Most Kings when it is time for them to die come to some sort of process where they talk to their successor, son, or one taking over power to give them the crown. Sometimes Kings died on the battlefield, but if not they usually have a noble death, where they are surrounded by family and the King that will be coronated at his death. Jesus death was nothing like a kingly death.
Read John 19 it describes the events of Jesus death on a cross
On the cross... 1. Jesus Experienced Physical Suffering
1.Before Jesus had to even go through his day of torture and crucifixion he stayed up all through the night praying and the Bible says he sweat drops of blood. Bleeding through your sweat glands is A real physical condition called Hematidrosis.
2.He was struck with 40 lashes (minus 1) with a cat of nine tails. With balls wrapped up in leather, and glass, and metal, and small bones to do the most damage to people’s flesh.
3.The Roman soldiers pulled His beard, spit on Him, beat Him with rods, punched Him (While Blindfolded) in the face and asked to prophecy who hit Him.
4.They wrapped together a crown of thorns and pressed it into his head to mock him.
5.He was made to carry his own cross.
6.He was crucified at Golgotha. The details of crucifixion are...He was nailed and probably bound so that you had to press upward with your legs and pull with your arms to even breathe. People usually died of asphyxiation when crucified. We get our English word excruciating (someone who has “excruciating pain”) from the word crucifixion. Crucifixion only existed as corporal Roman punishment for the few years preceding and following Jesus life. It is known to this day as one of the most cruel forms of capital punishment known in human history.
2. Jesus Also Experienced Emotional Suffering
Look at the passage where Jesus was in the garden of gethsemane He was so troubled that his emotional state affected his physical state when he sweat drops of blood. We can see clearly emotional torment from the things that he said on the cross. He had to make arrangements for John to take care of Mary his mother, and His Father in heaven turned His back on His son when he "became sin." Jesus said, "Father why have you forsaken me."
3. Jesus aAlso Experienced Spiritual Suffering
Read Isaiah 53:3-12 which is a prophetic explanation of what Jesus would go through in the future. It is AWESOME!!! The cup of God’s wrath was poured out on Christ. That was the suffering for the sins of the whole world. Think about if Jesus had to spiritually suffer for only our worst sins. He not only suffered spiritually for our worst sins, but ALL our sins.
One of the eyewitnesses a Roman Centurion saw the “way in which he died”, and proclaimed “truly this was the son of God.” This would have been an incredible proclamation for a Roman, because a Roman would have believed that Caesar was the son of God. This is not only a proclamation of Jesus as God, but that Caesar was NOT! Here are a few questions for you this Good Friday for your reflection.
1.When you read about the details of the Crucifixion what do you feel? Love, Mercy, Grace, Hope, Sadness, Fear, Wonder, Thankfulness?
2.What is your response to the fact that, “He bore your sins in his body on the cross?”
3.What is your response that the Romans wrote above his cross, “The King of the Jews?”
Pray and thank God that he has sent His Son for us in our place.
“Dear Lord Jesus, Thanks you so much for your sacrifice in my place. Thank you that you suffered in my place that I could be free, forgiven, and be called a child of God. Jesus, you are so wonderful. I thank you so much for your cross. I fall down before your cross so that you would give me forgiveness and freedom from all my sins past, present, and future. Thank you for your grace, and that you died for me, even though I did not deserve it or earn it. You died for me while I was still a sinner. THANK YOU!!!”
Here is a wonderful song by Matt Papa to illustrate the Wondrous Mystery that happened for you and for me on the cross.
The Immutability
of God: Why God’s Unchanging Nature Matters
By: Richard P
Moore
Kandern, Germany
January, 2018
Maybe it is because I have been feeling the onset of a midlife
crisis, and that things are so rapidly changing around me and I cannot keep up
with stuff like I used to anymore, that I want to address the never changing
nature of God. Maybe it is because so many artists lately have covered the
subject of the immutability of God (see videos below). Maybe it is because I feel myself changing
so much. Even since beginning of this writing this I have changed. That is the
nature of being human. We change! From the moment we are born, we are changing.
