Last week, I wrote about how the broken body of Jesus redeemed us from sickness. I hope you enjoyed that and included it in your blessing count as you celebrated Thanksgiving.. As I studied taking communion and the events of our Redemption through Jesus, I became flabbergasted (I should probably stop here and use spell check). The events in the Resurrection were three fold, orderly, and purposefully arranged. Until recently I had never considered the reasons. God is known for wanting things done “decently and in order”. These life changing events demonstrate that. “Oh, Father, that I should become more purposeful and plan.”
The first was the beating, which redeemed people (all people, then, now and future people) from sickness and disease. Jesus provided health and healing before He dealt with our sins. We humans still struggle to believe this at times due to our life experiences. We’ve prayed and seen people still leave our world, we’ve watched people go through horrible ailments before they passed to their next life, and our natural thoughts say, “The Bible says that, but … ”
That’s one we’ve all experienced, but the other areas of our lives don’t always line up with what God has said, so why do we only question that one? I believe it’s because “that one” is the most painful. The results of death leave the loved ones with a void.
The second event in the Resurrection of Jesus was when His pure blood was shed. It is written in the Word that “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission” (for sin ). This portion of Christ’s sacrifice was to take away the consequences of sin, the damage of sin, as well as shame and guilt. No person who has accepted the finished work of the Lord should be living with sin and shame.
If you are a Christian who takes communion, you should remember that the “cup” is symbolic of His blood, and by that, you are forgiven, made new, made totally clean, and born again. The sin that we were born with is no more a part of us in our spirits.
Remember, if you have accepted Jesus as Lord, you were made righteous, right with God, and sin has never been a part of the new you! You are by Him, in Jesus, forgiven, totally.
God doesn’t even remember your sins. Forget them! Only the enemy wants to remind you. He’s like that relative who sees you doing well but never fails to remind you of that time when you weren’t. (What? You don’t have any people in your life who snickers as they say, “I knew you when…”? That’s another blessing to count.
The third event in Jesus’ acts to redeem us was when He was crucified. Remember Galatians 3:13 where the Holy Spirit tells us that Jesus became a curse for us because “cursed is the man that hangs on a tree”. This portion of redemption and the logical reason for it leaves me saying, “Wow”. The first action Jesus did healed us. The second portion wiped out our sin. This event of Jesus becoming the curse (of the law) for us is utterly logical, sensible, and powerful (as they all were). Think about this. All the things that Jesus’ beating redeemed us of could have come back to torment us again had the curse’s power not been broken. God leaves nothing undone. His power is capable and His grace is sufficient.
I had kind of skimmed through that part of Deuteronomy 28 where the blessings turned into curses. I didn’t like the tone of that part. For me, reading that part had the same dread of stepping on the scales after that meal I knew I shouldn’t have eaten. But as I studied, I took the time to read it this time.
What is included in the curse Jesus redeemed us from by His hanging, humiliated, barely breathing body? He was close to nudity in front of His mother and friends publicly, hearing the laughter of the soldiers as they sat there and gambled for his garment. Thorns piercing our Lord’s head, being thirsty and only given vinegar sucked from a (dirty, most likely) sponge. What did Him enduring that do for us?
Let’s look:
Freedom from Dismay. Madness. Confusion. Blindness. Insanity. Poverty. The lives of your spouse and your children in ruins. Pestilence (a fatal epidemic disease), everything you set your hand to destroyed by your enemies, and grievous sicknesses of long duration. (There are a few more, too!)
Grievous sicknesses of long duration. Cancer? ALS? HIV? Heart disease? Diabetes? If it is a serious illness that lasts a long time with death as its ultimate end, it was part of the curse and Jesus has redeemed us from it. As the nails in His body encountered that tree, picture the curse and its consequences flowing into Jesus’ own body. Did I mention tumors? Jesus had them. Boils? Those too. They entered His pure body and He endured them all before His flesh died from His hanging there.
Even with the curse now removed, people still experience the destruction. It ought not be so. It ought not be so. (I deliberately repeated that. ) It is never God’s will for it to be so. For God so loved the world that He gave…He gave Jesus.
Would God have put Jesus in that position if it weren’t sufficient to accomplish the goal? Can we possibly see God doing something half way for a short time? When the Word says that Once, for all men, for all time that Jesus was offered, it’s talking about Him being the sin offering that included anything that came as a result of that, including sickness and the curse.
So why then, with the price being paid, are there still consequences of sin and the curse? It’s because God’s will is not always done.
There are so many of us with so many different attitudes and thoughts on this topic. Only God’s word has the answer you need and how you can change it. Ask Him. Don’t ask and leave without the answer. Let’s get this settled so we can walk in all Jesus endured to give us. That includes freedom from anything “grievous”.
For His Glory 