God’s way of life is the way of joy, love, peace and happiness! The spiritual truth we possess can make us wiser than the most intelligent people in this world, richer than the wealthiest, happier than the most materially prosperous.

God’s law provides a standard for all human conduct. His spiritual law regulates relationships between God, man and his fellow man. He also put into effect physical laws that regulate the smooth functioning of all things physical—including our human bodies. Just as keeping God’s spiritual law will result in spiritual, mental and emotional well-being, living in accord with God’s physical laws will produce zest-filled, abundantly good physical health. An exact parallel can be made between spiritual and physical law.

The world today is wracked with lawlessness, both spiritual and physical. And God’s people are beset by temptation and test on every side—which, too often, we succumb to, wittingly and unwittingly. Failing to reap the blessings and benefits of keeping God’s law demonstrates the measure to which that law is being broken.

However, thanks to Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, God offers the incomparable blessing of forgiveness upon repentance from sin. For our spiritual sins, we have the death penalty taken off our shoulders once we repent; this is accompanied by a restoration of our contact with God and a replenishing of the Spirit of peace and joy.

Likewise, when we repent of and then are forgiven of our physical sins, God guarantees that He will “raise [us] up” (James 5:14-15), which means He will heal us—raising us either from the sick bed, or, if He chooses to hold off on the manifestation of that healing in order to further develop our character, in the resurrection.

God’s Promise to Heal

In The Plain Truth About Healing , Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “[B]oth Christ’s true gospel message and miraculous healing have today been restored in God’s true Church.” That is a wonderful benefit for God’s Church.

The Church’s healing doctrine is based on this promise: “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exod. 15:26). The last five words of this verse are translated from the Hebrew Yahweh-Rapha, meaning “the God who heals.”

But notice the phrase “I will put none of these diseases upon thee.” This scripture is more than a promise to heal! It is God’s promise to protect His faithful people from disease—from getting sick in the first place! Exodus 23:25 makes the same promise: “And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.”

God wants His people to be happy and healthy. “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth [or, as you prosper spiritually]” (iii John 2). In the last issue of Royal Vision, Mr. Flurry wrote, in relation to this verse, “[John] talked about prosperity and health.These are two areas where God’s people are tested very heavily. We can’t judge anybody, because God tests all of us in the areas of prosperity and health. But apart from that, John is saying that the way to have maximum health and prosperity is to give your life to this work! …

“God wishes above all that we prosper and be in health, as we prosper spiritually! God wants to bless us in these areas! If you want the ultimate prosperity and the ultimate health, this is your best opportunity to receive these blessings: Give your life to this work …!”

Because of the degeneracy of the world around us, we can be subject to many of the effects of broken physical law—air pollution, tainted water, nutrient-depleted food.

But have we allowed those facts to lull us into a lackadaisical attitude toward God’s physical law and His promises regarding our physical well-being?

As Mr. Armstrong said, these are powerful promises restored to God’s Church today! But they are conditional promises: In exchange for such fantastic blessings, we must do what is right in God’s sight, not our own. To receive the blessing of good health, God expects us to “diligently hearken … to his commandments, and keep all his statutes.” That is something we can’t take lightly.

Physical Blessings and Curses

These promises were first given to the nation of Israel, but they failed to meet God’s conditions. Rather than receive God’s tremendous blessings through faith and obedience, they suffered curse after curse and were eventually cut off from God due to their lawlessness (see Deuteronomy 28:15-68).

God’s Laodi­cean Church is making the same mistake today. They will suffer the same curses, but with even greater intensity. Deuter­onomy 28:59-61 describe some curses that will soon fall upon the physical health of God’s rebellious children: “Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful [or difficult], and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness, and every plague , which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.”

As we now know, all unrepentant Laodiceans will suffer physical destruction, or death. Fifty percent will suffer eternal destruction—spiritual death! So, of course, more than just physical health is at stake.

Concerning physical health, Mr. Arm­strong wrote: “But what we do find is that healing today is for the people of God’s Church, as per James 5:14-15.

“I repeat, there are two conditions to healing: commandment-keeping _(i John 3:22) and faith (James 5:15). Commandment-keeping has been restored to God’s Church today. And we should have faith, which is a gift of God, but we are almost out of faith today, and when we’re out of faith we’re out from God!

