Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us… (Gal. 3:13)Is sickness a blessing or a curse? God’s Word declares it is a curse. Some people have you believe God “blesses” His children with sickness and disease. (If He does, I would prefer to let someone else have that “blessing”) But, according to God’s Word, sickness is a curse, and health is a blessing!
Disease is broken ease. Sickness is pain and suffering. It makes slaves of family and friends who must care for sick loved ones. Disease and sickness are enemies of mankind. Sickness is a thief and a robber. It has robbed many a young mother of her health, beauty, and joy. It has robbed her husband of his wife, and has deprived her children of their mother, for she is no longer able to fulfill the duties of a wife and mother.
Disease had robbed many young men, coming upon them in the midst of young manhood, filling them with anxiety and fear, robbing them of faith. Sickness and disease rob people of happiness, health, and money with is needed for other things.
Sickness: Is It God’s Will?
Sickness and disease are not the will of God for His people. He does not want a curse to be upon His children because of their disobedience; He wants to bless them with health. “Oh, yes” some people have said to me, “I believe God was Israel’s Healer under the Old Covenant, and He wanted the children of Israel to have health, but we’re not living under that covenant.”
That’s true. But if the Old Covenant provided for healing and the New Covenant (or Testament) does not, I wonder if the New Covenant is as good as the old? Thank God, the Bible says that the New Covenant is better: “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also mediator of a BETTER covenant, which was established on BETTER promises. (Heb. 8:6)
Let me remind you that our text is from the New Testament: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us… (Gal.3:13)
It is not the will of God that we be sick. In Bible days, it was not God’s will for the children of Israel to be sick, and they were God’s servants. Today, we are God’s children. If it was not His will for even His servants to be sick, it could not be His will for His children to be sick! Sickness and disease are not of love. God is love.
In Luke 13, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. A woman came in who was bent over. She could have had arthritis or something of that nature, because her body was bent in a stationary position. Jesus called her to Him and said, “…Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity” (v. 12)
When the ruler of the synagogue became angry because Christ healed the sick woman, Jesus said, “Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed form this bond on the sabbath day?” (v. 16) Jesus said it was Satan who had bound this woman.
In preaching to Cornelius’ household, Peter said in Acts 10:38, “How 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.” This scripture makes it clear that the people Jesus healed were oppressed of the devil.
Some people today would have you believe that God sends sickness upon people to bless them. They’ll tell you, “Stay away form those meetings where they pray for the sick to be healed. That’s of the devil.” If they are right, then God and the devil must have swapped jobs lately! Two thousand years ago, Satan was oppressing people and Jesus was healing them.
The Bible tells us, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8). Jesus never changes! From the beginning to the end of His public ministry. Christ was combating Satan. His battle was not with men, but with demons who indwelt men. Don’t ever tell anyone sickness is the will of God for us. It isn’t! Healing and health are the will of God for mankind. If sickness were the will of God, heaven would be filled with sickness and disease.
Remember, Jesus in His earth walk was the will of God in action. He came to unveil the Father to us. He is the Word of God. He is God speaking to us. (See John 1:14; Heb. 1:1,2) If you want to know what God thinks about sickness, look at Jesus! He went about healing the sick!
Isaiah 53:4,5 – 4 Surely, He has borne our griefs (sicknesses), And carried our sorrows (diseases); Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Matthew quotes a portion of these scriptures: Matthew 8:17 – “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.” The Holy Spirit, looking back at Calvary, wrote in the past tense through Peter: 1 Peter 2:24 – “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed.”
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications