Saturday: The Main Emphasis on Redemption from Sin
WEEK 31
SATURDAY
THE MAIN EMPHASIS ON REDEMPTION FROM SIN
Psalm 73:23-26
On this last day of the discussion of the mastery of disease, let us sum up the New Testament attitude.
The healing of disease is a part of the application of the gospel to life. Jesus came to banish evil—all evil. The evil of the mind is error; the evil of the emotions is suffering; the evil of the body is disease; the evil of the soul is sin. Disease is not the will of God; it is an enemy to be banished. God does not send disease except as we break God’s laws, and disease results as a by-product.
But the curing of disease is not the main emphasis or the working force of the New Testament. Jesus cured disease, but he asked people to keep it quiet. He did not want to be known primarily as a healer. He was a Savior: “You will call him, Jesus because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). Most of our healing would come as a by-product of our being saved from the sins of resentments, fear, anxiety, self-centeredness, and guilt. That is the major emphasis of the gospel.
Even in the Acts, healing is mentioned only seven times in twenty-eight chapters. The emphasis was not there. It was on proclaiming the good news in Jesus Christ as redemption from sin and evil. Everything else was on the margin. And in the whole of the Epistles from Romans to Jude healing is mentioned only five times. (These references are to the RSV.) The main emphasis is elsewhere. When we bring healing of the body from the margin to the center, we throw the gospel out of balance.
There is one thing I must mention before closing this discussion. Part of the healing must await the final cure in the resurrection when we get a resurrection body. Not all diseases are cured in this life, for we live in a mortal world where the body breaks down sometime or other. But God will do one of two things: Either God will cure the disease now, or God will give us power to use the infirmity till the final cure in the resurrection—not bear it but use it. In either case it is a way out. God is out to cure disease—all disease—either now or in the final cure.
O Lord God, we thank you that by cooperation with you we can be willing and adequate for any job we have to do. We can count on you now for all we need. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I can have health enough for my lifework if I get that lifework from God.