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I fear that Christianity often becomes a pursuit of style at the expense of substance. So I decided to write a “Meat and Potatoes” blog, digging into Scripture with as few frills as possible. Since God has provided the meat—His Word—I’m calling the blog “. . . And Potatoes,” in the hope that these mini-sermons can help enhance the flavor of the main dish. You hungry? Let’s dig in!

Prayer and Healing

8/21/2017

1 Comment

 
I have to admit, one of the areas of the Christian faith that is most confusing to me is prayer. I believe the Bible teaches that prayer moves the heart of a sovereign God (a subject perhaps I’ll look at in another post). And yet, sometimes it doesn’t. The passage I always come back to is at the end of James:
 
Is any among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise? Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.[1]
 
So there you have it. If you’re sick, you just have to be prayed over (and confess your sins) and you’ll get better. So long, cancer. So long, anxiety. So long, common cold. And yet, that’s not what we find. Our everyday experience—that is, reality—conflicts with this idea. So what do we do when Scripture and reality don’t jive? I would suggest there are times when that calls for faith and there are times when that calls for a reexamination of our perception of reality. But there are also times when we would do well to dig a little deeper into Scripture. I believe in a literal reading of the Bible and I generally trust the translators. If we all had to be Hebrew and Greek scholars to know God, we would be in deep trouble. But this passage in James is one where I think a quick reading may not give us the true meaning—where a little digging would be prudent.
 
To start with, I think we need to look at other versions than the NIV because it misses the mark here. If we look at a spectrum of versions, we see the phrase “make the sick person well” translated as “save the one who is sick” (ESV), “restore the one who is sick” (NASB), “save the sick” (KJV), “save him that is sick” (ASV), and “save the sick person” (HCSB). If we turn to the original Greek, we see the word used is sōsei, from sṓzō (to save)[2]—which is in turn from sōs, meaning “safe, rescued”[3]—that is, to “deliver out of danger and into safety; used principally of God rescuing believers from the penalty and power of sin – and into His provisions (safety).”[4] That is quite a bit different than being healed of a physical illness, and indeed seems to lead very well into the end of verse 15: “If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”
 
So what do we have here? Is James promising believers physical healing? Or is he promising something else? I think we need to ask a few more questions. The first is what is meant by “is any among you sick?” The same array of versions agree on the word “sick,” and the Greek would seem to refer to physical ailments and weaknesses (although Strong’s Concordance has the following definition: “I am weak (physically: then morally), I am sick”). So James seems to be writing to people who are suffering from a physical sickness—cancer, disease, or even the flu. Yet there does seem to be a spiritual connection as well. That’s not to say that all physical sickness has a direct spiritual cause—i.e., sin. But this passage is talking about both the physical and the spiritual.
 
Our second question is regarding faith. James writes “the prayer offered in faith.” Faith in what? Faith that God can heal? Faith that God will heal? It would be great if the Greek offered us a different explanation of faith here, but it doesn’t. It’s the same word used throughout the New Testament to refer to faith in God or faith in Jesus Christ. This leads us to another question, a rephrasing of the last. Is it faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the man who went about “healing every disease and sickness among the people”[5]? Or is it faith in Jesus Christ who, when asked, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”[6] Yes, I realize they’re one and the same Jesus, but the question is, essentially, are we looking for physical healing or spiritual healing? If we’re looking for physical healing, we may get it, as did numerous people in the Bible. But we also may not get it, as is evidenced by sick Christians who stay sick or even die, and as is evidenced by Paul whose thorn in the flesh was not taken away despite his pleading.[7] Conversely, will God deny anyone who comes to Him for spiritual healing, for deliverance “from the penalty and power of sin” through Jesus Christ?
 
This brings up another question. What is meant by “The Lord will raise him up”? The majority of versions are consistent with that phrasing, and the Greek word, egerei, has a variety of meanings in the New Testament—from physically getting up to Christ being raised from the dead to people rising up from their sickbed. If the phrase in James means the latter, that God will heal them from a physical ailment, we are back to having to figure out an alternate explanation for those who don’t get healed, who don’t get out of their hospital bed. Was their (or their elders’) faith not strong enough? If that were the case, we’d all be hopelessly sick because none of us has strong enough faith.
 