Sometimes for better sometimes for worse. I have been intrigued by the
immutability of God probably mostly because I sense the change and tumultuous
upheaval in my life and even soul and spirit. Recently I have felt my spiritual
life changing for the worse. I sense my heart being drawn to the lusts of the
flesh more and more. Comfort breeds complacency and complacency breeds comfort. I am feeling spiritually complacent. That is why I would like to address the immutability of God. I want to break my
heart of this spiritual upheaval in my life, and whenever I have focused on the
character, essence, and person of God I have shaken myself of the trappings and
the sin that so easily entangle. That is my hope in contemplating with fresh
eyes on the nature of a good and immutable God.
God is immutable. That means that he is unchanging. Put
another way God’s nature, essence, and character are all constant. His nature
is unchanging. Nothing about Him has ever changed. From eternity past to
eternity future He will never change. The Westminster confession describes
the immutability of God in this way:
"There is but one only
living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure
spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense,
eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most
absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and
most righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful,
long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity,
transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and
withall most just and terrible in his judgments; hating all sin, and who will
by no means clear the guilty.”[1]
This makes the nature of God
quite clear but let us unpack that a little. He is infinite; never beginning
and never ending in that perfect state. He is uncaused therefore, he needs no one.
This is seen in his own descriptions of himself like that instance when Moses
asks God what his name is. He said, “I am that I am.” This is often referred to
in theological terms as “Aseity” which is a term derived from Latin “As” which
means "from" and “se” which means “self.” Aseity is the property by
which a being exists in and of itself, from itself, or exists as of and from
itself. The bottom line here is that God is self-sufficient. However it is not
like we define self-sufficiency. A baby is not self-sufficient and an adult is. We are not talking about the self-sufficiency of adulthood,
but rather God is of himself and exists outside the necessity or dependence on
anything or anyone. This word also means that God contains within Himself the
cause of Himself, is the first cause, or rather is simply uncaused. He is the
uncaused cause. God is absolutely independent and self-existent.
The Westminster
confession also describes an immutable God that is “working all things
according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will.” This is
so comforting to me right now. I am in such upheaval spiritually with change
and insecurity, but the Lord, the unchanging God in heaven, is working all
these things according to the counsel of His own righteous will. Sometimes, I
have to keep that truth right in front of me so that I do not become
discouraged and lose heart. The pain, hurt, disease, suffering that we see so
often around us He is working and turning to his righteous will! What a hope!
What a relief in those most trying of times. God is most at work in the most
difficult of times, and even turning your situation of suffering to His righteous immutable
purposes (Romans 8:28). Moreover, overwhelming evidence of God’s immutability
or unchanging nature are described in the following verses:
“Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
James
1:17 ESV
We live in a world of shifting shadows. Not just personally,
but in our whole existence there is so much that changes and the shadows of
this world are deceptive. We many times are confused by all that changes in
our lives and worlds. But this verse explains that there is not any variation
due to change with God. Not one shifting shadow has been cast by Him because of
the setting sun in the afternoon sky. It does not matter where the sun hangs in
the sky, he changes not! Not just that he does not change due to circumstance,
but more than that His giving nature is tied in this verse to his immutability!
He gives good gifts and thus is the most unchanging benevolent being in all the
universe!
“"For
I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not
consumed.”
Malachi
3:6 ESV
The prophet Malachi also describes God’s immutability. His
thus saith the Lord is “I do not change” but He goes on to describe the outcome
of His own immutability. Which is that the children of Jacob are not consumed.
Herein, God ties his immutability to his eternal justice. He is a long-suffering and gracious God, thus He has shown kindness to a thousand generations
of those that fear him. He will also display His justice to those who do not
fear Him, and that justice has been exhibited throughout biblical history.
“God
is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his
mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not
fulfill it?”
Numbers
23:19 ESV
God’s immutability is seen here as contrary to the attributes
of man. His immutability is not Anthropomorphic. He is not a man. Thus, He cannot
lie or change His mind. His promises are then also immutable. They stand like an
immovable rock. Like Martin Luther once said, “The mercy of God is like the
immovable Heavens that firmly stay above us. Under this roof, we are safe wherever we
are.” The mercy of God is one promise to those who have placed faith in Him,
but His mercy is also an attribute of His immutable nature that is not
conditional. He is merciful in all His dealings because He is merciful. It is
not the action and extension of mercy that makes Him merciful, but because He
is merciful, He thus extends mercy.
“Paul,
a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of
God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in
hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which
I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;”
Titus
1:1-3 ESV
This passage shows us the unchanging nature of the
truthfulness of God. Again, He does not become truthful because He told the
truth a few times. It is His character thus He must tell the truth for He is truth. Jesus
prayed to the Father in John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is
truth.” He speaks the truth in His word, because He is truth. He is not like
man who has a “eureka!” moment when we finally find the answer or the truth. He
needs no eureka moment to find the answer. He is tho one constantly giving the eureka
moments to us, because He is the eureka we are looking for.
“For
people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an
oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly
to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he
guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is
impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong
encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure
and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place
behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having
become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Hebrews
6:16-20 ESV
His immutability also makes Him the greatest being of the
universe. This is seen in the covenants that he made with man. A covenant is
made against a power or being greater than the one making the covenant so that
the promise can be held out against the one making the covenant. This idea can
be found in a court of law. A person giving testimony will swear to, “tell the
whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.“ After agreeing to tell
the truth that person is “under oath.” What do we swear against when we are
“under oath?” We promise against something greater than us, namely God. Since
there is nothing greater than Himself and His immutability He cannot swear to
anything greater, so He swears against the “unchangeable character of His
purpose.” The writer of Hebrews then points out that God has sworn in a
covenant to us against the two unchanging things, He Himself, and the
unchanging character of His purpose. Accordingly, Jesus has gone into the Holy
place to effectuate the terms of the covenant. In so doing Jesus also confirmed
His immutability as a priest forever in the order of the eternal line of
priesthood seen in the archetype of Melchizedek.
“Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Hebrews
13:8 ESV
Furthermore, the writer of Hebrews
confirms Jesus as that eternal priest that He had previously mentioned. Jesus is
proven here and throughout Hebrews to be God, and the same immutable God that
has been described throughout Scripture. He is the second person of the Triune
Godhead and so He must also have the same qualities and characteristics of the immutable
God. Thus, we can throw ourselves onto his great mercy and grace because He is
the immutable God that we have come to know and trust who has made a way to Himself through His effectual sacrifice. This verse is a direct claim to deity, for only
God is immutable and so this points to Christ as that same immutable God
revealed in the scriptures. The immutability of God means that God will follow
through with judgment. It also means God will follow through with His promise
of salvation. We can know and be sure that God’s certain judgment fell on His
Son, Jesus Christ, and thus by faith in Him, men are saved from their sins and
from God’s unchanging wrath.
What
about the passages of scripture where it appears that God "changes his
mind" or “repents?” I would offer a few arguments as to why God does
not change His mind or ways as we understand change or repentance.
1.The evidence is overwhelming that
God is immutable and does not “change His mind“ or “repent” according to our
understanding. There are only a few instances where God appears to be described
as changing His mind or described as repenting. I tend to think that those
instances are where the writers of scripture are trying to put into the best
language that they have to describe what is happening in God’s dealings with
man.
2.The second explanation that I can
give is that God is being described in those passages of scripture in
Anthropomorphisms. That means that the writers are describing God in terms of
what man would do or using the language of man to describe God. I would argue
that those passages do not mean that God repents as in what we understand
repent to mean in turning from an evil action, or something that we believed to
be wrong, but only that the writers are using anthropomorphic language to
describe God.
3.And thirdly, some of these
“changes of mind” like Adam’s relationship to God, Ninevah, or Moses “changing
God’s mind” in relation to destroying Israel are changes in the orientation or
that standing between God and man. God never changes, but we do and so these
apparent “changes of mind” occur when man changes or His relationship and
repentance toward God change, and that can appear to be God changing His ways
or mind.
I
would like to address some of the characteristics of God’s immutability.
1.
He is eternal. Time does not apply to Him. He was before time began. We might
ask how old is God? That question is not adequate. He is not older than aeons
ago, and no younger than yesterday. He simply is not restricted by the confines
of time as we calculate it. He was, He is, and He will be. also God is timeless
he does not grow or develop. There are no variations in His character due to
change. As James writes, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or
shadow due to change.” (James 1:17)
Shadows change due to the position of the sun in relation to the thing casting
the shadow during the day. If the sun is high in the noon sky the shadows are
not very long. in the late evening right before the setting of the sun the
shadows are long. Shadows are shifty and changing. James uses that analogy as a
contrast to the character of God. God does not shift like shadows! There is no
variation in his character, being, essence, nature, or work according to the
shifting sands of time, or the shadows of the day. He is simply outside time.
