AL: Joni, I know you’ve studied a lot about why it is God doesn’t always heal people in your condition.
JONI: You’re right, I have, Al. And I can’t tell you how many Christians I’ve met who believe that when the Bible says, “with his stripes we are healed,” that, well, hey, they believe we should be healed! Right now. In this moment.
AL: Well, what do you say to them then?
JONI: Okay, bear with me. Because we’ve got to go back to the Garden of Eden and recognize that, yes, it is true that disease flows from the curse which God pronounced on us after Adam’s sin.
AL: And I'll add that it is also true that Jesus came to reverse this curse, right?
JONI: Yes, He did, definitely. But does this mean Christians shouldn’t have to put up with cancer or Down syndrome or Lyme disease or Alzheimer’s? We would like to think that since Jesus came to take up our diseases, that there should be healing right now for everything from migraines to menopausal sweats. But when we think that way, it’s akin to saying: “There’s an oak tree in every single acorn so take this acorn and start sawing planks for picnic tables.”
AL: Okay, I think I see. It’s a matter of God's timing.
JONI: You got it. Jesus came to reverse the curse, no doubt about it. But did it happen all at once? I mean, that would be like saying that I shouldn’t be in this wheelchair. It would be like saying, “Congress just passed a Clean Water Act, so tomorrow morning Manhattan residents can start drinking from the East River.”
AL: I get it, I see your point, Joni, about healing.
JONI: Right. It’s about timing. Forty years will pass before that little acorn becomes oak that is ready for lumbering. Purging industrial ooze out of a river will take decades. And so it is with Jesus’ reversal of sin’s curse (and the suffering that goes with it).What Jesus began doing to sin and its results back at the cross won’t be complete until the Second Coming. The purchase of salvation was complete and the outcome was settled with certainty. But the application of salvation to God's people was anything but finished. God “has saved” us, yet we are still “being saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18). We are still on earth and this means we’re still going to feel the influence of that old curse. At least for a little while until heaven!
AL: I like your lesson, Joni. And it reminds me of 1 Corinthians 15:45 where it says that Jesus is “the last Adam” who came to undo the curse triggered in the Garden of Eden… the curse that men would die, that childbirth would be hard, that sweat from men’s labor would be hard, and that there would be weeds. And friend listening today, this summer you’ll still be wrestling with weeds in your backyard, as well as a backache from all that hoeing.
JONI: And unless Jesus comes back, I'll most likely still be in this wheelchair. When it comes to that curse, I'm with Revelation 22. Only in Paradise will it be said, “No longer will there be any curse.”
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