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the believer would still have no “right to claim” length of days and freedom from sickness now. We are distinctly told in Rom. 8 :23 that we “ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we our selves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” This text makes it absolutely clear that, so far at least as the body is con cerned, the full fruit of redemption is not now in our possession, but is something for which we wait. At the coming of the Lord, and not until then, the full result of redemption will be enjoyed. In the meanwhile we cannot “claim” physical healing as our “redemption right” now, any more than the departed saints can claim resurrection bodies as their redemption right now; for, until the com ing of the Lord, we wait for the redemption of the body. T he P rayer of F aith Of course, there are many cases in which the Lord, in His gracious wisdom, does even now grant healing in response to “the prayer of faith;” but that is very different from claiming healing as one of our present redemption rights. The infirmities and illnesses from which the people of God sometimes suffer, while they are still in “the body of humiliation,” may be divided into two principal classes. There are (1) sicknesses which spring from natural causes, and which often have no apparent moral or spir itual design; and there are ( 2 ) sicknesses which are sent for spiritual reasons, and which, even when they are tracer able to some simple natural cause, clearly teach some specific lesson. Note: “Concerning Sick Saints” is the title of a valu able booklet just issued by Mr. Cole, dealing with the sickness question thoroughly. The price is 15c. Heart Religion Midst all the contentions, opinions and strife, Concerning repentance, salvation and life, That ring from the pulpit and teem from the press, There’s this consolation—we’re not left to guess ; For Jesus assures us in language quite plain We cannot be saved unless born again. The work of a creature, however he live, A fitness for heaven no sinner can give ; The heart iriust be changed, the mind be renewed, And needs made apparent that God must supply. For the mind may be moved, the man be reformed, The head may be right, but thé heart may be wrong. •No change is sufficient but that of the heart To cause the transgressor from sin to depart. The tears of an Esau, the prayers of a Saul, The repentance of Judas, doth very short fall. A Gain may be sorry, a Pharaoh confess, And all this arise from the work of the flesh; But regeneration cuts open thé heart, Dissecting the sinner in every part, And raises him up to the image of God, To show forth the praises of Jesus the Lord. An appetite given for heavenly food, Desires implanted that never can die,
faulty before he was saved still needs to wear spectacles; the man who was crippled before he trusted the Saviour remains a cripple even when his body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19) ; and this applies, as we all know from our own observations, to all kinds of infirm ities, illnesses and imperfections. The Lord could remove them, each and all, at the moment of the new birth, but He does not do so. It is very true that the believer has been “bought with a price.” It is also true that the Lord’s present purpose for the believer’s body is a very wonderful one—for that purpose includes its possession as a sanctuary by the Lord, its presentation as a sacrifice to the Lord, and its perform ance of service for the Lord (1 Cor. 6:19, 20; Rom. 12:1 and 6:13). It may, therefore, seem strange to some that, for the accomplishment of that present purpose, the Lord does not remove all physical imperfections, and make the believer’s body free from all infirmity and immune from infection and illness. But the Lord, in His infinite wis dom, does not so change the old body when He gives the new life; and one reason for this is, doubtless, that He has lessons to teach which can best be learned through the very imperfections and limitations of the mortal body. Perfection of body is not the Lord’s present purpose f or His people, but soon this will be changed. P hysical P erfection F uture Although the Lord did not give us perfect bodies at the moment of our new birth, and although it is not His present purpose thus to change them, yet He has promised to do so at a future moment. Every believer has the, defi nite assurance of the Word of God that,$fn God’s good time, he will possess a perfect body. The “mortal” will put on immortality. The body in which we “groan, being burdened,” the “outward man” which is perishing (decay ing), the “body of humiliation,” will be changed and fash ioned like unto the Lord’s body of glory—“We shall all be changed in a moment” and then “we shall be like Him.” (1 Cor. 15:51-53; 2 Cor. 4:16, 5:4; Phil. 3:21; 1 Jno. 3 :2). This change is. certain, but it is future; it will take place at the coming of the Lord. His purpose for the believer’s body is that it shall be free from infirmity, free from illness, free from imperfec tion, and that it shall be an immortal and incorruptible body; this is indeed His purpose, but it is not His purpose for the present. The believer cannot “claim” it now, for it is nowhere promised for this present time; but he can, and should, rest assured that he will have such a body when the Lord comes, and for that coming he can, and should pray: “Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” H ealing and A tonement It is frequently argued that the Lord atoned for sick ness as well as for sins (the argument being based on the supposition that Isa. 53:4 and Matt. 8:17, both refer to atonement for physical infirmities and illnesses) ; and that, therefore, freedom from sickness should be ours now quite as much as forgiveness of sins. It is said that, as the Lord redeemed the body as well as the soul, the be liever may, indeed should, “claim” to be freed from sick ness now. It is also argued that the believer should live to a good old age and that his death should not be brought about through sickness. But even if this interpretation of Matt. 8:17 were not incorrect (and it has been well said by Mr. Rowland V. Bingham in “The Bible and the Body,” that “there is just the difference between bearing our sicknesses and bearing our sins that there is between Capernaum arid Calvary” )
— D. B. Cromwell.
March 12, 1873.
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