And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
—Acts 3:12
As soon as the crippled man had been healed at the gate of the temple, the people ran to Peter and John. Peter, seeing this miracle was attributed to their power and holiness, lost no time in setting them right by telling them that all the glory of this miracle belonged to Jesus, that it is He in whom we must believe.
Peter and John were undoubtedly full of faith and of holiness; but they knew that their holiness was not of themselves, that it was of God through the Holy Spirit. They hastened, then, to declare that in this act of healing, their efforts counted for nothing; it was the work of the Lord alone! This is the purpose of divine healing: to be a proof of the power of Jesus, to be a witness in the eyes of men of what He is, proclaiming His divine intervention and attracting hearts to Him. Those whom the Lord uses in helping others should remember Peter’s words: “[Not] by our own power or holiness.”
It is necessary to insist on this because of the tendency of believers to think the contrary. Those who have recovered their health in answer to “the prayer of faith” (James 5:15) and “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man” (verse 16) are in danger of being too much occupied with the human instrument that God is pleased to employ, and to think that the power lies in man’s piety.
Remember this: it is not by our own power or holiness that we obtain grace, but by a faith quite simple—a childlike faith—that knows that it has no power or holiness of its own, and that commits itself completely to Him. He is faithful, and He can fulfill His promise through His almighty power. Oh, let us not seek to do or to be anything of ourselves! It is only as we feel our own powerlessness, and expect everything from God and His Word, that we realize the glorious way in which the Lord heals sickness by faith in His name.