symptoms in a miraculous manner. This is a physical problem which is producing manifestations in the spirit ual and mental realm. God has already provided remedies for this sort of problem in the form of hormone pills or shots and/or tranquilizing pills. There is no reason for God to directly intervene from Heaven with a supernat ural cure. He has already intervened to give doctors the knowledge they need to relieve this physical problem. So, in such a case a doctor could be very helpful. Sometimes also the Christian mental patient, although his illness may be caused by spiritual factors, may develop such severe physical symptoms in association with his mental symptoms that help in the form of physical reme dies is necessary. For instance, the severely agitated pa tient who cannot sleep at all will become even more dis tressed and fatigued if he is not given some form of seda tive to help him get a good night’s sleep. In such a case the kind thing to do is to help him get some physical rest until his condition improves. V. When a person becomes a Christian are all the results of past sins, as well as the sins themselves re moved? The answer is n o . We must realize that God has passed and rigidly enforces a law which says, Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap (see Galatians 6:7-8). Now God promises to everyone salvation from the penalty of sin, deliverance from eternal death in Hell-fire, if he receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour (Rom ans 4:5-8 and 5:1; see also Isaiah 53:5, 63. We are saved from “ wrath” through Christ (Romans 5:9). But only in the future life in Heaven does God prom ise to remove us from the presence of sin. There in Heaven we shall be like Christ, sinless (Romans 8:29; I Corinthi ans 15:52, 53; Philippians 3:21; I John 3:2). Now as long as we have the presence of sin, we will suffer the consequences of sin in the sense that sin brings corruption and disease and trouble in this life on earth. One can see this truth in the formation of bad habits. A man may spend the first forty years of his life as a non- christian man, during which time he develops numerous habits, many of them bad. He may become used to doing
such things as cursing, lying, cheating, and think nothing of them. He may develop a terrible temper. He may be come an alcoholic. Then, when he is forty years old, he is converted to Christianity. Now his position is changed immediately. He was outside God’s family, but now he is inside. He has become a child of God. But what has happened to all his bad habits? He still has them. His practice of sin has not changed. His prac tice begins to change immediately, but this change is a gradual process and it will be years and years before he will have rid himself of all the bad habits he developed and cultivated before he became a Christian. In fact he may not live long enough to completely rid himself of all these bad habits. Some of his bad habits may drop off right away, but others require a struggle to get rid of them. It may take him years to overcome one particular bad habit. Now a bad habit produces a bad act, a sin. He sowed this bad habit and cultivated this particular sin for forty years. Now he is going to reap some fruit from this habit, even though he has become a Christian, because the habit is still there and is giving rise to sin. To get rid of this habit involves a struggle and the power of God. The habit will continue giving rise to sin until it has been eliminated. And, unless that sin is han dled properly, it will damage the soul. Peter warns that “fleshly lusts . . . war against the soul” (I Peter 2:11). This man’s soul has been damaged by sin for forty years. The effects of this damage cannot be erased overnight. By confession (see I John 1:9) he can prevent any fur ther damage until he has gotten rid of this sinful habit. But the damage already done to the soul affects his prac tice and takes time for improvement. David, although he confessed his sin, still had to reap the consequences of his sin of adultery with Bathsheba. God took away David’s son in death. This principle of reaping what you sow is a prominent causative factor in mental illness in the Christian. “W H Y CHR ISTIANS CRACK UP ,” published by Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, $2.50.
Why would God deliberately bring tribulation, perhaps in the form o f a physical or mental illness, into our lives when we are living godly, obedient lives?
MARCH, 1961
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