The final question, and the key question, I think, is what is the time frame for all this taking place? Let me suggest that we are correct to read this passage as a promise of physical (along with spiritual) healing, but we are wrong to assert that the physical healing must take place in the here and now. If you have a sickness, if you are weak or feeble, the prayer offered in faith WILL make you physically well and God WILL physically raise you up. But that may not occur until “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”[8] It may happen sooner, but the “guarantee” as it pertains to physical healing is an eternal guarantee. Similarly, our spiritual healing—while accomplished at the cross and assured in the present by faith—will not be attained until eternity. Only then will we be free from sin and death, and only then will we share in our inheritance with Christ.
 
This is a complex passage. Many of the words have nuances that could drastically change the meaning, as mentioned above regarding “sick,” or regarding “healed” in verse 16. In short, based also on what we find elsewhere in Scripture, I would say we can glean the following:
 
God does physically heal in the here and now.
God does respond to prayer for physical healing.
It is appropriate to seek and pray for physical healing, but there is no surefire formula for attaining it. Whether or not God heals physically in the here and now, He will ultimately heal physically and spiritually in eternity.
The primary focus, then, should be on being spiritually right with God and on His spiritual healing—that is, deliverance from sin and death. Jesus told His disciples, in regard to Lazarus, “this sickness will not end in death.”[9] He didn’t tell them Lazarus wouldn’t die, but that the sickness would not end in death. He knew that He would raise Lazarus back to life, a beautiful picture of our resurrection. Thus we can say this sickness—this cancer, this disease, this affliction, this thorn in the flesh, these “light and momentary troubles”[10]—will not end in death. The whole focus of Scripture is on eternity, and I think that gives us an appropriate lens through which to view James 5 and our physical illnesses.


[1] James 5:13-16
[2] Strong’s Concordance
[3] HELPS Word-studies copyright © 1987, 2011 by Helps Ministries, Inc.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Matthew 4:23
[6] Luke 5:30-32
[7] See II Corinthians 12:7-9
[8] Revelation 21:4, emphasis added
[9] John 11:4
[10] II Corinthians 4:17

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Of Hell and Holiness

8/10/2017

2 Comments

 
Why would a loving God send people to hell? It’s one of the most common questions asked of those who profess to be Christians. We know the Sunday school answer—that God is also just and sin deserves its punishment. And when we think of the Hitlers and Stalins of the world, of rapists and murderers, hell seems like a pretty just result. But what about the non-terrorists, the non-criminals, the generally good people? What about the sweet little old cookie-baking lady across the street? What about the college kid who gives his or her nights and weekends to build houses for the homeless or to serve in soup kitchens? What about Joe Average who doesn’t kill anybody, doesn’t cheat on his wife, doesn’t abuse his kids, who pays his taxes, works hard, and is an all around swell guy? Forget loving, how can a just God send these people to hell?
 
I have to admit, sometimes hell seems, well, kind of harsh. After all, it is eternal torment. Wouldn’t not being allowed into heaven be punishment enough? Or maybe being denied throne room privileges (okay, I’m just being a smart aleck here)? Must people really be damned to suffer indescribable anguish forever?
 
The answer is that of course hell is too harsh of a punishment . . . IF we judge by human standards. By human standards, the Hitlers and Stalins should be in hell, along with people who fly planes into buildings and blow up city buses, but the rest of us are pretty decent folks. We’re not perfect, but we’re not evil either. Are we?
 
But what does the Bible have to say about Joe Average? Or—gulp—you and me? Scripture teaches that “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”[1] Or read Romans 3:10-18 for a description of mankind. Isaiah sums it up saying, “all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”[2] In modern vernacular, those last two words might be translated to “used tampons.” That’s graphic, I realize, but it’s the image Scripture uses to convey how dirty our souls truly are.
 
But how can that be? How can sweet little old ladies and lifelong volunteers and upstanding people like Joe Average be compared to . . . filthy rags? Shouldn’t such language be reserved for der Führer? Not if we have the proper benchmark, the proper standard. God does not judge on the curve. On the curve, Joe Average (and, most likely, you and I) looks pretty good. He’s no killer, no adulterer, no criminal. Compared to the riffraff on the end of the scale, he seems deserving of eternal reward, not punishment. But I repeat, God does not judge on the curve. He judges based on Himself, based on His character, based on His holiness. Holiness is a word we use a lot in Christianity, but one I believe we—at least one that I—fall woefully short of understanding. If we truly comprehended God’s holiness, we would stand in awe, for one, and would never question that every human being deserved nothing less than eternal damnation.
 
