By G. Lee Southard, PhD | October 14, 2019 | Basic Questions About the Christian Faith
Hospitals are full of people who, unable to heal themselves, seek the professional in a hospital for healing because doctors are experts in healing. For some time, they may not have felt well but were living with the condition. In fact, they may not have known it was a condition because they had become accustomed to the symptoms. Life was normal. When the underlying condition became acute, they either died or decided to seek expert help. Only by allowing the intervention of expert treatment by experts in healing does physical healing result.
Healing from a sickness allows us to live longer only to die at some future time. It has no eternal consequences.
Recently that was me. I had been feeling bad for so long I forgotten how it felt to feel good. I was living with the subtle indications that were actually symptoms of pending life ending heart failure. Finally, the symptoms became acute and I went to the Emergency Room and was admitted to the hospital. After the excellent treatment I received by experts trained to treat my condition, I felt better than I had for months. Both the acute and subtle symptoms were gone. I was free to die another day.
The thought occurred to me how similar the behavior of sin is to a sickness.
The world is full of people who struggle with sin and unable to do something about it themselves. They have engaged in the sin for so long become use to it and do not recognize they live in sin. They may have subtle symptoms of the sin that affects the life they live but it becomes the normal life. Eventually the sin becomes acute because of its internal and external symptoms to the person or loved ones. Unable themselves to do anything about the sin the symptoms get worse until they die or decide to seek expert healing. If they pick the right expert they live with eternal consequences.
There is only one expert that can heal from sin. That expert is God who in three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit is able to bring all three into the solution. He heals through his son Jesus by administration of the Holy Spirit. To receive the healing from sin the steps are to recognize you are a sinner (repentance), ask for forgiveness in the name of Jesus (Grace) and accept the forgiveness of that sin presented through the Holy Spirit (Salvation).
In healing from sin one first dies to self when the Holy Spirit takes over from the evil spirit in them. One becomes a new person. This time physical death is not an end but a beginning where one lives eternally with the expert who healed them.
This is the best deal of all time.
For evidence of God, the healing expert, see the book To Know With Certainty: Questions Christian Students Need To Answer On Leaving High School.
