One of the major weaknesses of the Church as a whole is its lack of focus on emotional health. In fact, the Church often ends up on weirdly unhealthy ends of the spectrum. One example is attributing all mental illness to demons and ignoring other legitimate organic causes. While much mental illness can and does have a demonic component, it is rarely the only cause, and attempting to cast demons out of someone who already has mental health issues without dealing with anything else can cause more trauma all on its own. Another example is when Christians tell a victim of spousal abuse that they cannot divorce and leave their abuser because “adultery” and “God hates divorce.” One end of the spectrum focuses entirely on one spiritual component to the detriment of other causes, while the other focuses on physical circumstances and ignores all other aspects of a given situation. Both are unhealthy, and both need to change. And yet, there is still a third camp that is so ridiculous I’m not quite sure where it lands—the “You’re saved, so everything is all better now” group. And when things actually aren’t better in spite of being told they are, people start to ask sensible questions like, “If I’m Already Saved Then Why Do I Still Have Emotional Problems?”

One of the first wrong answers we tend to tell people is “Maybe you aren’t really saved.” This then leads us to say the “sinner’s prayer” over and over (I still can’t find anything remotely resembling that in Scripture) as though telling God we are sinners regularly will somehow help us live in freedom in Christ (Hint: it doesn’t). When that doesn’t work, we usually tell the person they have someone they haven’t forgiven, and that God can’t forgive us if we don’t forgive other people. Then we soul-search to try to find that one person we haven’t forgiven that is causing such afflictions in our life. Oftentimes we still can’t figure out who that person we are being told must exist is, so we pray a catch-all prayer (again) to forgive anyone and everyone we might possibly have considered the potential of whether or not to have unforgiveness against . . . and yet things still don’t change.

So if it isn’t because we aren’t saved and we have already forgiven everyone, what causes the emotional problems? Didn’t all of that get taken care of in Christ? After all, Isaiah 53:4-5 says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (NKJV). If Jesus bore our griefs and sorrows, all of our emotional issues, then we’re good, right?

Wrong.

Sure, it would be nice to think that “because Jesus” that we will never experience any kind of emotional problem. I would absolutely LOVE that. But it doesn’t work that way.

Everyone has emotional junk. And while some of it can and often does get automagically fixed upon salvation, sometimes it takes a bit more work. Not only that, but what about new emotional wounds that happen after one gets saved? I prayed the “sinner’s prayer” when I was three years old (no, I wasn’t too young and yes, I do remember it). I’ve always loved Jesus. And he’s always been kind to me. But if all of my emotional baggage went away at that age, then I’ve still had over thirty years of new “stuff” that I’ve picked up over time. Putting down my dog last December still hits me at times. Getting kicked out of my church about 14 years ago just because I got married and the church couldn’t control me was hard for a number of years. If someone thinks that my wife and I have never had a major argument, then clearly he or she has never been married. And that doesn’t include family system issues from childhood, kids being mean on the playground in elementary school, and much more.

The good news is that while everything doesn’t simply vanish upon salvation, Jesus did pay the price for 100% of our emotional healing. It’s just that it usually takes our active involvement to apply what He did to the brokenness in our hearts. Jesus is the most amazing healer out there. He is gentle, kind, loving, and He has all the power needed to restore even the most shattered of hearts. When we feel like Humpty Dumpty, like nothing will be able to put us back together again, Jesus can. We may have to go through a process. We may need to systematically apply His grace to specific problems through prayer until everything is whole. And that process often isn’t fun, but it is good.

Should we expect that God will heal hearts upon salvation? Yes. And let us continue to pray and believe for that to occur. But if it doesn’t, we aren’t deficient, we haven’t failed to get saved, and we haven’t failed to believe God’s promises. In most cases, the Church has failed to accurately teach us how to apprehend true freedom in Christ. But the good news? We’re learning. We’re better than we used to be. And wholeness is always attainable. In Christ. From Christ. Because of Christ.