Instead, it means concretizing our understanding of salvation, i.e., God saving us not only by forgiving us our sins but by healing us of them, in an earthy, extensive, real-time process that, frankly, is exponentially more grueling than physical therapy after a broken bone because it goes on for the remainder of our lives and extends to every corner and aspect of our selves.

I like to use physical therapy as an analogy in hopes that it might dispel the protests so many evangelical Christians lodge any time talk of the hard work of the Christian life comes up, namely, words like legalism, works righteousness, trying to earn the grace of God. Physical therapy is not a supererogatory act. It’s a restorative process of, e.g., getting the full motion in your knee back after you’ve had replacement surgery. Such physical therapy involves pain almost beyond imagination, to be sure, and it’s hard work. But getting your knee to give you between 0 and 117 degrees of motion is not a descent into legalism. Rather, it is a return to your knee’s normal range of motion. It won’t make you a world class athlete, but it will enable you to climb the stairs and get out of bed to go to the bathroom.

In the same way, God’s healing work in our lives is designed to restore to us the whole life range of motion we had before the fall. It really does occur on this side of heaven (because God is too gracious to forgive us our sin but consign us to rag doll status under its continued dominance), and it really does often involve pain almost beyond imagination: It take place over the span of a believer’s lifetime and involves so much more of our lives than we can even comprehend. That’s why Jesus’ question to the lame man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5:1-17 is a good one: Do you want to get well?

Christians reading stories of healing understandably tend to focus only on the alleviation of physical distress, which seems to happen in an instant in these biblical accounts. But nearly every healing story in the Bible embeds that alleviation within the context of a much lengthier and arduous physical/spiritual therapy process, which readers carelessly (or wishfully) overlook. This is why some healing stories in the Bible aren’t even recognized as being healing stories at all.

But let’s return for a moment to the stories where explicit physical healing takes place instantaneously and, by all appearances, effortlessly. In the story of the healing of the lame man at Bethesda, for example, after the man’s physical lameness is rectified, Jesus says, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” This is typical of Jesus, who seems to always be muddying the waters of physical healing with references to the healing of soul and spirit as well. This is not to say that sin is to blame for physical illness–Jesus dispels that rancid theological chestnut in John 9–but it is to say that healing is never solely or even primarily a physical process. “Go and sin no more” is not Jesus’ wishful and unrealistic benediction to the healing process. It is the healing process.

And thus we see that it is not that God sometimes heals and sometimes does not. It is that God sometimes starts in the body but sometimes starts elsewhere in the self. Wherever he starts, however, smart money says that the healing process will occupy you completely–body, soul, and spirit–for the rest of your life, and into eternity.

Are you sure you want to get well?

For all of the latest podcasts on Healing and Comforting and on past Works of Mercy visit our Seoul USA Podcast Page!

Unfortunately, the practice of confession of sins has been largely forgotten by the evangelical church.  Granted, there are some traditional Protestant churches that practice a generic type of confession.  This normally consists of prayer in unison and about 5-10 seconds of uncomfortable silence.  Still, this is better than having no time of confession at all associated with a worship service.

Now take a look at how we practice confession in our family and in DOTW Church.

Confession (After the period of reflection, the leader shares the Scripture below and calls the group to confession.)

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. –Psalm 51:2-4

Let us confess our sins to God.

• If individually you wish to confess aloud specific sins that trouble you, continue as follows:
  Lord, I confess that …
  The leader may gently question or instruct you—not to pry or judge—but to assist in self-examination.

Then conclude by saying:
I repent and ask for grace. In your mercy, Lord, hear my prayer.

The congregation will then join together in response to each confession to say:
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
–1 John 1:8-9 

Assurance of Forgiveness (After all who desire have prayed, the leader continues.)

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. –1 John 2:1-2 (NIV)

Why do we practice confession in such a structured and communal way?

• We tend to ask for forgiveness and apologize in a manner that is simply not Biblical.  It normally goes something like this.  Me:  I’m sorry for not taking out the trash when I promised I would. My Wife:  That’s okay.  In this case, neither the asking nor the response is Biblical.  The communal, formal structure of confession provides us with a Biblical framework when confessing sins.