So what is holiness? Webster defines the word holy thusly: Properly, whole, entire or perfect, in a moral sense. Hence, pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. Applied to the Supreme Being, holy signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character.[3] That’s a good definition, and one that fits God as we look at Scripture, where we see numerous examples of His perfection and purity. For starters, six different times in His Word, God declares, “I am holy.” Scripture says that God is perfect, just, and upright.[4] His laws are holy.[5] Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, God gave commands based on His holiness. The stringent nature of the Mosaic Law pointed to the thorough perfection of God and showed how incapable humans were (and are) of attaining anything close to it. Because of His nature, God cannot tolerate that which is unholy.[6] His holiness speaks for itself.[7] Scripture says, “God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.”[8] We know that no one can see God and live,[9] for He lives in “unapproachable light.”[10] God is so holy that His presence makes ground holy[11] and shakes mountains.[12] Even demons recognize God’s holiness.[13] God will be worshipped as holy for all eternity.[14] And, most remarkably, God imparts His holiness (through the blood of Christ) to the elect![15]
 
This is only a smattering, a tiny sample. There’s no way I can begin to draw an adequate picture of God’s holiness. The most eloquent of poets lack the words to describe it. In his famous message, “That’s my King!” pastor S.M. Lockridge breaks from a lengthy (one might errantly say exhaustive) description of Christ to state, with tongue somewhat in cheek, “I wish I could describe him to you.”[16] In the same way that words are insufficient to accurately describe Christ, they are insufficient to accurately describe God’s holiness. I could spend an entire year writing blog posts on God’s holiness and fail miserably to properly relate to you its depth, its entirety, it’s . . . holiness. The best way we can understand it is to study God’s Word where His holy nature is on continuous display, where His attributes are repeatedly revealed. Take time to meditate on them, on what the passages cited above (and numerous others) are telling us about God. It will be an incomplete understanding to be sure, but will begin to enable us to grasp the Mariana Trench that exists between the human standard of righteousness and God’s.
 
Perhaps then we will start to understand that in comparison to the absolute and total perfection of God, our small misdeeds are damnable offenses. Our pretty good lives are absent of any goodness. Joe Average is Joe Despicable Sinner. Our good works and kind deeds are used tampons. We were made in the image of a holy God and we profane that image every time we sin, every time we disobey, every time we fail to be just as holy. In that light, anything short of eternal hell would be unjust. 
 
When people by a human standard, grade on the curve, or consider themselves to be “good enough,” they are—intentionally or not—thumbing their noses at God’s holiness. More than that, they are effectively saying they do not need Jesus’ sacrifice for them. If being unholy wasn’t bad enough (and it is), they have now also “trampled the Son of God underfoot . . . treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and [have] insulted the Spirit of grace.”[17] What should a holy God do with such people?
 
There’s one more problem with the human standard of judgement, one more way by which we can conclude that hell is indeed a just punishment for all of unrepentant mankind. If it weren’t, why would Jesus have gone to the cross? Christ’s sufferings—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual—are, like God’s holiness, something we can’t fully comprehend. But we can recognize, on at least a human level, the horrors he faced. If we aren’t deserving of hell, why did Jesus have to endure hell to save us?
 
This is the beauty of the gospel, that though we do indeed deserve hell—that is, eternal death—we can have eternal life because “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”[18] If we fail to recognize God’s holiness—and thus our just and rightful destination apart from him—we also fail to recognize the magnitude of that beauty. Paul wrote that “now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; [when completeness comes] we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”[19] The day will come when we will behold God face to face, and then we shall fully comprehend His holiness and fully comprehend the weight of what Christ accomplished at the cross. Until then, as is so often the refrain, we must walk by faith—faith in God’s holiness, in our hopelessness apart from him, and in our righteousness before Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.


[1] Jeremiah 17:9
[2] Isaiah 64:6
[3] American Dictionary of the English Language “holy,” accessed August 8, 2017, http://www.webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/holy
[4] See Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:30
[5] See Psalm 19:7; Romans 7:12
[6] See Joshua 24:19; Psalm 5:4; Habakkuk 1:13
[7] Isaiah 5:16
[8] Psalm 47:8
[9] See Exodus 33:20
[10] I Timothy 6:16
[11] See Exodus 3:5
[12] See Exodus 19:12-18;
[13] See Mark 1:24
[14] See Revelation 4:1-11
[15] See Hebrews 10:10, also the entire book of Ephesians.
[16] Lockridge, S.M. “That’s my King!” Detroit. 1976. Sermon.
[17] Hebrews 10:29
[18] II Corinthians 5:21
[19] I Corinthians 13:12

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    I'm an author and the son of a preacher, with a passion for writing and examining the Scriptures. Thus this blog. (Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the NIV)

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