God uses sickness as a weapon against his enemies. This occurs most notably in wars in which he stood up for his people and fought for them. For example, some of the plagues against Egypt involved diseases. Later he included sickness in the curse of the law, and he reminded the people of the diseases he released in Egypt (Deuteronomy 28:21-22, 27-28, 35, 58-60). He listed things like fever, tumors, skin disease, mental illness, blindness, afflictions in the limbs, chronic illnesses, and so on. And he added, “The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed” (v. 61). Thus the curse of the law included every disease. But Paul said, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree'” (Galatians 3:13). Therefore, Christ has redeemed us from every disease. The Christian has been redeemed from cancer, arthritis, blindness, mental illness, and every disease whether it is listed or not listed in the Bible. This is gospel. This is good news to those who believe.
Of course theologians wish to spiritualize this, so that they could sidestep it altogether. They complain that uneducated believers allegorize the Bible, but the theologians are the worst offenders. These would be some of the same scholars who declare that Christians must not distinguish between the spiritual and the physical, the sacred and the secular, that God is for all of life. Stupid hypocrites. To obscure their unbelief, they would spiritualize redemption. But Paul said that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law, and there is no way to spiritualize the entire curse of the law when God referred to poverty, hunger, warfare, and the same plagues that he sent upon Egypt. God did not spiritually or figuratively destroy Egypt — the plagues were physical. The curse of the law did not refer to spiritual fever, mystical tumors, metaphorical skin disease, virtual joint afflictions — no, they were physical diseases. And Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law — yeah, THAT curse. So Christ redeemed us from physical diseases. Why doesn’t every Christian experience complete healing? Paul added that the blessing of Abraham is received by faith (Galatians 3:14).
Self-righteous religionists ordain themselves to police the Christian world, claiming that people cater to itching ears and fail to preach the gospel. But do they preach this? Do they preach that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, and that the curse of the law included every disease, whether listed or not listed in the Bible? If they do, then let us join together and preach this gospel of healing, the good news that Christ has set us free from every disease, that we are no longer under the power of sickness. But if they do not preach this, then they do not preach the gospel, and they have no right to criticize other people. In fact, they have no right to address believers at all, let alone hold degrees and positions among them. If they preach against this, then they are outright anti-gospel, and anti-Christ. Rather than revered as teachers and defenders of the faith, they must be shamed and condemned, even excommunicated. If God uses sickness at all, he would use it against people like them, so that their false doctrine would be fulfilled in their own bodies.
Speaking of people like them, God also uses sickness as judgment against those who desecrate the gospel and commit perverse sins. In some instances, he would wipe out thousands of his own people due to their idolatry and immorality. Paul said that some of the Corinthians were weak, sick, and dead, not because God showered them with the “gift” of sickness — we have noted that it is a curse — but because they had desecrated the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:30). Jesus healed a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Then he said, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” (John 5:14). We are not told about the nature of his sin, and whether Jesus was speaking from the perspective of God’s judgment against him or of sin opening the door for Satan to inflict him with sickness. Nevertheless, Jesus associated his sickness with his sin, suggesting that the man would not have become sick and would not become sick again if he had stopped sinning. This is something that preachers and theologians often refuse to acknowledge. Even if they admit that sickness is sometimes the result of sin, they still refuse to acknowledge that repentance ought to bring miraculous healing, and that living in faith and righteousness ought to prevent the recurrence of the sickness. This is also a repudiation of the doctrine and ministry of Jesus Christ.
Once Jesus came across a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:1-3). You exclaim, “See! See! Sickness for the glory of God.” No. No. HEALING for the glory of God. Jesus said that the work of God would be displayed in the man’s life, and the work of God was miraculous healing of the blindness: “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see” (v. 25). The man was moved to faith in Christ as a result: “Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him” (v. 38). The work of God Jesus talked about was healing, and only healing. And this healing brought glory to God. In contrast, when preachers and theologians relate sickness to the glory of God, they refer to the sickness itself, how the man endured it, or how he supposedly benefited from it, rather than a miracle healing. This is a perversion and a rejection of the gospel.
We realize that death and sickness originated in the sin of Adam, and this text reminds us that not every instance of sickness is a result of a person’s own sin. But it also reminds us that if there is no sin in the way, then the person ought to receive healing, and the work of God displayed in his life. Even if there is sin, the person can repent, and then the work of God will also be displayed in his life, in both forgiveness and healing: “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (James 5:15). There is no excuse not to get healed.
