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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Death
And Decay Rule Warning!
If you are of the hyper-faith, health and wealth persuasion, you
will not like the following. Many
Christians think the reason why Jesus healed every sick person who came
to him was because He loved them. They
therefore expect Jesus to heal them too because He loves them.
Hebrews 13:8 is often quoted to support this idea.
It says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Note
the verse says that Jesus is always the same.
It does not say His ministry remains the same, yesterday, today,
and forever. Jesus Himself
does not change, but His ministry has changed since He ascended into
Heaven. Therefore, things
Jesus does in His present ministry may differ from things He did in His
ministry while He was on earth.
Jesus'
earthly mission was to represent His Father to I
agree that Jesus loves us just as much as He loved those we see in the
Bible, but love wasn't the only reason why He healed people.
It's like when God sent Moses to rescue Israel
from Egypt. The miracles Moses did
were signs that God had sent him. When
Jesus healed people, each healing was a sign that God had sent Him to
that person. The motivating
factor behind Jesus healing the sick was to get them to believe in Him.
So love is not the only issue here. To
understand this issue properly we need to go back to the Adamic Covenant
found in Genesis 3. God
specifically told Adam that if he disobeyed Him, Adam would die.
Adam disobeyed and so God introduced "death and decay"
into creation. The technical
term for this is "entropy", meaning, "the tendency for
all things is to decay and die."
God's judgment came to creation in the form of death and decay.
From Genesis 3 onward, all things, including humans, decay and
die. This may be depressing
to some, but sooner or later we will all die, and probably by an
illness. That has been God's
plan since Genesis 3, and nothing has changed this, not even the cross
of Christ. Without
exception, all things decay and die. Jesus'
death on the cross "paid the price" for all aspects of our
salvation, of which there are many. Notice
I said, "paid the price".
The price has been paid in full for our salvation, but as yet, we
haven't received all of what Jesus paid for, which includes healing and
health. To date, we've only
received an installment of our full salvation.
(Ephesians 1:14) The
curse of decay and death seen in the Adamic Covenant of Genesis 3 will
be nullified only when Jesus does away with death at the end of this
age. (1 Corinthians 15:26-28) Until
the day comes when we receive all of what Jesus paid for on the cross,
death and decay rule over us by God's choice.
In
the meantime, we suffer from time to time with various illnesses, some
worse than others. Sometimes,
by His sovereign choice, Jesus steps into our lives and heals us. Other
times He doesn't. It's not
totally a matter of our faith. It's
a matter of His sovereign choice as well. (Romans 9:16)
Therefore, we can't expect or demand to be healed of every
sickness that comes our way in this present age.
Back
in the early 1970's, a good brother in Christ named Virgil, pointed out
what God said in Exodus 4:11 about our infirmities. I
was in a bit of a hyper-faith mode back then, so I didn't take this
verse as seriously as I do now. God
says, "who makes him (man) deaf and dumb?
Who gives him sight and makes him blind?
Is it not I, the Lord."
Have you ever thought that God might have made someone deaf or
blind? It's clear to me, one
who has been "legally blind" from birth, that God made me
legally blind. In light of
this, who am I to argue, complain, or demand anything different from
God? I can certainly ask for
healing, as I have, but whatever the outcome, I rest in His sovereign
decision. That's faith I'm
not suggesting that Jesus won't, or doesn't want to heal
you. He can, and He does,
but not all of the time. I
would have been dead at the age of five if Jesus had not healed me of
juvenile diabetes. At the
same time, He left me with bad eyesight, which has made my life
difficult in many ways. I'm
also not saying that every illness that comes our way is a direct
decision from the mind of God, although according to Exodus 4:11, some
illnesses are. We get sick
because we are fallen people in a fallen world. We also get sick due to
our own poor choices. I'm
simply saying that we cannot expect or demand healing from Jesus.
We are in a period of time where God's judgment as seen in the
Adamic Covenant of Genesis 3 is in effect.
That will only change at the end of this age when Jesus buries
death for good. Only then
will Christians experience
total health, because we will no longer have this body of death and
decay. Until then, we trust
our lives with our Lord Jesus Christ in both sickness and in health.
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