Our passage from Sunday in Matthew 8:14-17 pointed to Jesus’
healing ministry as a fulfillment of Isaiah 53. This chapter in Isaiah is a prophecy regarding the substitutionary
atonement of Christ, that is, Christ's satisfying the wrath of God by suffering for our sin in our place. Because there
is this link between the physical healing ministry of Christ and the atonement,
some Christians claim that believers should never be sick – “there is healing
in the atonement.” So, if there is
healing in the atonement, why do we find that believers still suffer illness
and death?
All of salvation history can be summed up in four words: creation,
fall, redemption, and restoration.
In the beginning, God created a world in which everything was good (Gen1:31). When man violated God’s
command, sin entered into the world, and not only did man fall, but the entire
creation was affected. Paul writes
in Rom 8:20 that the “creation was subjected to futility.” This affect on the creation is seen in
several details in Genesis 3, including the appearance of thorns and thistles
in the ground and the fact that the woman would experience pain in childbirth. Because all of God’s creation suffered
in the fall, all of His creation would need to be redeemed - set free from its bondage to corruption (Rom 8:21).
Of course, Scripture reveals that Jesus Christ was that
redeemer. Through His life, death,
and resurrection, He saved man from sin and death. Not only that, but His saving work
provided for the restoration of the creation as well (Col 1:19-20). But it is important to keep in mind
that redemption and restoration are not the same thing. Redemption has taken place, but the
creation has not been completely restored yet. Occasionally, we talk about the “already, not yet” theme
found in Scripture. In Matthew, we
are told that the Kingdom of God has already come (3:2, 4:17, 10:7, 12:28) and
that it has not yet come (6:10). The
kingdom has come in the rule of Christ in the hearts of His people, but it has
not come in the sense of His literal reign over the earth.
The same can be said of all the blessings that are ours in
Christ. It is written that we have
been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3). So they are currently ours, yet this
inheritance is being kept for us to be revealed in the last time (1Pet1:4-5). It could be said that in
one sense they are already ours, and in another sense, not yet ours.
This is also true of Christ’s defeat of sin, death, and
disease, accomplished in the atonement.
There is a sense in which those who are in Christ have been saved from
these things in this life, yet the fullness of that salvation will not be
experienced until Christ returns.
The Lord’s atonement saved us from the penalty of sin, and yet we still
live in the presence of sin and still commit sin. It is only at Christ’s return that we will be removed from
the presence of sin and no longer commit sin. The restoration is yet future – on the last day the church
and creation will experience the fullness of redemption.
Jesus’ healing ministry on earth was like a sneak peak at
the paradise that would be experienced at the restoration of creation – no
sickness, no pain, and no death. What
Christ did in Palestine for a short three years – eradicating disease – He will
eventually do in the new heaven and new earth for all eternity (Rev 21:1-4).
So is there healing in the atonement? Certainly. But we will not experience the full extent of it until the
Lord returns. Until that time, we
will still know the temporal effects of disease just as we still know the
temporal effects of sin. And that
is all the more reason to eagerly anticipate the day when the trumpet will
sound and we will meet Him in the air (1 Thess 4:16-18)!
Posted by Greg Birdwell
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