We All Suffer From This Disease

As an American people, we are preoccupied with physical and emotional healing—and for good reason! It’s not just our perception that disease is on the rise. Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer are growing at alarming rates.[1], [2], [3]

The privilege of living out our days free from catastrophic illness is becoming less and less of a reality.

Ironically, there’s a different type of disease among us that is even more prevalent and deadly than those listed above. No matter who we are; no matter what our ethnic background is; no matter what genes we inherited; no matter what life choices we’ve made, we all suffer from this disease.

Many of us may not know we have the disease. For many, this disease is even subtler than high blood pressure (the silent killer). Others of us may recognize that we have the disease, but we choose to live in denial or we shove it to the recesses of our minds for a variety of reasons.

Symptoms of Spiritual Disease

This different kind of disease about which I’m speaking manifests itself openly. Its symptoms include:

• Pride and arrogance
• Strife
• Self-centeredness and preoccupation with self
• Anger and other toxic behaviors
• Destructive addictions of all kinds
• Lying and cheating
• Hatred and refusal to forgive
• Ungratefulness

“The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.”[4]

Why We Need Healing

We all inherited this spiritual disease at birth and live with its chronic effects. This spiritual disease is also highly infectious and spreads to an ever-increasing degree if left untreated. This disease affects our entire life all the time. In fact, its impact is so profound and pervasive that its healing must take precedence over any physical ailment.

Requires A Different Kind of Healing

This different kind of disease also requires a different kind of treatment. We often mention the fact that pharmaceutical drugs only deal with the symptoms and not with the root cause of a physical illness.

In the same way, our “synthetic” human endeavors and religious activities, while often good, don’t address the core issue, but only its symptoms.

In order to remedy this spiritual disease, we need a thorough purging—a cleansing, combined with restorative power.

Our disease is nothing less than sin—going our own way—rebellion against God. We all claim to be “good” people, but by whose standards? We can’t just compare our health with the person next to us and declare ourselves well because we’re not as “sick” as they are.

With diabetes, we cannot say that we’re slightly diabetic. Either we are or we aren’t. The same is true with sin. Whether we’ve sinned a little or a lot, we’re hopelessly infected.

By now, I’m sure I’m losing some of my readers. It’s the same when the doctor tells us we have cancer, or type 2 diabetes. We immediately resort to denial. “Doc, you must be mistaken. I eat right. I take care of myself. I can’t have that disease!”
Denial is a normal initial coping response, but we eventually need to accept the truth and deal with our disease. The same is true with our sin disease. Owning up to our sin and our need for healing is often a first step.We desperately need an antidote. We need to cleanse the infection from our lives. We need God’s forgiveness and restorative power. This is not a disease we can beat with right living, we require God’s intervention.

Fortunately, God loves us so much that he did intervene. He initiated a remedy—the only remedy—for this disease:

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[5]

What is God’s prescription? How do we apply this antidote? The Apostle Peter explained,

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”[6]

To “repent” means to do a 180—to turn from our sins and follow Christ instead. Baptism is a public declaration that we purpose to follow Jesus Christ. Jesus died for our sins. He paid the penalty so that we might live. He forgives us and places us in righteous standing before God the Father. And as a seal of his

work in us he gives us his Holy Spirit who lives in us and teaches us to follow him and turn from sin.

You can be freed from this dread disease today simply by trusting Christ. I am a recovering sinner. I am trusting Christ to cleanse me and forgive me. I’ve followed him now for over 50 years and I wouldn’t live any other way!

Don’t live with this disease another day. Accept God’s remedy today.

 

[1] American Diabetes Association, “Statistics about Diabetes,” 2014,http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/.
[2] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “High Blood Pressure Facts,” 2014,http://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/facts.htm.
[3] American Cancer Society, “Cancer Facts & Figures 2014,” 2014,http://www.cancer.org/research/cancerfactsstatistics/cancerfactsfigures2014/.
[4] Isaiah 1:5, English Standard Version, Crossway Bibles, 2007.
[5] Romans 5:6-8, English Standard Version, Crossway Bibles, 2007.
[6] Acts 2:38, English Standard Version, Crossway Bibles, 2007.