Sin & Sickness

Isaiah 33:24 ‘And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”; The people who dwell in it [will be] forgiven [their] iniquity.’

The Bible has several patterns portraying how sin affects our health. In the above rendition, the prophet seems to say that the inhabitant won’t be sick, because he shall be forgiven of his sin. In other words, if their sin isn’t forgiven, they should not expect any good health!

Isaiah, in 53:5 returns again saying, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

You can see that the requirement of our healing was Jesus’ payment for our sin through floggings and whips! The Bible says the wages of sin is death. Sickness is a type of death — death of good health coming in the form of unease, or dis-ease. So, to deal with this wage, one had to bring a sin offering which was an expiation or atonement for the sin.

In other words, instead of God inflicting punishment for the wrong done upon the individual, it’d be transferred upon a sheep (mostly a lamb), and when it’s sacrificed, the wrath of God to punish is quenched having been made complete through the death of the animal.

Fortunately for everyone who comes after Christ’s death, there’s no need to sacrifice more lambs. He was the sufficient lamb that takes away the sin of the world. We have to understand that this lamb was sacrificed once and for all, but, what ‘takes away the sin of the world’ means is; as long as one has believed on Christ, having Him dwell on their inside, God bears the vision of that calvary sacrifice in the present as though it was happening there and then, just like it was 2000 years ago. For to God the past, the present and the future are all ‘NOW’, for He exists out of time. So the tense used by the Bible is ‘present & future continuous’ but Peter revisited Isaiah’s saying and corrected that tense, saying “by His stripes we WERE healed”, concreting the timing of that sacrifice.

Now, referring back to Isaiah’s words, there is always a guilt that comes with sin, and when man is sick, rarely do they think it’s of the enemy. Their minds are inclined more to think that God is punishing them for whatever wrong they did — pretty much like how Miriam received leprosy after badmouthing Moses for having married a non-Jew.

The fault of all this — especially under the new covenant — is that man will feel God is an evil being, and yet He is the most loveable or tolerant. Some have come to settle in sin, having decided that they’ll bear whatsoever punishment. In the verse below Isaiah states that God can save or HEAL for our case. But men’s sin have kept Him from administering the healing:

‘Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden [His] face from you, So that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.’ Isaiah 59:1-3

The bottom line is; sin has to get out of the way because it causes some sicknesses, and hinders — not God from healing — but you, from believing that He can heal you. After Jesus healed a man who had had an infirmity for 38 years, he said, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” (John 5:14)

But is it possible not to sin? Even thinking evil thoughts is already sin.

This leads us to the bottom of the matter: that one has to indeed be made righteous (by faith) so that the mantle of sin ceases to follow him or her. One needs to embrace the perpetual sacrifice of Christ, so that their sin is not on their account anymore. People who have embraced this will not be affected much by disease, because they’ll have been IMMUNIZED against sin which brings along with it disease.

These shall fulfill Isaiah’s words: ‘And the inhabitant will NOT say, “I am sick”; The people who dwell in it [will be] forgiven [their] iniquity.’ (Isaiah 33:24)

Once one has understood the forgiveness of their sin, that’ll be the beginning of God-health. And for those who still think God is punishing them because of what they did, they must either change their mindset and understand that God is not mad at them, or embrace the vaccine (Christ) by allowing him to be injected into them through confessing Him as their Lord and savior, and believing it in their hearts! (If you’re for this case clarify it in the comment section below).

When it’s settled that we are forgiven by God, through Christ, yes even of crimes we haven’t committed yet, not only have we crossed over from darkness to light or been saved from eternal damnation, but also obtained access to a new health identity, reality, nature and atmosphere!

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Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Psalms 91:5-6 You shall not be afraid of the terror of the night, nor of the arrow (the evil plots and slanders of the wicked) that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence (a fatal epidemic disease) that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin (to become our very sin), so that we could be made right with God through Christ.