One night I was praying, “God, what next after the James series?” So, I fall asleep(ish). And you know how it is—Lara can’t sleep with the TV off; I can’t snore with it on! Our Schnauzer RockE can’t sleep with it on either. He lays between us, on high alert, salivating, one eye on the TV, waiting for some dog or horse to appear!
In the middle of the night, there’s this healthcare commercial. Scientists in white lab coats are studying strains of bacteria under microscope. The bacteria are forming words like “unanswerable… uncurable…” But then they start snipping the prefix “un” away. The unimaginable> imaginable; the unanswerable> answerable; uncurable> curable. And the premise? Technology is the great hope of humankind.
But then they flashed up the word “Unconquerable.” And snip, snip. I thought how audacious to think technology will conquer death—but there it was! Is technology our only hope? Technically, technology doesn’t heal us. It only creates the “opportunity” for healing. At the end of the day, true healing still has to come from above. A farmer can give a seed every opportunity to thrive; but God must cause it grow. A surgeon, after doing all he knows, can only wait and trust. And despite our valiant efforts to save ourselves in all the ways we need—ultimately we have no recourse but to turn to God—and that is faith!
In the aftermath of the Cross, the world waited to see if the unconquerable could be conquered. And on the third day God raised Jesus from the grave. And Matthew says not only Jesus, but God raised the saints long buried, and those who’d fallen asleep. The resurrection glory of Easter didn’t happen in some obscure corner of earth. The epicenter was Jerusalem, where all the world was gathered for Passover, and could see. Jesus the firstborn among the dead… so that he has supremacy. But with him countless others. We’re not talking about a mass spiritual hallucination… but physical, bodily resurrections. When Jesus rose, it was irrefutable. There was no plausible deniability—though many tried to deny it.
The resurrection sends shivers of hope up and down my spine! Death is indeed conquerable, but not through technology. But there is more! If God can conquer death itself—than what about what Kierkegaard called the “sickness unto death?” Our most existential threat is sin. Sin is the blight; the seemingly invisible, parasitic force, that steals life; Sin is the underlying pathology—the terminal condition that must be cured! Technology can snip the “un” from unconquerable, but it cannot breathe life into our mortal soul. It can snip the "un" from "uncurable," but cannot touch the "un" in "unholy" or "unforgiven." Whether the enemy be death, or its precursor sin, only God can bring hope of healing.
There is a temptation to talk about sin in a merely theological sense—throwing it under microscope, analyzing it in a kind of cold, clinical way.
• We could talk through Jeremiah, how the heart is stubbornly “beyond cure.” Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?"
• With sin comes this compulsion to justify ourselves. The greater the sin, the more the tongue attempts to deflect guilt and responsibility. But of course, God sees the heart deep beneath our wordy smokescreens.
• And the more we sin, the more seared the conscience becomes! The more sin multiplies, the more our spiritual neurons die, causing us to lose all sensitivity to things of God. We become ever hearing but never understanding; ever seeing but never perceiving.
• And it’s not as if sin just has a spiritual, or psychological affect. Sin physically weakens and corrupts our already perishable bodies. How many times in life do you imagine yourself invincible, able to sin with impunity. At first you seemed to bounce back and be okay. But over time, you realize sin’s affect is as physically and bodily accumulative as spiritual. Over time our bodies bear the very shame of our sins. Every choice accumulating to the health of the body or its shame.
• And then there is the freedom paradox! The more “freely” we sin, the more profoundly captive we become to sin. Ephesians 4:18–19 describes how "[People] are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more." The sicker the soul, the more enslaved; the more enslaved, the more it doubles down on desire.
Jesus didn’t just come to conquer death, but more urgently, cure sickness unto death. When the temple veil was torn from top to bottom upon Jesus’ death—that 60 foot, by 30 foot, by four inch thick veil—God was signaling his power to defeat our sin as much as our death. Because that veil has been torn, we can draw near to God. Think of what great hope for healing is unveiled in Christ!
Hebrews 4:16 says, “Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need." Hebrews 10:19-22, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus—by a new and living way he has opened for us through the curtain (that is, his flesh)—and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water." The grace of God sends shivers up and down my spine! We don’t have to sneak into God’s presence. We don’t have tip toe through the daisies. We don’t have to come in fear or doubt, being all insecure and anxious. God invites us to come boldly, full of faith, into his sanctuary by way of the blood of Jesus. And notice Jesus our high priest is right there at our side, causing our incurable heart to beat again… resensitizing all spiritual sensitivity… silencing our self-accusing conscience, washing the stains of sin from bodies, healing our wounds, cleansing the filth, clothing us with righteousness.
Consider Paul’s testimony in Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” Ephesians 3:12, “In him we have boldness and confident access through faith in him." James 4:8, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."
Perhaps you remember the really practical thing James invites us to about the grace of God. James 5:14-16, “The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” Notice the duality of our prayers. Not just praying against death, that God raise us up. But praying against death’s precursor, sin, that we be forgiven and healed.
The great balm of healing is not being incubated in some medical lab! Our great balm of healing was incarnated on a cross, where blood and water poured from our Savior’s side. The blood atones for our sin, the water washes over us making us as white as snow. Isaiah 53:4-5, “Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.”
Listen, we want to invite you to explore forgiveness. There is no sickness, no pain, no mortal wound so severe God cannot heal. God isn’t reluctantly inviting you to come before his throne and receive grace… he sent his Son from heaven to earth on a mission to rescue you.