When God does heal it is a foretaste of the complete healing we will receive in the future. This healing was purchased on the cross. --idea from Wayne Grudem (theologian)
The story of Lazarus confirms this idea. (John 11) One cannot look at the healings done by Jesus and then conclude that "physical healings" will be a regularity of ministry. Throughout my Christian journey I have heard several say (maily Pentecostal and Charasmatic, but not exclusively) that Jesus' miraculous ministry of healing should be the regular pattern of how ministry is done today in the church. Since Jesus made the blind to see and the lame to walk and the diseased healed, we should too. The reason that there isn't is because we don't have enough faith.
But is this really so? It would, then, appear that since Jesus made the dead to rise, we should too. However, I have not heard anyone advocate as part of a funeral ceremony to have a section for the "raising of the deceased." By using the logic that Jesus did and we should too, should then the models of Lazarus or Jarius' daughter be the pattern that we should aim to follow? Should we go to funerals and aim to see people whose lives were "tragically" taken at a young age (the child who died of lukemia, the young father who in an auto wreck leaves a grieving widow and fear struck children) raised from the casket? Or should we understand the story of Lazarus as a triumphant illustration where Jesus demonstrates:
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Jn 11:25-26
As Grudem says, when God physically heals or even raises from the dead, it is a foretaste of the healing and victory of life which God has secured for us through the cross and will be completely realized in the future.
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 1 Cor. 15:22-23
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