The Healing Power of God (part 2)
Introduction. When God was forced to curse the earth due to Adam’s sin, all the terrible things that can and do happen, including this terrible pandemic that now faces the world, became possible. Over the years, I have come to believe that the terrible things that can happen in this world are like a mirror’s reflection of what sin has done to our souls after the entrance of sin into the world. The predators in the forest, the parasites, bacteria and viruses that prey on our bodies, along with the forest fires, tornados, hurricanes, and pestilence that disrupt the world, perfectly mirror what sin does to each and every one of us to one degree or another. Yet with all the sickness, death and destruction, God’s grace is also mirrored in the manner in which the creation and our bodies can heal. Last week we discussed the grace of God healing the material creation, today we want to seek the terrible things that have happened to our souls because of sin and how God’s grace gives us the power to heal our own hearts.
Since God is the “Father of our spirits,” each of us received our spirit untainted from the hands of God. (Heb 12:9). Each of us was born with an eternal spirit that is alive, pure and sinless. God told Ezekiel, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.” (Ezek. 18:20). Since it is spiritually impossible for the sin of any father to be counted as guilt to any son, nothing from the past can harm or taint us. Adam’s sin brought the terrible curse that afflicts all that is physical, but it could not taint our own soul with guilt because it came from the hands of our Loving Father at the moment of our conception.
This is why Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit and speaking absolute truth from God, said, “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died.” (Rom. 7:9-10). Sin and its punishment of death did not enter Paul’s life until the day the commandment came. It was only after Paul’s mind and heart had developed enough to be conscious of God’s commands that sin could enter. It began just as James revealed, “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (Jas. 1:14-15). Paul was “drawn away by his own lusts and enticed,” then “sin was born,” and finally Paul died. We have all died as Paul and Adam. Each one passed from spiritual life into spiritual sickness and death.
The death Paul died when sin came alive and the death that Adam died in the day he ate of the forbidden fruit are the same death. This is exactly what Paul told the Romans: “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death passed to all men, because all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12). This death cannot pass to all men before they sin. As Paul and Adam, all were “alive apart from the law” until “sin came alive.” Thus “God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes.” (Eccl. 7:29).
After our spiritual death when sin came alive, the terrible consequences of sin in our heart began. Emotions of guilt, sorrow and remorse began their work. Some ultimately have their “conscience seared with a hot iron.” Others become depressed and despondent, having all the joy of life crushed from their soul. When we compare the consequences of sin entering our heart with sin entering the world, they parallel and mirror each other.
Thus “Satan is like a roaring lion” and we are told to “beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Our tongue is “like a razor” and “the poison of asps” is under our lips. False teachers are like “grievous wolves” and their message will “spread like cancer or gangrene.” Those who eat the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner are “weak or sick.” God sends a famine, “Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord.” Parasites and bacteria and the sickness they cause are a perfect parable for the terrible illnesses to our soul from sin. The ravages of animals in the forest became the perfect illustration of what Satan and his ministers are doing both to souls of men and to churches they attend. The pollution that comes from an oil spill or the death left behind by a forest fire can be used to illustrate the effects of sin. “See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire... sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.” (Jas. 3:5-7).
David's glance to Bathsheba’s rooftop as she bathed presented a “forest fire” in his heart and soul. (2Sam. 11). As his mind burned with lust and desire, all in its path was destroyed. All his good intentions and even his love for God were overwhelmed and snuffed out. Though he soon learned she was the wife of another man, the pollution was so great that the “man after God’s own heart” knowingly violated two of the ten commandments (don’t covet neighbor’s wife, don’t commit adultery) and took her.
After the sin, instead of regeneration and healing, the contamination continued to build. When he learned of her pregnancy, he sought to hide the sin by bringing her husband Uriah home from battle in hypocrisy, playing the part of a friend. After all his evil enticements failed, he sent Uriah back carrying the very letter requesting his death. Truly the moral defilement and destruction of that chance glance into the home of another man’s wife was just like a virus that entered David’s soul and created a grave spiritual illness in his heart. What a smoldering stench of death God must have seen within that heart. (Ps. 51:8-12; 38:4-8).
David later spoke of what happened inside himself after these events. “When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.” (Ps. 32:3-4). Truly sin had devastating affects! It polluted the heart and killed what was good as it took control. The moral defilement of sin within a heart is actually worse than any disaster, illness, or violent attack of a vicious animal.
The love, mercy, and compassion of God led Him to create the same cleansing, healing, and restorative powers for the human heart and soul that He had done for His material creation. This is the power of the gospel today as prophesied: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 36:26-27). Like the rebirth of a forest after a fire, so God gave the power of rebirth to our hearts and emotions through the power of redemption purchased by Jesus on the cross.
A polluted stream illustrates this perfectly. God designed rain and snow to gradually cleanse, dilute, and move the poison out to sea. The more time passes, the cleaner and purer the stream becomes. God has done exactly the same thing for our heart! “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn. 1:7-9). After sin, the moral pollution is far worse than any pollution in a stream. As David cried out with his heart polluted by sin, “my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” But when David “acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” As time passed, this forgiveness worked like the rain and snow and gradually cleansed and freed his heart. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. ... Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” (Ps 51:10-12)
This is the difference between a heart that has a cleansing stream of repentance, confession and forgiveness flowing through it and a heart that remains polluted! The only way to cleanse defilement from the heart is to admit it is there, acknowledge it to God, and be contrite and brokenhearted about it! “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” (Ps 51:17). In this way, like the rain and snow falling in the mountains and flowing through the stream back to the sea, cleansing and purifying itself, pollution is cleansed.
