REDEEMED FROM THE CURSE OF SICKNESS

“CHRIST has REDEEMED from the CURSE of the law, having become a curse for us…” – Galatians 3:13a

Believers in Christ have been REDEEMED from the CURSE of SICKNESS: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal.3:13-14). In the Bible, diseases and sicknesses are considered as curses, not blessings. Among the list of curses in Deuteronomy 28: 21-61 are: diseases, plagues, fever, inflammation, severe burning fever, scorching, boils, tumors, and scabs. The good news is that Jesus died in our place and redeemed us from the curse!

Christ has redeemed us from the CURSE of sickness; and delivers us from the CAUSES as well. Medical Science has long struggled with the aetiology or causation of diseases and sicknesses. Are diseases caused by viruses and bacteria, genetics, environment or God? What is clear is that sickness is real in this warped world! Virtually everyone sooner or later faces an illness or another. Some are quickly healed, others take longer and others never get healed. The Bible is the true source to discovering and understanding the origin and cause of sickness.

God’s original goal for humanity was to have and exercise dominion on Earth (Gen.1:26). Man was created in God’s Image and likeness, which could not have been subject to sickness! God evaluated and concluded that all He had made “was very good” (Gen.1:31). That could not have included sickness. God went further to give the first couple directions on the kind of nourishing food to eat (Gen 1:29-30). Disease and sicknesses were not part of His deal for humanity at creation!

The Origin of sickness is traceable to Sin in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2: 16-17 states God’s divine command and how sickness and death were the possible consequences of sin. Although Adam and Eve didn’t die immediately, the instant penalties of sin were a complete separation from the tree of life and banishment from Eden, so that they’ll not live forever in sin (Gen.3:22-24). With death at work in them, they eventually died physically. Spiritual death came first: man became afraid and ashamed to meet God in Person (Gen.3:10). Physical degeneration and death came next, which God Himself declared: "Till you return to the ground, for of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen.3:19b).

Through sin’s entry, humankind became subject to diseases, sickness, degeneration, and the aging process (Rom.5:12). Sickness is not necessarily the consequence of a particular sin that a person committed, but of Adam's and Eve's original sin and separation from God. That’s why Jesus connected His ability to forgive to His ability to heal the sick (Mk.2:5, 10-12). He is as much against sin as He is against sickness! Sickness is not from God, but from the devil! Job’s account shows that although God allows diseases and sicknesses on earth, the source is not God, but the devil (Job 2:7-8). Sicknesses were and are still caused by the devil, hence, Jesus was anointed to heal “all who were oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38).

In Luke 4:35, Jesus rebuked a demon, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” – It did. A few verses later Jesus met Simon Peter’s mother-in-law with a terrible fever; He “rebuked the fever, and it left her” (Lk.4:39). Jesus rebuked devils and fevers! We do not rebuke a lifeless thing. Jesus spoke to the fever the same way He spoke to demons. The inference: While all illnesses are not caused by demons, a demon can be at the source of sickness. We can rebuke the power behind illnesses!

Jesus consistently connected sicknesses and the satanic world. He set the afflicted free from bondages of spirits of sickness (Mt.9:33; Lk.11-16). The devil is the culprit and the thief, who sends sickness to steal health away, kill joy and destroy destinies; but Jesus declared: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may it more abundantly” (Jh.10:10b).