People say, “What about Job?” Well, what about Job? Do you think your preachers and theologians know a lot about him? Tell me, did he have a covenant with God? If he did, what were the terms of the contract? Did it grant him immunity from Satan? Did it promise him healing? If he did not have such a contract, then he was vulnerable. Even then, God had sovereignly blessed him and placed a wall of protection around him before he was afflicted, possibly apart from any promise or covenant (Job 1:10). We know that it was Satan who made him sick. We know that although Job was better than his friends, God still said to him, “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him! Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?” (Job 38:1-2, 40:1-2, 8). And Job replied, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (42:3).
Did Job have a covenant? Did he have the covenant of Abraham, or one like it? With Job, God said that the man was faithful but ignorant. But with Abraham, God said that he would not do anything unless he talked it over with his covenant friend (Genesis 18:17, Psalm 25:14, Amos 3:7, John 15:15, James 2:23). What I know is that Abraham had a covenant with God. What I know is that Jesus called sickness satanic bondage, and that someone who has inherited the contract of Abraham ought to be released from it (Luke 13:16). What I know is that Peter called sickness satanic oppression, and that Jesus went about everywhere delivering people from it (Acts 10:38). And I know that “those who believe are children of Abraham,” so that “those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:7, 9). So what about Job? He was an example of patience, and we know that Job was faithful but ignorant, but if he did not have a contract with God, then God did much more for him than he was bound to before Satan attacked him. And we know that after this time of suffering God doubled his wealth, healed him, and gave him long life (Job 42:10-17). This is what we know about Job, one who probably had no contract and no promise from God.
But what about Abraham? Do you know about Abraham? What is your excuse? You still say, “What about him? What about her?” But what about the thousands who received healing? Why do you try to find exceptions, if there are exceptions at all, and why do the exceptions always apply to you? If there are indeed exceptions, would they not by definition statistically almost always apply to someone else, so that they may never happen to you even over three lifetimes? It is because you do not have faith, but you want to justify yourself. Why are you asking about Job or anyone else, when you should be asking about Jesus Christ, who gave us God’s contract with Abraham through faith? Job was probably vulnerable to Satan even though God blessed him anyway before and after his time of suffering. But Jesus said that Abraham’s contract included deliverance from Satan. He even took for granted that Abraham’s contract included healing, as much as the children of a household can expect bread on their table (Matthew 15:26). Why ask about someone else, and why consider possible exceptions, unless you have no part in this covenant, and unless you have not joined yourself to Christ? If exceptions to explicit gospel promises are possible, and if they seem to happen to you, then perhaps you are an exception to salvation by faith. Perhaps you have faith in Christ, and God will still send you to hell to burn you forever. The “gift” of hell for the glory of God. You can have that, but I will have the gift of righteousness and eternal life through faith according to his promise, and healing as well.
Thus the Bible teaches that sickness is a weapon, sickness is a curse, sickness is a judgment, sickness is a consequence of sin, sickness is a satanic bondage, and sickness is a satanic oppression. Even if we, in defiance to Scripture, add that sickness could be a gift from God, how likely is it to be such a gift, when sickness is also all these other things? Surely it cannot be a gift in every instance, so Christians should at least receive miracle healing whenever it is not a gift, which is most of the time. But why did Jesus keep destroying God’s gift everywhere he went, in tens of thousands of people? Why did his disciples do the same? Why did their gospel wipe out this gift of sickness everywhere it was preached? It is because sickness is not a gift, but a curse. The gift is healing, not sickness. If you are hungry and I give you food, then the food is the gift, not the hunger. Why do I need to explain something like this? Am I teaching theology to a goldfish? If sickness results in glory to God, it happens when it provides the setting to display the work of God in the form of miracle healing. If there is no healing from God, then there is no glory to God. There is only a curse, a judgment, bondage, and oppression. Total degradation.
Don’t you see? If sickness comes from Satan, and we have a contract with God that promises immunity and deliverance, then this is good news. The good news is that we are not passive victims and helpless targets to Satan. And don’t you see? If Satan can convince you to just throw your hands up and cry “the will of God!” whenever he does something to you, then you would live as one without a covenant. If Satan can convince you that the covenant offers only “spiritual” benefits — whatever that means — even when he afflicts you in every way he can, and if he can convince you that certain benefits of the covenant have ceased, then again, you would live as one without a covenant. You would live as one who is without God and without hope in this world. The Bible calls sickness a weapon, a curse, a judgment, a consequence, a bondage, and an oppression. Jesus fought it everywhere he went. His disciples fought it everywhere they preached. In contrast, nowadays Christians tend to teach that God could use sickness as a generally beneficial thing, to refine, sanctify, and educate the believer. Even repentance might not clear the way for healing, and faith in his explicit promises might do nothing “unless it is the will of God” (to not break his promise). This is contrary to how the Bible presents the situation. This slaps Jesus right in the face.