Did Jesus Cause The Sickness and Disease In Us, But Later Died For It To Heal Us?
Question: Why would Jesus take Stripes on His Body for Our Healing, if He were the one who caused it, only to heal our sicknesses later? Who was responsible for our sicknesses and diseases? Was Satan the one who put sicknesses and diseases on humankind or God did through Satan?
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!
There are some big holes in the theological pot of our times which leaks and leaks, which in turn makes us all to become pots that are never full and overflowing. I mean empty pots makes so much noise, when the same is filled to the brim, it stays still.
Understanding the Scripture the way it is literally said, will always without fail will make us wise regarding this life and the life to come. When the literal interpretation does not give us a clear direction, then we should look for a symbolic meaning that relates from other areas of Scripture (Luke 16;22-23; Eph 6). If that also does not fit in and make sense, we should interpret it with a spiritual meaning according to the direction of the Holy Spirit who teaches us regarding the message God wants us to understand at that point of time (1 Cor 2:13).
Here are few Scriptures that I put forth to understand about sicknesses and diseases that can give us a strong foundation regarding healing and its intention,
1) “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” (Exodus 15:26).
2) "Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases." (Psalm 103:3).
3) "You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you." (Exodus 23:25).
Here in the above 1st verse of Exo 15:26 we see that, God is the one who claims responsibility for dispersing the disease, let alone what reason he does we will see later. Here is what God clearly says, "I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians". Also in the same verse God claims to be the healer when He is kept as the Lord in His rightful place, through the positive response of being the obedient children of God who hear His voice through His Word and who walk in it.
Does God has to make us sick in order to teach us a lesson? He does not neccesarily have to use it always in that way, but He can choose to use a agency like Satan to do his bidding even in his rebellion (2 Chron 18:20-22; 1 Kings 22:20-23). That is the providence of God we can never fully understand. Does God make Satan do whatever evil He does? No not at all, during the time of creation initiallly in Gen 1:1-2, Satan did not choose God, instead chose self and ambition through pride and in it sin came in to existence, now Satan does have a choice but whatever he does he does do in hidden rebellion which only God can understand fully. So when God chooses even to use a rebel to fulfill His plans and purpose, the genius of God is fully revealed in His Glory. Just because God knows what will happen before hand by His sovereignty and providence does not mean God influences evil people or Satan to make them act a particular evil way, rather because God remains in control of everthing, they have freedom to choose by their free will to even take a bad choice and do evil, and God will let them go their own way till one day he will judge everyone for every evil thing (Eccl 12:13-14). So Satan is a rebel who might be used as an angel of death who might bring disease, death and destruction (John 10:10; Job 1:13-22; 2:4-10), but only with a chocke chain around his neck, which shows that he can only do as much as God permits him to do. Praise the Lord!
In the second verse of Psa 103:3, we see that the Psalmist experiences healing in his life when sin is confessed to God, so this verse does show that many sicknesses and disease are caused by sin too.
In the third verse of of Exo 23:25, we see that the food we eat need to be blessed by God from heaven to remain nutritious and give us good health, this is why we say grace before we eat any food everyday, in this way we also learn to be thankful to God for his goodness towards us which He shows to us daily day in and day out, which brings us more and more favor of God. Hence the blessing of God over the food we intake, brings healing to our body and make us remain healthy for the Glory of God. The simple vegetables and water which Daniel and his friends took rejecting the delicacies of the King made them become the counsellors of the entire nation of his times, so it is not just the nutricious quality of the food we eat, but the blessedness of God over it that makes it become a blessing to our life, a health to ourbones and healing to our flesh (Dan 1:8-21). Amen. This shows us that if God does not bless us specially, we may remain in sickness and disease even when we eat good food, because at the end it all comes to whether we serve God with all our heart that will keep our body full of immunity and full of vitality and health. Here God claims to "take sickness away from among" us when we continue to serve Him with a loyal heart through Him blessing the bread and water we eat and drink. Praise the Lord!
Even though the root of all sicknesses and diseases may not be sin all the time, like for example in this fallen world accidents do happen which shows man's carelessness and also limitations, when we do not take care of our body with proper nutrition sickness and diseases do come, when we do not keep ourselves with good hygiene sickness and diseases do come, when we sin and have unforgiveness in our heart sickness and diseases do come. When we are disobedient to God, the result can be sicknesses and diseases as the above verses reveal, obedience to God and His Word bring health and healing along with it. When we continue to serve the Lord loyally by obeying and fearing His Word, the awesome result is a continuation of good health.