Conclusion. Those who repent, confess, and feel remorse and contrition as soon as their hearts are defiled will soon feel the joy of salvation again. The cleansing power of Jesus’ blood will wash away all defilement and peace with God will be restored.
Since God is the “Father of our spirits,” each of us received our spirit untainted from the hands of God. (Heb 12:9). Each of us was born with an eternal spirit that is alive, pure and sinless. God told Ezekiel, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.” (Ezek. 18:20). Since it is spiritually impossible for the sin of any father to be counted as guilt to any son, nothing from the past can harm or taint us. Adam’s sin brought the terrible curse that afflicts all that is physical, but it could not taint our own soul with guilt because it came from the hands of our Loving Father at the moment of our conception.
This is why Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit and speaking absolute truth from God, said, “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died.” (Rom. 7:9-10). Sin and its punishment of death did not enter Paul’s life until the day the commandment came. It was only after Paul’s mind and heart had developed enough to be conscious of God’s commands that sin could enter. It began just as James revealed, “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (Jas. 1:14-15). Paul was “drawn away by his own lusts and enticed,” then “sin was born,” and finally Paul died. We have all died as Paul and Adam. Each one passed from spiritual life into spiritual sickness and death.
The death Paul died when sin came alive and the death that Adam died in the day he ate of the forbidden fruit are the same death. This is exactly what Paul told the Romans: “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death passed to all men, because all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12). This death cannot pass to all men before they sin. As Paul and Adam, all were “alive apart from the law” until “sin came alive.” Thus “God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes.” (Eccl. 7:29).
After our spiritual death when sin came alive, the terrible consequences of sin in our heart began. Emotions of guilt, sorrow and remorse began their work. Some ultimately have their “conscience seared with a hot iron.” Others become depressed and despondent, having all the joy of life crushed from their soul. When we compare the consequences of sin entering our heart with sin entering the world, they parallel and mirror each other.
Thus “Satan is like a roaring lion” and we are told to “beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Our tongue is “like a razor” and “the poison of asps” is under our lips. False teachers are like “grievous wolves” and their message will “spread like cancer or gangrene.” Those who eat the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner are “weak or sick.” God sends a famine, “Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord.” Parasites and bacteria and the sickness they cause are a perfect parable for the terrible illnesses to our soul from sin. The ravages of animals in the forest became the perfect illustration of what Satan and his ministers are doing both to souls of men and to churches they attend. The pollution that comes from an oil spill or the death left behind by a forest fire can be used to illustrate the effects of sin. “See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire... sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.” (Jas. 3:5-7).
David's glance to Bathsheba’s rooftop as she bathed presented a “forest fire” in his heart and soul. (2Sam. 11). As his mind burned with lust and desire, all in its path was destroyed. All his good intentions and even his love for God were overwhelmed and snuffed out. Though he soon learned she was the wife of another man, the pollution was so great that the “man after God’s own heart” knowingly violated two of the ten commandments (don’t covet neighbor’s wife, don’t commit adultery) and took her.
After the sin, instead of regeneration and healing, the contamination continued to build. When he learned of her pregnancy, he sought to hide the sin by bringing her husband Uriah home from battle in hypocrisy, playing the part of a friend. After all his evil enticements failed, he sent Uriah back carrying the very letter requesting his death. Truly the moral defilement and destruction of that chance glance into the home of another man’s wife was just like a virus that entered David’s soul and created a grave spiritual illness in his heart. What a smoldering stench of death God must have seen within that heart. (Ps. 51:8-12; 38:4-8).
David later spoke of what happened inside himself after these events. “When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.” (Ps. 32:3-4). Truly sin had devastating affects! It polluted the heart and killed what was good as it took control. The moral defilement of sin within a heart is actually worse than any disaster, illness, or violent attack of a vicious animal.
The love, mercy, and compassion of God led Him to create the same cleansing, healing, and restorative powers for the human heart and soul that He had done for His material creation. This is the power of the gospel today as prophesied: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 36:26-27). Like the rebirth of a forest after a fire, so God gave the power of rebirth to our hearts and emotions through the power of redemption purchased by Jesus on the cross.
A polluted stream illustrates this perfectly. God designed rain and snow to gradually cleanse, dilute, and move the poison out to sea. The more time passes, the cleaner and purer the stream becomes. God has done exactly the same thing for our heart! “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn. 1:7-9). After sin, the moral pollution is far worse than any pollution in a stream. As David cried out with his heart polluted by sin, “my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” But when David “acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” As time passed, this forgiveness worked like the rain and snow and gradually cleansed and freed his heart. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. ... Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” (Ps 51:10-12)
This is the difference between a heart that has a cleansing stream of repentance, confession and forgiveness flowing through it and a heart that remains polluted! The only way to cleanse defilement from the heart is to admit it is there, acknowledge it to God, and be contrite and brokenhearted about it! “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” (Ps 51:17). In this way, like the rain and snow falling in the mountains and flowing through the stream back to the sea, cleansing and purifying itself, pollution is cleansed.
Conclusion. Those who repent, confess, and feel remorse and contrition as soon as their hearts are defiled will soon feel the joy of salvation again. The cleansing power of Jesus’ blood will wash away all defilement and peace with God will be restored.