Righteousness - The Right To Physical Health

We've been learning that our righteousness gives us the right to certain privileges in this lifetime. These rights that believers have access to often go unused...mainly because they are either undiscovered or unrealized by most Christians.

So far, we've seen:

That believers have the right to be delivered from trouble.

That believers have the right to answered prayer.

As we learn more about our "bill of rights", let's remember the words of Psalm 103 - "forget NOT all His benefits". Don't allow yourself to settle for less than what God gave you when He made you righteous.

Now, the third right I want to bring to your attention is major. Because you are a righteous person, you have the right to a strong, healthy physical body.

Disclaimer: God DOES Heal Unrighteous People

Hear me: I'm not trying to make the point that ONLY righteous people experience miraculous and supernatural healing.

The scriptures are full of people who were sinners - undeserving people who still experienced healing. In fact the first time we see healing mentioned in the scriptures involved a pagan Philistine king who brought sickness upon himself. His healing had no relationship to his covenant with God or even to his "good behavior". This sick man simply went to a godly person (Abraham) and was prayed for. After that, healing came!

Having said that...this example actually demonstrates my point: While not ALL healing occurred only in the bodies of righteous people, all healing still did involve righteous people. 

Here's what I mean: all healings came from righteousness.
It was either righteousness on the part of the sick person being healed, or it was righteousness on the part of the person being used to heal. This is the concept behind James 5:16 "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

James is telling us that sin will sometimes open the door for sickness in a Christian's body. And if that should happen, the prayer of another believer can bring healing - even when someone doesn't necessarily deserve it. 

Whether a person deserves it or not, whether the sickness was self-inflicted or not, God always wants it healed! If He has to, He will even work through someone else's righteous status (righteousness by faith) to provide the healing!

Righteousness produces healing - both personally and even for others around you!

Physical Health Is A Given For God's People

Throughout Scripture, it's taken for granted that God's people should be healthy. This was part of the covenant He made with them in Exodus 23:35 "So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you."

This covenant was later re-stated in Deuteronomy 7:15 - "And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt..."
God's people simply knew this: They were not supposed to suffer physical disease like everyone else. This is why it was strange to the people of Israel - even in the old covenant - when one of them fell ill. It just wasn't supposed to happen!

This is the same covenant that Jesus referred to in Luke 13:16, when He exclaimed "ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham...be loosed from this bond?" He was saying, "She has a covenant with the Healer...she ought not be bound by sickness!"

Friends, if you're a believer - this same access to health belongs to you too! If there was a promise to righteous people in the Old Covenant to be healthy, then surely this promise remains for us who are made right with God by faith.

Earlier, I mentioned God's benefits to the righteous that are listed in Psalm 103 - let me show you what they are:

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:

Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."

The second benefit from being righteous is the healing of all disease.

Your Blood-Bought Right To Health

"But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings." -Malachi 4:2

Jesus is that Sun of Righteousness. He has risen on us and offered us His righteousness. And when we turn to Him in faith, we become just as right with God as He is. Following this verse then, what comes with this righteousness? Healing!
When the Sun of Righteousness arises and shines on us, He also brings healing to our physical bodies.

We see this again in 1 Peter 2:24.
I know that a lot of Christians can quote the last phrase of this verse "by whose stripes you were healed." That's definitely a good truth to know - but it's only part of the point being made here. Look at the entire verse:

"...who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed."

When Jesus took your sins on the cross, He gave you access to righteousness by faith.

The same act that made you righteous also gave you the right to physical healing. You no longer deserve sickness because of sin, you have been made right! This means you have just as much right to be physically healthy as someone who's lived right their entire lives!

(Actually, even more so. A better way to say that would be: You have just as much right to be physically healthy and Jesus Himself did while He was here on earth!)

So don't lose sight of this. Don't allow your enemy to convince you that it's normal to have health issues. "Well, that's just the world we live in..." No! We don't have to be like the world! We have been made righteous...we HAVE THE RIGHT to healing!

I don't know about you...but I refuse to live as a second-class citizen with no Kingdom rights.