it seems to rule the roost from day to day; even though he is outnumbered. Why is that?
Why should he get precedent over our spiritual reality in Christ? Why should our eternal spiritual senses, needs, expressions, etc. take a back seat to something corrupt and dying? The bible says that For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: (1 Peter 1:24) Why should something so temporary and susceptible to corruption and as fickle as grass have dominion?
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Galatians 5:17) You know, this great text is given in a certain context. Verse 14 says this: For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Galatians 5:14) So in the context, I think we see the nature of the flesh, and that is one of selfishness. Paul goes on to say, And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (Galatians 5:24) It’s our flesh, with our affections and our lusts. This struggle between the Spirit of God and the flesh of man is a struggle between his will and our will.
What keeps us from the reality of the Spirit-filled life is selfishness. Our comfort is more important. Think about those Hebrews at the edge of Canaan. They didn’t want to possess what God had given them. They saw the giants and they were uncomfortable. They saw that they had to get out of their comfort zone in order to do the will of God. So they thought it better to go back to Egypt. Selfishness. Interestingly, God said that their children would possess the land. Their comfort was more important to them than the future of their children. They were perfectly able to possess the land. God would have marched in with them or even before them, if they would have just believed.
If you are saved, you are perfectly whole. Paul said, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. (Romans 8:9) Being perfectly whole, is a spiritual reality in Christ. I know there’s a lot religions out there that preach health and wealth, but I know not of one person on this earth other than Jesus, Elijah, and Enoch that their body did not ultimately succumb to corruption. Everybody’s body is far from whole and will never be whole until the resurrection.
Or will it?
Or will it? Can perfectly whole mean fully what it implies? Do we always have to explain the supposed trichotomy of man to understand this? I wonder if we are somehow misunderstanding our standing and consequently and inadvertently making excuses for God. Why can’t perfectly whole mean perfectly whole?
This brings to mind another passage in the Bible where the Pharisees questioned Jesus authority to forgive sin. Jesus said to them, (Luke 5:22-23) What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? Jesus has the power to do both. I wonder maybe our view of this is skewed to where we have no choice to believe that perfectly whole actually means two-thirds whole and not one-hundred percent? Maybe we got something off.
Let me ask you this? We think we know what perfectly whole in a physical sense means? But do we? What experimental knowledge does any man have of being perfectly whole? Consider all that we’re healed in the land of Gennesaret that day. Every single one of them died and is still rotting in their grave. Yet the Bible says that they were made perfectly whole.
You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.
Inigo Montoya
Let me throw something at you. Paul tells us, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:11) I had this thought the other day. Is it possible that this death in which Paul admonishes us to reckon, is the same death in Ephesians 2:1? And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; What was dead in trespasses and sins? All of you. Who was quickened? Well, it wasn’t your mortal bodies. That’s for sure. And that will happen later. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11) He’s speaking of the resurrection.
So until then, there seems to be a part of you that is still dead in trespasses and sins: your body. Or at least it appears to be. In other words, whether you are lost or saved, that mortal body of yours operates as if it is dead in trespasses in sins; subject to vanity and in the bondage of corruption. That’s why Paul said, So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:25) That’s why we got this two-thirds saved explanation. Because there appears to be no difference in our bodies, which Paul acknowledges, we latch on to the two-thirds saved explanation. Paul never said we were two-thirds saved.
Paul did say, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17) The truth and reality is that the Christians has been crucified with Christ; In toto, perfectly whole; Not just spiritually, but wholly and perfectly. Paul said Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (Romans 6:3) Baptized means to be completely and utterly overwhelmed. There may appear to be no difference in our bodies when we got saved. But there is a difference.
Think of the beautiful butterfly which emerges from the cocoon? Was there something unwhole about the cocoon? No. It did what it was made to do. It veiled the beautiful creature that dwelt inside that would at the right time be made manifest. It doesn’t have the color or the beauty or the glory of the butterfly, but it wholly and perfectly did what it was supposed to do. Likewise, as the cocoon, these supposed unwhole bodies will bring us wholly and perfectly to that blessed day when the sons of God shall be revealed.
Consider Old Testament saints. Jesus had not died yet. But were they going to hell? No. They were as saved as saved could be at that given time. Did they have the Holy Ghost living in them? No. But that doesn’t mean they were none of his. So likewise, during the millennium, are we going to look back and declare that there was something missing from our salvation. No. We’ll praise the lamb for making us perfectly whole.
Consider the Saturn V rocket. It was a three stage rocket. Each stage was expendable. As each stage of the rocket used up it’s fuel, it separated from the main rocket and fell to earth as space waste. Most of that rocket was spent and burned up, but it carried those astronauts beyond low Earth orbit. The only way for them to do that was for them to work perfectly. If they weren’t spent and wasted as designed, Saturn V would have failed. These bodies are going to carry us to the next stage of this journey by the will of God one way or another. That’s what they are designed to do. We need to remember that our salvation in Christ Jesus was obtained legally and lawfully. We are not under the law, but we are not above it either. The law of the LORD is perfect… (Psalm 19:7)
Maybe this might help us to have a better attitude about our health issues, what the bible calls infirmities. I just turned 44. I feel like I lost stage one a long time ago, and stage two is almost gone. But by the grace of God, He that endureth to the end shall be saved. (Matthew 10:22) Paul said 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. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
What I’m saying is that maybe we’re not two-thirds saved? I don’t know about you, but I would rather be perfectly whole than two-thirds saved. They say you are what you think. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: (Proverbs 23:7) Didn’t Paul say, For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.(1 Corinthians 6:20) I was crucified with Christ in toto. Make no mistake, there is something different about the bodies of the saved. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2) We’re all returning to the dust of the earth in the same fashion, but we’re not all coming back up the same. Wheat and tare seeds look the same going into the ground, but come the time of harvest, the fudamental difference between them will surely be evident.
Let’s get back on track!
So, with that all said, let’s get back to this struggle between the flesh and the spirit; this struggle between God’s will and our will. We saw that the nature of the flesh is one of selfishness. So I wonder, does seeing ourselves as two-thirds saved conducive to selfishness? Maybe. Maybe not.
Think about this: Not reckoning the change indeed is not acknowledging the price that was paid. In other words, it was not just our soul and spirit that were bought with a price, but all of us, body included. I mean you can’t just buy the inside of the banana. When we don’t yield our members unto God, we are essentially saying, My body is not saved. So to me it makes sense that if we first say My body is not saved, then it may lead to us not yielding it. To be saved is to belong to God. Maybe we yield ourselves to the flesh and it’s affections and lusts because we don’t reckon the difference that has been made in our mortal bodies, being that we have been totally and completely crucified with Christ. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6) Why do we assume that the old man represents something only spiritual or internal? Why do we assume that the body of sin that has been destroyed excludes our mortal bodies? Paul did say Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:20)
Alright! I’m done with this. I just found out from another preacher that our body is actually part of our soul. So yeah. Whatever. I probably don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m just trying to say this: By the miraculous hand of God, you can glorify God in your body. That change cannot be denied. A body that is spent and wasted for the glory of God I believe can be considered perfectly whole.
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