March 12
Christ’s Redemptive Work and
Demons and Sickness
When
the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils:
and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself
took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses (Matt. 8:16-17)
For over a century now there has been quite a bit of
controversy over what has been referred to as “healing in the atonement” or
“healing in the redemptive work of Christ”.
If healing is one of the benefits of Christ’s death, burial, and
resurrection then, naturally, one is just as guaranteed to receive healing if
they believe it as they would salvation from sin.
Sadly, many in the body of Christ have difficulty
with this truth. Some of it is due to their experiences of seeing others who
claimed to believe it but died from sickness. Others have simply seen good
Christians die horrible deaths from sickness and have felt that if anyone should have been healed, it should have
been that person.
One of the things that keep so many from receiving
all of the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work is the failure to remember what
we have actually been redeemed from. If we simply believe that Christ’s work of
redemption was meant only to appease God’s wrath and keep Him from destroying
all of us, we will see no other benefit in it other than to make it into Heaven
when we die.
On the other hand, if we see it as the Father
rescuing us from Satan’s kingdom of darkness, death, and destruction, which the
Bible teaches, then we will begin to take a different perspective on healing in
the atonement (Eph. 2:1-6; Col. 1:12-14; 2:15-16; Heb. 2:14-15). In His
redemptive work Jesus also came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).
In Matt. 8:16-17 we find that sickness is connected to the work of demons, who
are ruled by Satan. Matthew, quoting Isaiah, says that it is through Christ’s
redemption that He was able to heal from sickness and cast out demons.
Healing and deliverance is Christ’s way of
destroying the works of Satan and setting us free from them. Christ came to
earth on a rescue mission. Part of that rescue mission meant giving up His life
for us. The other part was rising again and ascending to Heaven in order to be
sure that His will is carried out. Sickness is the work of demons, but the work
of Christ in His redemption is to set us free from them. Let us claim the
benefits.
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