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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 43. Jesus and Pain.
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Jesus and Pain.
But it has been said that Jesus came to bear our sins, and all of their results; that through His sacrifice not only are our sins forgiven, but our bodies are to be healed, and all sickness and pain to be removed. It is said that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and this has been taken to mean to destroy both sin and all of its results. And all of this is true, blessedly and wondrously true. Yet simply to say that much is not to tell the whole of the truth. There is more to be added to make clear how sweeping Jesus' work is, not only for all the life of a man, but for all men.
The salvation from sin, and all its results, that Jesus came to work out is not completed. It is completed so far as He is concerned, but not so far as the world is concerned. It is complete in His dying and rising, but not in its application. The "finished work of Christ" for the world is finished by Him, but not finished in it. The salvation worked out on the cross is to be worked out among men. Each man's salvation is worked out for him, but not yet fully worked out in him.
The present is a transition period, a long period, it is true, now counted into the twentieth century, yet a transition period, preparing the way for a period of fullness. It is a time of working and waiting and looking forward to something much better. Those who stood closest to Jesus preached (Act_3:21; Rom_8:20-23; I-Corinthians 15:23-26, with Mat_24:14) that He would remain away until His dying for all men had been made known to all men, then He would return to carry out the fullness of His plan of saving men.
Paul says that then Jesus will put down all our enemies including the last—death, the culmination of all. The fullness of our salvation waits upon the spreading of the news of Jesus to all men. Here is a strong inner motive for worldwide evangelization. The carrying out fully of the Master's plan in that will bring to us the fullness of our freeness from sin and all its results.
But, we are reminded, Jesus healed disease when here, and relieved every form of bodily distress. Yes, He did. The Gospel days were sample days of the Kingdom. Jesus had not yet been accepted, and so the Kingdom was not set up. He had not yet been finally rejected, but was wooing the nation, and so He gave illustrations of Kingdom days and of Kingdom power. We live in the Church period. The Church occupies the gap in the Kingdom. When the Church mission is completed the Kingdom will come in, with the Church itself as a part of the larger movement. Healing, removal of pain, is a law for all in the Kingdom; it is a privilege in the Church for those who will accept it; and a gift to be exercised by the very few who can be entrusted with it.