Although he is outside time and not bound by its constraints, he is conscious and
aware of our time and is sovereign within human history. He not only knows what
is happening in human history, but orchestrates it as a conductor of a symphony
that stands outside the symphony. The conductor instructs the symphony while
not playing a single note of an instrument. He conducts the whole thing without
being constrained by playing a single instrument. God is not only aware that
certain events occur, but is sovereignly working those events of all of human
history to His glorious plan. He does not get taken by surprise. He has no
contingency plan when something does not go His way.
2.
He never changes and this remains the same as he has eternally existed
3.
He is not like us. We are fickle and change consistently
4.
His character, will, nature, and essence stay the same
5.
Christ’s character also stays the same although he was not man before, He was
always the eternal son. When He took on flesh that did not change His character
or his personhood in any way as the second person of the trinity the eternal
son was, always is, and will always be the eternal son.
6.
The Holy Spirit also has eternally existed and His character never changes. He
works as the Ruhach (Hebrew for Spirit or life force) of God from eternity past
into eternity future.
7.
God the father has also eternally existed and his character stays consistent
throughout all eternity.
8.
He exhibits certain traits simultaneously with the same fervor and zeal
unchangeably, eternally, and equally. He exhibits sovereignty, pureness and
holiness, love and grace, wrath and mercy, glory, supremacy, magnificence,
transcendence, authority, excellence and faithfulness.
He is all seeing: He sees all movements and activity of the
universe and He controls it all at the same time, never losing sight of one
single activity of man or one microscopic detail of the movements that take
place in the universe at any given time. It is all under his all seeing caring,
and all powerful eye.
He is all knowing (omniscient): Jesus said that not a sparrow
can fall to the ground without the Father’s will (Matt 10:29), and even the
hairs of the disciples heads are numbered (verse 30), and before Him no creature
is hidden (Hebrews 4:13).Everything is completely transparent before God. He
knows all truth completely even those things we have not yet discovered,
because He built them into all creation as the great architect. He knows all the possibilities even
when they are infinite; for He is infinitely possible. His knowledge is never
taxed by our infinite list of impossibilities.
He is all powerful (omnipotent): This means that God is able
to do all things which are proper. He is known as El Shaddai. God almighty as He was know to Abraham. God overcomes insurmountable problems with ease as
Jeremiah 32:17 says, “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the
earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for
you.” And in Matthew 19:26 “but with God all things are possible.” His power is
expressed in scripture over nature, as creator, as controller of the course of
history, and the omnipotence to change man’s nature through salvation. God’s
power is also never frustrated. The psalmist writes, “Our God is in the
heavens, He does whatever he pleases.” (115:3) There are limits to His power
however. He cannot do anything that we as humans can imagine. He shall only do
things that are in line with the objects of his power. He cannot do absurd,
illogical, or contradictory things. Like things against His creative order,
against His own holiness, or undoing history, etc.
He is all present (omnipresent): He is present everywhere all at the same time. However that does not mean that He is like some sort of divine
superman darting here and there in creation to give us access to himself across
all of his creation, he simply is present and accessible across the whole of
creation at all times.
9.
God‘s extension of grace then must also be immutable. Charles Spurgeon said it
this way,
"I
do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by
faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His
dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal,
immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel,
unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and
chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a
gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called."
In
Conclusion, it seems rather apparent from insurmountable scriptural evidence
that God is immutable. Why does that matter? I would like to give a few reasons
in conclusion why the immutability of God matters. First, the immutability of
God means that fellowship with God, how man is made right with God, being able
to trust in His word, living by faith as a Christian, are fundamentally the
same realities and truths for us today as they were for Old and New Testament believers.
