Sickness and Disease is Not Part of God's Plan For Us

I know many of you may have been a little taken aback when I said that the whole restoration of man includes restoration of the body to health. Very little connection is made in the Christian world between health and salvation. As a matter of fact, health issues are often downplayed as unimportant in the Christian walk, and are frequently treated as side issues. While it is true that our soul salvation does not depend on our state of health, it is important to know that God's plan of salvation involves salvation sin as well as its consequences. Sickness is a consequence of sin. We are sick because of sin. We live in a sinful world where germs attack the human body and render it weak or dead. We live in a world where people commit crimes against each other causing injury or death. We live in a world that is in a constant state of war, and people get injured, become ill, or are destroyed. We live in a world that is polluted with filth and toxins. And the list goes on and on.

At creation, everything existed in complete harmony. There was no sickness or ill health, "And God saw everything he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1: 31). After the fall of man, sin and disease entered into the world. It therefore would not be enough for Christ just to die for our sins but do nothing about the consequences. It would be like being pardoned for a crime but still having to serve jail time. That would simply not make sense. According to Acts 10:38 it says that "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." Part of Jesus mission was definitely the healing of the body. We must therefore become co-workers with Him in this great mission of the restoration of bodily health, by using the means He has made available for that, which includes natural healing and miraculous healing, in addition to conventional medicine.

Now I know some will mock and say they will wait until they get to heaven to be healed; but why wait when the plan of restoration begins now? What we have failed to understand is that our eternal life is not something which begins after death, but that it begins NOW from the moment we are saved, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). Our restoration therefore begins NOW, and will be completed when Christ returns, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phillipians 1:6). What needless pain and sorrow we bear just because we do not believe it is God's will for us to be healthy, "Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing" (Isaiah 35: 4-6). Yes, we will not be free of sickness on this side of eternity, but the process begins now. That was why Jesus healed while on earth, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esasis the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:17). Christ started the process which was predicted in the book of Isaiah.

Let us by faith believe in God's power and will for our lives to be healthy. Let us work with Him, and not against Him in the plan of restoration.