suffering and healing
suffering and healing
It is true that disease flows from Adam’s rebellion and God’s curse; it is part of the “wages of sin” caused by our fall. It is also true that Jesus came to reverse that curse. But does this mean Christians shouldn’t have to put up with cancer, Down syndrome, Lyme disease, or Alzheimer’s? Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
© straga
We’d like to think that since Jesus came to take up our diseases, there should now be carte blanche healing for everything from migraines to menopausal sweats. But that’s like saying: “There’s an oak in every acorn—so take this acorn and start sawing planks for picnic tables.” Or it’s like saying, “Congress just passed a Clean Water Act, so tomorrow morning Manhattan residents can start drinking from the East River.” Forty years will pass before that oak is ready for lumbering. Purging industrial ooze out of a river will take decades. And so it is with Jesus’ reversal of sin’s curse (and the suffering that goes with it). What Jesus began doing to sin and its results won’t be complete until Jesus comes again. The purchase of salvation was complete and the outcome was settled with certainty. But the application of salvation to God’s people was anything but finished. God has saved us, yet we are still “being saved” (1 Cor. 1:18). We are still on earth—this means we’re still going to feel the influence of that old curse. At least until heaven!