The following Scriptures are something to meditate over and over before we make a conclusion:
1) God says, "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7).
2) The LORD said to him, "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD?." (Exodus 4:11).
In other words, the above 1st verses of Is 45:7 points to God claiming responsibility for forming of light and creating darkness, for bringing prosperity and also creating disaster, if the Lord claims to do all these things, then in our so called theology of a only good God, if we fail to recognize a angry God against sin in His holiness, it is our mistake to take the sovereign glory of God away from Him when He does deserve it all from us through our holy living. That is why when the whimpy "good and loving God" who is a merry go round and all the year 'Jingle all the way' Santa in the belief's of the saved saints, without the fear of God the believers starts to indulge in all kinds of 21st century sin and perversion because of their wrong onesided belief. Does a coin with only one side of it having a cast or print, will it be counted valid? No never, it needs to have both the sides intact for it to be counted a worthy valid coin of value. So in the same way, only when we consider both the "goodness and severity of God" in our belief (Rom 11:22), we become a truthful believer who is living in the true faith of the fear and holiness of God, for which God begins to bless us and make us a blessing.
In the same way, the 2nd verse of Exo 4:11 claim that God does make some people to stammer in the intention of using them for His Glory in a special way, and also He claims that some people he makes them deaf and mute to reveal in them God's special abilities which He gifts to them specially. So these are not and never are disabled but rather differently abled people or specially abled people who are made for the Glory of God. Even the blindness of human both spiritually and physically God claims as making them like that, which reveals that in all broken and maimed things, God can use those weaknesses as strength if they choose to believe God and rise up in faith to be blessed and become a great blessing to all humanity (John 9:1-4; 1 Cor 1:26-31).
One of my dear Brother responded to the above Scriptures in this way, "The chief end of man is to love God and Glorify him forever, might I say it is the chief end of God himself..., Many people think the Bible is about them [(i.e.) all about having good health and wealth which is taken as a sign of favor of God over their lives, when nothing more can be further away from the real truth], while its not. Also why are we Christians so hesitant to think that God indeed can causes sickness or destruction? This just puzzles me.., are we too polished to take Scripture and take it for what it is.., People now do find it very difficult why God would choose to make humans blind or deaf..., I am still waiting for answers from them."
We need to choose to live for God, God doesn't need to choose to live for us because we are sinners by birth, He is ever holy in His existence, He is our master and we are His servant, He is our Father and we are His child, He is sovereign we are not. He is our protector and we cannot protect ourselves. Yes God made man in His image, we cannot make Him to be in our image. Love is not God, but rather God is love that is why He heals us, God is love that is why He can chastise us, God is love and that is why He chooses to fellowship with us. We are what we are because of God's great love, mercy and grace. The hands that hurt can also heal. The hands that judges sin, were the hands that were nailed for our sins. The judgment for sin is death, He our Lord God Jesus Christ died so that we can live life without death.
So God might use sickness to make us trust Him, or it may be any storms of life, but the gurantee from the Word of God is that God will work all things together for our good in the end (Rom 8:28). We will joyfully live in all joy forever in the new heavens and the new earth, because at that time God will dwell with us physically and there will be no more suffering, sickness, death, etc...which does teach us that God might use those all of the above now to make it all work together for our eternal good in the end (Rev 21:1-8, 22-27). God doesn't need us, we need Him all the time though we may not have still realized it how. God is self-existent who lives without any outside support, we are God-dependant and need God to support us with His breathe without which we will die immediately. God is just and always will be (Rom 3:26), we are unjust who are sinners not just because we sin but because we are born in sin with sin nature, then why should we think wrongly that God cannot be good when he does something that we think is not wholesome or broken (Rom 3:9-18). When we do accept our inability to think rightly in the will of God as sinners by birth, God transforms us to become right thinkers and make us become saints as we should be.
