On Christ, Healing, And Restoration

The Greatest Disease

Romans 5:12-14 – Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Sin entered the world, and death spread to all men. The moment we were born, we started dying, because we were born into sin.
And so it was from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to the Gospels.

Triage

The Lord bless you.
The Lord keep you.
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you shalom.

Because of Christ and His finished work, we are blessed. For at the cross we were reconciled to God, and because of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, we were saved. We are blessed in the sense that we have no less than the Creator of the Universe and all things seen and unseen – He is for us, and not against us; in fact, who can be against us?

More than money in our bank accounts, more than the optimal performance of our physical bodies, more than the improvement of our circumstances in this world, and more than the comfortable conditions that this world would have us seek more than anything else, we are truly blessed, because we have Christ.

Because of Christ and His finished work, we are new creations. As Christ is, so are we in this world. We understand therefore, that when Christ lay His life down, so our old sinful beings were completely destroyed. Furthermore, since Christ was resurrected, so we were raised into newness of life – in other words, we were brought back to life as new creations.

Indeed, we behold, the whole world sees, the old has gone, and the new has come. We have been born again, made completely new creations, standing on a reality which is not based on our physical senses, but attuned to the unseen and eternal. This means that no matter what we may still struggle with in this world that we see, hear, and touch, we are at peace, knowing that our entire beings are held together in eternity – we are kept, because Christ has us.

Because of Christ and His finished work, we no longer hide from God, ashamed as Adam and Eve were ashamed at the Garden of Eden. We have no further need for fig leaves to hide our sins, no further need for the blood of goats and bulls to wash us, for Christ is our wedding garment, available for one and all who believe.

Therefore, God shines His face upon us. He recognizes all we have seen and been through but is constantly faithful and gracious to us. Because of Christ we can come boldly to the throne of grace with anything and everything we have to pour out to Him. We can come to Him.

And it doesn’t stop there, since Christ has also demonstrated through His finished work that God will stop at nothing to love us, by means of understanding each and every one of us completely and responding to the best of His supreme and limitless knowledge, for our good. In other words, He loves each and every one of us with love that is personal and intimate. As the prodigal Father He runs to us while we are still far off, loving us and giving us what we need according to his endless wisdom. He runs to us.

This is shalom: That we have Christ, and Christ has us. That we can come to God, knowing that He came for us.

The Greatest Healer

Romans 5:15-17 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Christ is the greatest Healer. No less than the King of Kings could take on the sickness of all sicknesses – death.
Christ is the greatest Restorer. No less than the Lord of Lords could address the ruin of all ruins – sin.
Christ is our Life, and Christ is our Righteousness.

Let’s pray.