“It seems so much easier today to just go to a doctor and trust in man—man cut off from God—than to rely on Christ and His promises!” (op. cit.).

Satan has been successful at largely destroying the commandment-keeping and faith of 95 percent of God’s Church since Mr. Armstrong’s death in 1986. Is there any connection to the fact that one of the first doctrines Satan attacked in God’s Church after Mr. Armstrong’s death was the healing doctrine?

Those of us in the Philadelphia Church of God must vigilantly avoid this deception.

What About Us?

Yes, the pcg teaches the restored truth about healing, but how easy is it for us to rely on man rather than on God’s promises? We must take a hard look at ourselves.

Notice i Corinthians 11:28-30: “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh un­worthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”

That is a cause-and-effect statement. If we—like the saints in Corinth—are weak and sickly, we must deeply examine whether we are also falling short when it comes to taking the Passover in a worthy manner—whether we are not yet discerning the Lord’s body to the degree God expects from His very elect!

With Passover quickly approaching, we need to examine ourselves. We need to uncover Satan’s influences in our lives that have been eroding our faith in these promises. We must redouble our efforts to uncover those areas where our obedience to God’s law is still being compromised. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (i John 1:8-9).

The Deception

Mr. Armstrong taught, “When a person is sick or has contracted a disease, he is simply paying the penalty of transgressed physical law in his body.

“One may not himself have broken a physical law. It could have been an accident. It could have been from a contagious disease contracted without his knowledge. In the case of Job (Job 2:6-7), Satan was the cause of Job’s ailments for a special purpose, by God’s permission. Nevertheless, sickness and disease are the penalty being paid for broken physical law. …

“The penalty for physical transgression is physical punishment—sickness or disease, physical impairment, pain and suffering or physical death” (ibid.).

Compare that with what he taught about spiritual sin. “On the other hand, spiritual sin, which imposes the penalty of the second death—eternal death—is the transgression of the spiritual law (Rom. 7:13-14), the law summed up by the Ten Command­ments” (ibid.).

Satan loves to mix truth with error. His goal is to twist these vital truths so that we continue to sin without even realizing it, or without considering the full consequences of our actions. Concerning our physical well-being, Satan’s deception might go something like this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit eternal life (true). Your time and effort would be better spent on the spiritual aspects of God’s laws (also true). Therefore, don’t be so concerned with physical laws or the quality of your health. Don’t let the pursuit of good health keep you from gaining eternal life (wrong conclusion!).

The truth is, we should be striving to keep the complete law of God, spiritual and physical, in letter and spirit! Yet Satan would have us belief that we can’t do both. Such thinking leads us to ignore or willfully break many of God’s laws, especially those most obviously relating to health. The attitude could become, I’m tough, I will accept the consequences for breaking that physical law, just as long as I make it into the Kingdom of God, that’s all that matters. Now our conscience is free to break any number of laws that we consider to be “only physical.”

Spiritual Sins vs. Physical Sins

Mr. Armstrong wrote, “i John 3:4, properly translated from the Greek, says, ‘Sin is the transgression of law.’ It does not refer to—or say—the spiritual law of the Ten Commandments. Yet it is referring to laws instituted by God—not to transgressing man-made codes” (ibid.).

Physical sin refers to the laws of physical health (such as proper rest, diet and exercise). But they are still God’s laws—not man’s! How can we claim to love God and His way of life if we ignore or carelessly break God’s laws because they are “only physical”? Yes, we must sometimes push our bodies beyond the normal limit to do God’s work. But here we are concerned mainly with the day-in, day-out badhabits that bring destruction upon our physical bodies and our spiritual well-being.

For example, are we eating what is right in God’s eyes? What we eat and drink will obviously affect our physical health. The removal of sickness from our midst is linked to God’s promise to bless our food and water. That is why we ask God to bless our food before every meal. What kind of food are we asking God to bless?

In addition, good health requires that we “serve the Lord our God.” Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Flurry have continually reminded us of the importance of doing the work God has given us to do. Fulfilling that work improves our mental well-being—which, in turn, positively affects our physical health.

The fact is, physical sins and spiritual sins are intricately intertwined. Take the physical act of adultery, a spiritual sin against the Seventh Commandment (which immediately involves breaking a number of other commandments). Breaking these spiritual laws always brings an automatic spiritual penalty—that is, unless it is confessed and repented of, in which case the blood of Christ covers that penalty.