Sin came in to this world when the fall of humans in to it brought death to all humankind, sicknesses and diseases are the chief police officers who arrest us for breaking the law for which the full wages of it to be paid by them to us is death. Sicknesses and diseases always without fail lead to death at the end. So God might use Satan and his demons as the angel executive of death or sometimes may not, it should never be a problem to us as long as we know that we are living obediently to the Word of God and His voice that comes to us through it, through which we start to serve God acceptably and honorably bringing glory to God. When we know that we are experiencing the chastising hand of God through diseases (Heb 12:4, 5-7; Jam 5:13-18), let us ask for forgiveness to God and come out of it as soon as possible (1 John 1:9; 2 Chron 16:12). When we have persistently asked God for healing and he has not given us what we have asked for, it means He is going to give us a greater grace to destroy the demons of sicknesses and disease which we fight against for the Glory of God (2 Cor 12:7-10; Acts 10:38).
In actuality and in its entirety, disease and curse have come upon the humankind as a curse for our sins and disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden, through one man Adam our forefather's sin, the whole humankind has fallen in to sin and death (Gen 3:14-19). But thank God through one man's obedience of Jesus Christ, we have received life eternal as a gift from God through believing Him as our Lord and Savior (Rom 5:12, 18-19; 6:23). Jesus Christ our Lord took the curse of the law upon Himself which we have broken in our lives knowingly and unknowingly, which deserve punishment from God, and instead He gave the blessing of salvation from sin, healing, health, prosperity, holiness, righteousness, faith for miracles, etc... which has been given to us in Christ Jesus freely for the Glory of God because of His love towards us which He showered upon us (Gal 3:13-14). And therefore this is the BLESSING OF ABRAHAM that God has given to us in Christ Jesus through His Spirit. Hallelujah!
As Jesus was God and is God and forever will be, He judged sin in the past through sickness and diseases upon those who broke the law of God and even now He does the same in His holiness, but when God's love was revealed, He took the judgment that is supposed to come upon us rightly which is eternal and natural death upon Himself and died a sinless death for us so that we who were cursed according to the breaking of law in our lives can be forgiven through Jesus Himself because of His love for us and let free because He has taken the judgement upon Himself. It is like the judge who judges the convict, after judging him, chooses to take the punishment for it and pay the price himself to let the criminal get forgiven and justified and acquitted of it to let him go scot free. Praise the Lord! In Jesus we have not only healing but a perfect health too in every area of our lives holistically (3 John 1:2).
We are not the Gardner of this whole earth, but God is and we are the flowers made for His Glory to enjoy Him and be enjoyed by Him, which I believe is the chief end of all humans (Psa 103:15; 1 Pet 1:24)! Hallelujah!
Thanks and Blessings...
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!
There are some big holes in the theological pot of our times which leaks and leaks, which in turn makes us all to become pots that are never full and overflowing. I mean empty pots makes so much noise, when the same is filled to the brim, it stays still.
Understanding the Scripture the way it is literally said, will always without fail will make us wise regarding this life and the life to come. When the literal interpretation does not give us a clear direction, then we should look for a symbolic meaning that relates from other areas of Scripture (Luke 16;22-23; Eph 6). If that also does not fit in and make sense, we should interpret it with a spiritual meaning according to the direction of the Holy Spirit who teaches us regarding the message God wants us to understand at that point of time (1 Cor 2:13).
Here are few Scriptures that I put forth to understand about sicknesses and diseases that can give us a strong foundation regarding healing and its intention,
1) “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” (Exodus 15:26).
2) "Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases." (Psalm 103:3).
3) "You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you." (Exodus 23:25).
Here in the above 1st verse of Exo 15:26 we see that, God is the one who claims responsibility for dispersing the disease, let alone what reason he does we will see later. Here is what God clearly says, "I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians". Also in the same verse God claims to be the healer when He is kept as the Lord in His rightful place, through the positive response of being the obedient children of God who hear His voice through His Word and who walk in it.
Does God has to make us sick in order to teach us a lesson? He does not neccesarily have to use it always in that way, but He can choose to use a agency like Satan to do his bidding even in his rebellion (2 Chron 18:20-22; 1 Kings 22:20-23). That is the providence of God we can never fully understand. Does God make Satan do whatever evil He does? No not at all, during the time of creation initiallly in Gen 1:1-2, Satan did not choose God, instead chose self and ambition through pride and in it sin came in to existence, now Satan does have a choice but whatever he does he does do in hidden rebellion which only God can understand fully. So when God chooses even to use a rebel to fulfill His plans and purpose, the genius of God is fully revealed in His Glory. Just because God knows what will happen before hand by His sovereignty and providence does not mean God influences evil people or Satan to make them act a particular evil way, rather because God remains in control of everthing, they have freedom to choose by their free will to even take a bad choice and do evil, and God will let them go their own way till one day he will judge everyone for every evil thing (Eccl 12:13-14). So Satan is a rebel who might be used as an angel of death who might bring disease, death and destruction (John 10:10; Job 1:13-22; 2:4-10), but only with a chocke chain around his neck, which shows that he can only do as much as God permits him to do. Praise the Lord!