Since God has not changed, how man is made right with Him also remains the same
throughout the ages. We do not have to guess or uncover some mystic secrets, we
are made right with God by faith as Hebrews 11 and the great men and women of
the faith have showed us for generations. Amidst all the uncertainties of our
current day and age. Political, cultural, social, and economic unrest,
we can know and worship the eternal God by faith, as the saints have done for all
time. Amongst all the tumult in this world God has stayed the same, and how we
approach Him has stayed constant throughout the ages.
Second, God’s immutability means
that the things He says must also be true. This means that His word must have
the same qualities of His immutable character. What does that mean? We can
trust that His word is true, it is accurate, and we can take it as the eternal
message that He wanted to deliver to man. A common trend in preaching and
teaching is to sort of soften the word of God to make it more palatable for the
everyday person. While that is all good, it overlooks the fact that God’s word
is never out of date, never old-fashioned, or irrelevant. What is written is
what we can know that God wanted said to man through the writers of the Old and
New Testaments. Thus, we do not need to make it more palatable or relevant. We
need to strive to make it understandable, but we don’t need to make it more
relevant. It is already relevant, as it has been for ages.
Third, I appreciate the immutability
of God as an assurance to me as a Christian that God will do what He says He will do. In regards to salvation He says He will save me and “remember my sins
no more.” That is of utmost importance to the Christian. He is
constant in uncertain times. His promises of His presence and help are of
highest importance in the life of the everyday Christian. We are called
children of God, a priesthood forever, co-heirs with Christ, and the unchanging
Jesus calls us friends. These positions of our salvation cannot change. What a
comfort. The God of the universe calls us sons and daughters and that cannot
change because He cannot change!
Fourth, God’s immutability is a
great comfort to the Christian in our deepest times of trouble. We can be
assured that He hears us and at any time that we call on Him He is there to
comfort us. One of my favorite psalms is 34:17-18 which says, “When the
righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their
troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
What a promise! I am particularly glad for this promise that God is near to me
in the valley of the shadow of death! It is there that the good shepherd's rod and staff protect
me. That is what is so unique to Christianity. We grow more toward
maturity in the hardship than we do in times of success and prosperity. I have
learned more in the valley of the shadow of death about deepened faith and spiritual
maturity than I have ever learned in the green pastures (Psalm 23). God is most
true in our most trying times of life. These truths altogether about the
unchanging nature of God can carry us in our deepest and darkest times. I am so
glad for an immutable God aren’t you? The following is a spoken word piece that
is a powerful declaration of God’s immutability.
In
the beginning there was the Hero,And the Hero was the Father,And the Hero was the Spirit,And the Hero was the Son,And if this hurts your head already,Welcome to the kingdom.
Immutable,
inscrutable, infinitelyGlad-hearted,
triune perfectionHis
ancient love reverberated off each Member with no hint of dissension,Perfect in unity,Perfect in diversity,Holy Trinity.
[1]Williamson, G. I. 2004. The Westminster Confession of
Faith for Study Classes. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Pub. Page 23
Is Satan the cause, the initiator, the deliverer, the source of illness, disease, sickness, and disability? Short answer NO! Long answer,
complicated theology. Lately, I have been surrounded by this theological
perspective that Satan is the cause of illness, disease, and disability. Our
daughter Ana has Down syndrome. Recently, Simone (my wife) had someone tell her
that our daughter’s Down syndrome was from Satan. This perspective is
incredibly inaccurate, not to mention how pastorally insensitive and hurtful it
is to say. But I’m not going to let anyone say it to me anymore because it is terribly biblically mistaken.
Discussions are happening almost
consistently around me lately about sickness, disability, and illness, and I hear often
this perspective that people believe that Satan is the source of sickness. I
cannot think of one single biblical instance where Satan was the sole cause and
initiator of some kind of illness, sickness, or disability outside of God's sovereign plan. As a matter of
fact, I can only think of three separate instances where Satan was even the one who "gave" an illness in Job’s case, Paul’s thorn in the flesh (messenger of Satan), and Luke 13 a woman who had been crippled for 18 years by Satan. However, in
these cases God allowed those situations to test both Job and Paul, and in Luke 13 the devil was obviously subject to Jesus authority. From these instances we see that God actually is the initiator. God says, “have you
considered my servant Job” when Satan had not even mentioned Job. In Paul’s
case God had also expressed complete control and sovereignty over Paul’s thorn
to prove to Paul that, “my grace is sufficient for you.” and the keep him from "becoming conceited." However, to say or believe that Satan is the source or initiator of sickness is just not true. Satan is very real and active no doubt, but he is NOT sovereign in or over illness, disease, and disability. God clearly holds complete sovereignty over all things including sickness, and even those rare occasions where he allows the devil to torment people through possession, which is different than sickness, He is still in complete control. As we see in Jesus, he comes to earth to show that the kingdom of God is coming, and Satan is losing his grip on this world.