But notice: Each of these broken spiritual laws may also lead to any number of physical sins against our bodies and many accompanying physical penalties: sexually transmitted diseases, the loss of a job, public shame, a broken marriage. The chain of events that began with David’s adulterous encounter with Bathsheba ultimately brought about the death of Uriah. These sins brought further physical penalties from God against David’s family, including the death of their first child (ii Sam. 12:9-18).

Jesus Christ taught that we can commit adultery without any physical contact whatsoever (Matt. 5:27-28). Surely, if we are only breaking the “spirit of the law” and not the “letter of the law,” there could be no physical penalty to pay, right? Wrong! What about the emotional aspects of spiritual sins? Doctors and mental health professionals generally agree that emotions such as guilt, stress, anger and sorrow have a detrimental effect upon our physical health. Of course, the opposite is also true. A weak or sickly physical body can also have a detrimental effect upon our ability to stay spiritually alert.

Here are two more examples that show this important relationship between spiritual and physical sins:

Adam and Eve ate a physical fruit from a physical tree, but their sin was spiritual—rebellion against God. As a result, they could no longer receive the Holy Spirit—a spiritual penalty. They were also driven out of the Garden of Eden into a world where physical labors became much more difficult—a physical penalty. At the same time, these same penalties fell upon all mankind.

Job was “perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1). There is no biblical evidence to show that Job was involved in any physical sin. All his physical troubles, including some very painful health problems, stemmed from God allowing a satanic attack so Job would overcome the spiritual sin of self-righteousness. Once Job repented, God forgave him. Not only did his physical troubles cease, but many physical blessings soon followed (Job 42:12).

The physical penalties for our sins are often passed on to our family and friends. And the physical penalties for others’ sins are often passed on to us. The whole creation is suffering as a result of sin (Rom. 8:22).

James 2:10 puts it this way: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Why? Because the breaking of any of God’s laws does not show love toward God or love toward our neighbor. The law of love is spiritual, and that must be our primary motive for keeping every law of God! (i John 5:3).

The point is, not only are physical and spiritual sin inseparably intertwined, so are physical and spiritual penalties. Breaking any of God’s laws can have harmful effects on both our spiritual and physical well-being.

Focus on Christ’s Sacrifice

Mr. Armstrong did not teach us about physical sin and spiritual sin so we could best decide which of God’s laws to break or ignore! In fact, Mr. Arm­strong was so adamant about the need to obey all of God’s laws that he was often accused of teaching salvation by works rather than faith. This of course is not true. Mr. Armstrong wanted us to place our primary focus on faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

“Next we need to understandhow God heals,” he wrote. “And we need to see, further, how both the gospel and healing tie together. Both operate on the same principle—one being spiritual, the other physical. … There can be no law without a penalty for its transgression.

“And God never compromises with His laws or their penalties. Once a law is transgressed a penalty is incurred. Once a penalty is incurred it must be paid. God never suspends the penalty. … Then how do we get free from that penalty? How may we avoid paying it? By the fact that Christ paid it for us” (ibid.). Thus, it is Christ’s death that paid that penalty.

But what about the penalty for physical sins? “Healing is the forgiveness of physical sin. None but God can forgive sin. None but God heals! God is a jealous God. He is not going to allow anyone else to heal. Medicines and drugs do not, cannotheal”! (ibid.).

Why can’t anyone else heal? Why can’t drugs and medicines heal? Because they cannot forgive sin. Only God can forgive sin.

“Healing [the forgiveness of physical sin] does not mean that God suspends the penalty so that no penalty is paid. Instead, Jesus has already paid it for us. Therefore God may legally remove the penalty from the human sufferer. But it is nonetheless a mira­cle! … Jesus Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses—but not on the cross. They scourged Jesus, beat Him, breaking open the flesh of His body, before taking Him to Golgotha to be nailed to the cross” (ibid.).

Now here is the vital conclusion Mr. Armstrong reached: “I think it is vitally important that we realize, at this point, two things: 1) What a tremendous price God Himself, through Christ, paid in order that He might perform for us this miracle of healing. … 2) How important it is to God never to compromise His law …” (ibid.).

It is critical that we understand Mr. Armstrong’s point here.