• The Bible says to confess our sins to each other (James 5:16).  We tend to view this as a command only to obey in extreme circumstances rather than in our day to day Christian lives.  But there are certain things important to our Christian growth that can only happen as we confess to each other.  For example, confession tends to soften our hearts to other Christians and to God when we confess and when we hear others confess, and it also enables us as the body of Christ to hold each other accountable.  We can also more readily see the growth in each other as we see Christ’s transforming power.

• Finally, we also experience healing when we partake of confession as the body of Christ.  The idea in James 5:13-16 is not that your particular sins are causing physical sickness, but that healing is a whole body, soul and spirit endeavor.  So, it’s not that confession of sins is a prerequisite to healing, but that healing actually takes place through confession and the forgiveness of sins.

Forensic: Sermon 43, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” §I.3

Justification is another word for pardon. It is the forgiveness of all our sins; and , what is necessarily implied therein, our acceptance with God. The price whereby this hath been procured for us (commonly termed “the meritorious cause of our justification”), is the blood and righteousness of Christ; or, to express it a little more clearly, all that Christ hath done and suffered for us, till He “poured out His soul for the transgressors.” The immediate effects of justification are, the peace of God, a “peace that passeth all understanding,” and a “rejoicing in hope of the glory of God” “with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Therapeutic: Sermon 57, “On the Fall of Man,” §II.8

Hath he not then, seeing he alone is able, provided a remedy for all these evils? Yea, verily he hath! And a sufficient remedy; every way adequate to the disease… Here is a remedy provided for all our guilt: He “bore all our sins in his body on the tree.” And “if any one have sinned, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And here is a remedy for all our disease, all the corruption of our nature. For God hath also, through the intercession of his Son, given us his Holy Spirit, to renew us both “in knowledge,” in his natural image; — opening the eyes of our understanding, and enlightening us with all such knowledge as is requisite to our pleasing God; — and also in his moral image, namely, “righteousness and true holiness.”

Pedlar follows these excerpts from Wesley with a helpful “therefore” that outlines the impact all this ought to have on how we think about discipleship:

The point of what I’m trying to say is that salvation, for Wesley, is  not found simply in being “declared” righteous (justification), but in being healed of all the corruption of sin, and conformed to the likeness of Christ.   Therefore, the salvation that God has prepared for us is something which begins now, but extends to the resurrection.  People sometimes speak of receiving forgiveness of salvation as “being saved,” but this is not the whole story. Justification is one aspect of salvation, but properly speaking, salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.  These terms are ways of describing the initial, ongoing, and final deliverance from sin.

If salvation is purely forensic, discipleship is relegated to a “post-salvation” process, and its purpose and urgency are unclear. But if salvation is also therapeutic, then discipleship becomes central to the salvation process, i.e., one does not become a disciple after one has been saved but as part of being saved. One learns, over and over again, anew and ever more deeply and fully, how to be saved and what it means and looks like to be saved in every dimension and stage of one’s life and spiritual growth.

It’s surprising how much this rich, Scriptural understanding of salvation has been neglected in practice by evangelical Wesleyans; too often we embrace the therapeutic language but lack a concrete discipleship method and mindset to actively see it through in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. In contrast, liberal Wesleyans are only too happy to jettison the forensic view of salvation altogether in favor of a modified therapeutic approach, as if the two strands were somehow opposed to each other (and, worst case, as if the forensic view was holding the therapeutic view back). But once the strands unravel, social holiness has a way of devolving into social justice and salvation becomes more about recycling paper and plastic than it does the healing of sin-sick souls.

The beauty of the Wesleyan conception is that when you combine forensic and therapeutic you get more than you had with either separately, and you don’t have to (and don’t get to) pick and choose what you want salvation to mean (and not mean). Best of all, your understanding will serve you well across the vast theological territory of both Old and New Testaments, which is precisely what Wesley had in mind.

The best long-form read on Wesley’s uniting of forensic and therapeutic dimensions of salvation is still Theodore Runyan’s 1998 work, The New Creation: John Wesley’s Theology Today. It’s not perfect, but it arguably does the best job of portraying Wesley’s equal embrace of both dimensions of salvation while waiting until the final chapter to bust out the material on paper and plastic recycling, which, I expect, is how Wesley would have organized the book had he written it himself.

For all of the latest podcasts on Healing and Comforting and on past Works of Mercy visit our Seoul USA Podcast Page!