Well, tell the Apostle Paul that. He said Jesus purchased your body in 1 Cor 6:19-20. He said that your body was a member of Christ in 1 Cor 6:15. Your body is still mortal (subject to death), and it is subject to sickness in the sense that you can get sick, but you don't have to stay sick. You are redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal 3:13), which includes every sickness and every disease (Deut 28:61).

But doesn't Romans 8:23 say that we are waiting for the redemption of our bodies? (This is a favorite verse for the anti-healing crowd.) Not when you read it in context! The context is that the creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. This is not a current event, but a future one, where our bodies will be changed from mortal to immortal. This "redemption" of the body is a completely separate event from the purchase of your existing mortal body by the blood of Jesus, as proved by 1 Cor 6:19-20. The Holy Spirit will quicken (give life to) your mortal body throughout this life (
Romans 8:11), and you will get an immortal body after that in the time spoken of by this passage in Romans.


In case there are any doubts in your mind about Romans 8:23, let's dissect the verse itself.

"And not only they [the whole creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves..."

Are we groaning because we need the latest 12-hour relief pills? No, read this in context with Romans 8:26, where the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. This is referring to praying in the Spirit, not to being sick. Groaning is also referred to as something all creation does in verse 22, and all creation is certainly not sick. The Spirit helps your infirmities; he doesn't give them to you! We groan because we want to have our bodies changed into immortality so that we can get on with our eternal lives with our new bodies. This is our hope that we wait for with patience (verses 24-25).


Consider that this very verse thus far states a plain case for physical healing. Paul said that we have the "firstfruits" of the Spirit. We don't have everything we'll have in heaven, but we have the firstfruits, or a down payment, of what we will have. "Firstfruits" in Scripture are the beginning of a larger collection, and are made up of the same substance as the coming larger collection. (For example, we are told to honor God with the firstfruits of our substance.) So Paul is saying clearly that we don't have everything we're going to have later, but we have a sample now of what we're going to have later, through the Spirit.

When we receive new bodies, healing will be unnecessary because we will never be sick. We will be in eternal good health. However, we can enjoy the "firstfruits" of our salvation on this earth and receive healing when we are sick. The Spirit himself is the down payment of what we will have eternally.


The fact that we have the "firstfruits" of our eternal reward now points toward, not away from, the fact that we can have physical healing now.

"Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

Here, the adoption is equivalent to the redemption of our body. If you follow the objector's logic, you might conclude that we do not have the Spirit of adoption yet, but we have to wait for it. Of course, verse 15 of the same chapter just said that we had received the Spirit of adoption. The fact that there is a certain adoption we are waiting for does not mean that we are not adopted as God's sons now. The fact that there is a redemption we are waiting for does not mean that we are not redeemed from sickness now.


Because Romans 8:23 clearly refers to the change of our bodies from mortality to immortality, it cannot be used to disprove our redemption from sickness. This verse is not talking about sickness. You will have a body that cannot get sick in the future, but that does not prove that the body you have now needs to be sick. In fact, when you back up a dozen verses to verse 11, Paul is clearly saying that the Holy Spirit will quicken your mortal body. That must refer to this lifetime!


You will have to wait for the "redemption" of your body referred to in Romans 8:23. You do not have to wait at all to receive the healing of your mortal body. The fact that you have to live in a mortal body for now does not prove that you have to live in a sick one!