Discerning the Lord’s Body

Our Father and our Husband were willing to pay a great price to satisfy the requirements of all the commandments and statutes concerning our physical health. Surely the children of God and the wife of Christ must have the same zeal and desire to obey those same commandments and statutes.

At Passover, when we eat the broken unleavened bread, we accept Christ’s beaten and broken body so that we may be healed. Can we claim to love the Lord when He died for us, yet disregard our health and continue to indulge ourselves in the sinful habits for which He was beaten and scourged? That is not taking the Passover in a worthy manner. That is “not discerning the Lord’s body” properly.

Jesus Christ never broke any of God’s laws—physical or spiritual. It was His complete sacrifice, His beaten body and His death, that makes possible the forgiveness of all our sins. But that sin is not forgiven until we become aware of our sin and confess it before God. Then He is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (i John 1:9). We won’t be motivated to confess the sins we consider unimportant, especially when we are willing to bear the penalty ourselves. Many of the sins relating to poor health are far too enjoyable to stop or “too difficult” to change. Truth is, many of us like to indulge our fleshly desires to excess! How does God feel about our decision not to tackle some of these “pet sins”?

Psalm 103:2-3 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.”

If we continue to indulge ourselves and fail to repent of sins that are affecting our physical health, aren’t we forgetting some of God’s benefits?

Overcoming the Flesh

In reference to Psalm 103:2-3, Mr. Arm­strong wrote, “God has promised salvation and eternal life on the same conditions He promised healing—obedience and faith. Jesus paid our penalty, making possible eternal life by His shed blood on the cross. He paid the penalty for physical broken law, making possible our healing by His stripes (Isa. 53:5; i Pet. 2:24). … If you can’t believe the one, how can you believe the other?” (ibid.).

Can we grasp the significance of what Mr. Armstrong is saying? Our faith and obedience regarding God’s healing is a strong indicator of our faith and obedience as relates to spiritual salvation. If we have less faith in Christ’s beaten body than we do in His dead body, can we expect to receive all of His benefits—including the benefit of spiritual salvation? We cannot separate our faith in physical healing from our faith in spiritual salvation!

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (ii Cor. 13:5). These physical bodies are tools by which we are to prove our faith! Remember, faith without works is dead. We must show our faith by our works in overcoming the flesh, not by giving in to the flesh (James 2:17-18). Do our physical actions prove that Jesus Christ is living in us?

The only way to eat and drink the Passover worthily is to set our minds to keep all of God’s laws through obedience and faith—the same conditions by which we received the Holy Spirit at baptism.

Grow in Obedience and Faith

Notice finally what Mr. Armstrong wrote in reference to Romans 14:1-2: “Although one believes (has faith) to eat meats, another, weak in faith, eats only vegetables. But the very fact he has not yet received full faith from God does not bar him from God’s Church. Rather this chapter in Romans teaches ‘receive him’—help the weak in faith. The ministers should teach him more about the way to achieve more faith” (ibid.). We all can use more faith. We must be able to recognize and admit when our faith is weak.

“And so with the member of God’s Church who has not as yet achieved full faith to believe God’s promises for the physical healing. He should have that faith! He may pay himself the penalty of the sickness or disease if he lacks faith to believe Christ paid the penalty for him—to rely on God’s promise to heal” (ibid.). Paying the penalty ourselves is not the goal! If we do that spiritually, we are talking about the second death!

Mr. Armstrong continued, “So therefore, if a member has not yet grown in the faith of Christ to absolutely know he can rely on God’s promise of healing, and if this member does call in the doctor or go to the medical profession for help, God’s Church does not condemn him—but rather, God’s ministers should encourage such a one to grow in faith until he can rely on God instead of relying on man” (ibid.).

That is the purpose of this article: to encourage each and every one of us to grow in obedience and faith! We can do this with God’s help. We can learn to rely on God, instead of man, for all our needs, both physical and spiritual.

“God’s Church does not judge or condemn those who, through lack of faith, utilize the services of the medical profession. God’s Church merely says to you, healing is included—Christ already has paid for it—it is a promise of God (with conditions of obedience and faith), and it is one of God’s benefits which is included in the gift of His grace!” (ibid.).

Let’s do all we can to confess our sins this Passover season, to grow and overcome throughout the next year. Let’s continue to encourage and uplift one another so that we can claim all the promises of God, including His promise to take sickness and disease away from our midst.