My exposure to Pentecostal Christianity began around 1981 when my Uncle (Moji Adeyemi) gave his life to Christ and came home praying in strange languages. We concluded that he had converted to a strange brand of Christianity accompanied by some level of mental health problems. The only thing was that he remained his lovely, friendly and handsome-looking self. It was noticeable that he was calmer, seemingly no longer interested in the other sex as such and his temper tantrums had reduced a whole lot. It was only a matter of time though, and the madness would engulf the whole family starting with easier targets like nephews including yours truly.

Thereafter, I began to hear new terminologies among my new charismatic family including ‘Full Gospel’. I began to read articles that advocated for the preaching of the full gospel of Christ. This essentially meant that there might have been missing parts of the popular message of Christ being propagated in Evangelical Christianity. Was there truly anything missing in the gospel? I certainly sought to discover it.

Looking at the gospel as described by Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, at the heart of the gospel is the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. The problem had to do with the ramifications of this salvation. Did Christ Jesus merely die for our sins or our sins and consequences? At the heart of the contention between Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism is Isaiah 53. Did the prophet imply spiritual or physical sicknesses in verse 3 and did he imply physical healing in verse 4? Let us get into it through the eyes of Matthew who was one of the twelve Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ and the writer of the first chronicle of his life and ministry in the New Testament of the Bible.

“That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, “He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.” (‭‭Matthew‬ ‭8‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NLT)

‬‬Quoting from Isaiah 53:4 here, Matthew agrees with the TPT about verse 4 “Yet He was the One who carried our sicknesses and endured the torment of our sufferings. We viewed him as One who was being punished for something He had done, as one who was struck down by God and brought low.” (‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53‬:4‬ ‭TPT. The NKJV renders the word as ‘grief’ but it is rightly translated as sicknesses. The root word in Hebrew refers to sicknesses and diseases.

Today’s evangelicals must agree with Matthew because he was one of the first preachers of the gospel. He was an eyewitness of the Lord Jesus, of His ministry and redemptive sacrifice. He was taught by the Lord Himself as other Apostles. When he saw physical sicknesses and diseases being healed in the ministry of the Messiah, it reminded him of the prophecy of Isaiah about Him. Peter would later make a quotation of the same scripture in 1 Peter 2:24 and we know what it must have meant to him.

Faith in the finished work of Christ is the key to the grace of the salvation that is ours in Christ Jesus. This faith is imparted to us through hearing the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:17). When we heard the gospel, we believed through the faith imparted to us by the gospel we heard (Romans 10:8). We have several examples of this in the Bible. One that stands out for me in defence of the preaching of the Full Gospel is chronicled in Acts 14:8-10; “ While they were at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. He had been that way from birth, so he had never walked. He was sitting and listening as Paul preached. Looking straight at him, Paul realized he had faith to be healed. So Paul called to him in a loud voice, “Stand up!” And the man jumped to his feet and started walking.”‭‭ (Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭14‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

Notice, that Paul and Silas were preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel preached gave the man faith to be healed. If all he heard was the ability of the finished work of Christ to save him from his sins, would he have had faith to be healed? It only makes sense to believe the redemptive work of Christ was preached from scriptures like Isaiah 53:4-5. Truth be told, the entirety of the human being is rescued from sin and its consequences according to Isaiah’s prophecy. You and I must remember that what we have as the Old Testament today was all of the Scriptures available to early church saints.

In the Mark account of the great commission, we are to preach the gospel with accompanying miracles like casting out of demons, speaking in tongues, healing and others. The basis of the miracles is the fact that they demonstrate the veracity of the gospel. They authenticate the message preached since the message claims those blessings are included in the benefits of the finished work (Hebrews 2:1-4). A gospel without miracles is not the full gospel. It might be enough to get people into the kingdom of God, but robs them of the full benefits of Christ’s finished work.

As Jews celebrate the Passover this week which was figurative of Christ who through His redemptive work is now our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), we remember how they were freed from sin by the blood of the lamb, freed from Egypt which was a type of the world and freed from sicknesses and poverty also according to the psalmists account in Psalm 105:37. Everyone came out with abundance of provisions and they left Egypt healthy and strong.“He also brought them out with silver and gold, And there was none feeble among His tribes.”‭‭Psalms‬ ‭105‬:‭37‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

In our favourite Psalm of Redemption, 103, He heals all our sicknesses. This is because sickness is the inception of death in the body. As death came into the world through sin (Romans 5:12), it brought sickness with it. As our victory in Christ includes a victory over death (Romans 5:17, Rev 1:18), it includes our victory over sickness too. The full Gospel is not full without divine healing. (To be concluded).

Victor Adeyemi