In the second verse of Psa 103:3, we see that the Psalmist experiences healing in his life when sin is confessed to God, so this verse does show that many sicknesses and disease are caused by sin too.
In the third verse of of Exo 23:25, we see that the food we eat need to be blessed by God from heaven to remain nutritious and give us good health, this is why we say grace before we eat any food everyday, in this way we also learn to be thankful to God for his goodness towards us which He shows to us daily day in and day out, which brings us more and more favor of God. Hence the blessing of God over the food we intake, brings healing to our body and make us remain healthy for the Glory of God. The simple vegetables and water which Daniel and his friends took rejecting the delicacies of the King made them become the counsellors of the entire nation of his times, so it is not just the nutricious quality of the food we eat, but the blessedness of God over it that makes it become a blessing to our life, a health to ourbones and healing to our flesh (Dan 1:8-21). Amen. This shows us that if God does not bless us specially, we may remain in sickness and disease even when we eat good food, because at the end it all comes to whether we serve God with all our heart that will keep our body full of immunity and full of vitality and health. Here God claims to "take sickness away from among" us when we continue to serve Him with a loyal heart through Him blessing the bread and water we eat and drink. Praise the Lord!
Even though the root of all sicknesses and diseases may not be sin all the time, like for example in this fallen world accidents do happen which shows man's carelessness and also limitations, when we do not take care of our body with proper nutrition sickness and diseases do come, when we do not keep ourselves with good hygiene sickness and diseases do come, when we sin and have unforgiveness in our heart sickness and diseases do come. When we are disobedient to God, the result can be sicknesses and diseases as the above verses reveal, obedience to God and His Word bring health and healing along with it. When we continue to serve the Lord loyally by obeying and fearing His Word, the awesome result is a continuation of good health.
The following Scriptures are something to meditate over and over before we make a conclusion:
1) God says, "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7).
2) The LORD said to him, "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD?." (Exodus 4:11).
In other words, the above 1st verses of Is 45:7 points to God claiming responsibility for forming of light and creating darkness, for bringing prosperity and also creating disaster, if the Lord claims to do all these things, then in our so called theology of a only good God, if we fail to recognize a angry God against sin in His holiness, it is our mistake to take the sovereign glory of God away from Him when He does deserve it all from us through our holy living. That is why when the whimpy "good and loving God" who is a merry go round and all the year 'Jingle all the way' Santa in the belief's of the saved saints, without the fear of God the believers starts to indulge in all kinds of 21st century sin and perversion because of their wrong onesided belief. Does a coin with only one side of it having a cast or print, will it be counted valid? No never, it needs to have both the sides intact for it to be counted a worthy valid coin of value. So in the same way, only when we consider both the "goodness and severity of God" in our belief (Rom 11:22), we become a truthful believer who is living in the true faith of the fear and holiness of God, for which God begins to bless us and make us a blessing.
In the same way, the 2nd verse of Exo 4:11 claim that God does make some people to stammer in the intention of using them for His Glory in a special way, and also He claims that some people he makes them deaf and mute to reveal in them God's special abilities which He gifts to them specially. So these are not and never are disabled but rather differently abled people or specially abled people who are made for the Glory of God. Even the blindness of human both spiritually and physically God claims as making them like that, which reveals that in all broken and maimed things, God can use those weaknesses as strength if they choose to believe God and rise up in faith to be blessed and become a great blessing to all humanity (John 9:1-4; 1 Cor 1:26-31).
One of my dear Brother responded to the above Scriptures in this way, "The chief end of man is to love God and Glorify him forever, might I say it is the chief end of God himself..., Many people think the Bible is about them [(i.e.) all about having good health and wealth which is taken as a sign of favor of God over their lives, when nothing more can be further away from the real truth], while its not. Also why are we Christians so hesitant to think that God indeed can causes sickness or destruction? This just puzzles me.., are we too polished to take Scripture and take it for what it is.., People now do find it very difficult why God would choose to make humans blind or deaf..., I am still waiting for answers from them."
We need to choose to live for God, God doesn't need to choose to live for us because we are sinners by birth, He is ever holy in His existence, He is our master and we are His servant, He is our Father and we are His child, He is sovereign we are not. He is our protector and we cannot protect ourselves. Yes God made man in His image, we cannot make Him to be in our image. Love is not God, but rather God is love that is why He heals us, God is love that is why He can chastise us, God is love and that is why He chooses to fellowship with us. We are what we are because of God's great love, mercy and grace. The hands that hurt can also heal. The hands that judges sin, were the hands that were nailed for our sins. The judgment for sin is death, He our Lord God Jesus Christ died so that we can live life without death.
So God might use sickness to make us trust Him, or it may be any storms of life, but the gurantee from the Word of God is that God will work all things together for our good in the end (Rom 8:28). We will joyfully live in all joy forever in the new heavens and the new earth, because at that time God will dwell with us physically and there will be no more suffering, sickness, death, etc...which does teach us that God might use those all of the above now to make it all work together for our eternal good in the end (Rev 21:1-8, 22-27). God doesn't need us, we need Him all the time though we may not have still realized it how. God is self-existent who lives without any outside support, we are God-dependant and need God to support us with His breathe without which we will die immediately. God is just and always will be (Rom 3:26), we are unjust who are sinners not just because we sin but because we are born in sin with sin nature, then why should we think wrongly that God cannot be good when he does something that we think is not wholesome or broken (Rom 3:9-18). When we do accept our inability to think rightly in the will of God as sinners by birth, God transforms us to become right thinkers and make us become saints as we should be.
Sin came in to this world when the fall of humans in to it brought death to all humankind, sicknesses and diseases are the chief police officers who arrest us for breaking the law for which the full wages of it to be paid by them to us is death. Sicknesses and diseases always without fail lead to death at the end. So God might use Satan and his demons as the angel executive of death or sometimes may not, it should never be a problem to us as long as we know that we are living obediently to the Word of God and His voice that comes to us through it, through which we start to serve God acceptably and honorably bringing glory to God. When we know that we are experiencing the chastising hand of God through diseases (Heb 12:4, 5-7; Jam 5:13-18), let us ask for forgiveness to God and come out of it as soon as possible (1 John 1:9; 2 Chron 16:12). When we have persistently asked God for healing and he has not given us what we have asked for, it means He is going to give us a greater grace to destroy the demons of sicknesses and disease which we fight against for the Glory of God (2 Cor 12:7-10; Acts 10:38).
In actuality and in its entirety, disease and curse have come upon the humankind as a curse for our sins and disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden, through one man Adam our forefather's sin, the whole humankind has fallen in to sin and death (Gen 3:14-19). But thank God through one man's obedience of Jesus Christ, we have received life eternal as a gift from God through believing Him as our Lord and Savior (Rom 5:12, 18-19; 6:23). Jesus Christ our Lord took the curse of the law upon Himself which we have broken in our lives knowingly and unknowingly, which deserve punishment from God, and instead He gave the blessing of salvation from sin, healing, health, prosperity, holiness, righteousness, faith for miracles, etc... which has been given to us in Christ Jesus freely for the Glory of God because of His love towards us which He showered upon us (Gal 3:13-14). And therefore this is the BLESSING OF ABRAHAM that God has given to us in Christ Jesus through His Spirit. Hallelujah!
As Jesus was God and is God and forever will be, He judged sin in the past through sickness and diseases upon those who broke the law of God and even now He does the same in His holiness, but when God's love was revealed, He took the judgment that is supposed to come upon us rightly which is eternal and natural death upon Himself and died a sinless death for us so that we who were cursed according to the breaking of law in our lives can be forgiven through Jesus Himself because of His love for us and let free because He has taken the judgement upon Himself. It is like the judge who judges the convict, after judging him, chooses to take the punishment for it and pay the price himself to let the criminal get forgiven and justified and acquitted of it to let him go scot free. Praise the Lord! In Jesus we have not only healing but a perfect health too in every area of our lives holistically (3 John 1:2).
We are not the Gardner of this whole earth, but God is and we are the flowers made for His Glory to enjoy Him and be enjoyed by Him, which I believe is the chief end of all humans (Psa 103:15; 1 Pet 1:24)! Hallelujah!
Thanks and Blessings...
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