The roots of this view are
undoubtedly from the Word of Faith movement that says that Christ took our
sickness and illness on himself on the cross. This view that Satan is the cause
of sickness is just a natural out working of the Word of Faith Theology. The
Word of Faith view is profoundly flawed and so no wonder this view developed
into such a troubling theology. I would like to propose a few perspectives on
sickness, illness, and disability.
It is incredibly inaccurate to say that God
never causes sickness, illness, and disability
It is also incredibly inaccurate to say that He
only allows sickness, illness, and disability
It is also unbiblical to say that Jesus paid for
your health on the cross. If he had then Christians would not get sick, or die.
It is rather biblical to say that, God in his
infinite sovereign wisdom sometimes allows, causes, and even plans sickness,
illness, and disability for our good and his ultimate glory.
God in his infinite sovereign wisdom also works
many and varied difficulties to his holy and perfect ends. He often works evil
for good (Romans 8:28).
His ultimate goals for us are salvation and
holiness. Health, if given are only secondary blessings.
These theologies furthermore are part of a new movement called the New
Apostolic Reformation I have written a book recently on the subject called
“Divergent Theology” I would like to add a section of that book that speaks to this issue here...
In my time in California, (as a
youth pastor) I was reintroduced to what is now being called the “Third Wave
Movement” or the “New Apostolic Reformation.” From my previous study of the
WOF, it became apparent how these newer movements are a development of that
same deeply flawed teaching. During our time in California, my wife shared her
testimony in a women’s Bible study. She shared about our journey with our daughter
who has Down Syndrome, and during that particular time, a seizure disorder. My
wife during her testimony shared our struggle with Ana during the time of her
devastating seizures. She had something called Infantile Spasms, which is a
seizure disorder that only occurs in infancy, and can be very devastating.
After sharing her heart in this testimony, a woman approached her and gave her
a CD of teaching by Bill Johnson from Bethel Church in Redding, California. The
sermon went something like this: “God is good; cancer is bad; Satan is bad;
thus, Satan is the source of cancer.” While I cannot find that particular sermon
in their sermon archives, this is how I remember what he said. He equated cancer
with the work of the devil and never a work of, or allowed by God.[1]
This would be no surprise if you have any knowledge of the Word of Faith
Movement. Bill Johnson was quoted in an interview as saying, “You can only give
away what you have. Can God give away sickness? No, He’s not sick. You can’t
give cancer if you don’t have it.”[2]
This is extraordinarily inaccurate. Of course, God can
give away sickness, plague, pestilence, disability, or any other ailment He
wishes. He gave leprosy, killed 14,700 people in Korah’s rebellion by a plague
(Numbers 16), killed Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts
5:1–11), He sent instantaneous blindness to Saul (Acts 9:1–9), Elymas the
magician (Acts 13:9–12), and the Syrian army that came against Elisha (2 Kings
6:16-22). He struck Zechariah the priest dumb until his son John the Baptist was born for his unbelief (Luke 1:20). He struck the firstborn dead when the Angel of the Lord passed
over Egypt (Exodus 12). He allowed Job, who was a righteous man, to be struck
by boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet (Job 2). God smote
the evil kings of Israel, and even on occasion freed them of their terrible
judgements. The Lord struck Jeroboam King of Israel and he died (2
Chronicles 13:20). God struck King Jehoram with an incurable bowel disease.
After two years, he became disemboweled because of the disease and he died in
agony (2 Chronicles 21:18- 19). God did that to Him! God likewise afflicted
king Azariah with leprosy until the day he died (2 Chronicles 26:20–21).
These are just a few Old and New Testament instances of how God allowed
or even pronounced illnesses and occasionally even death. When Johnson says,
God can’t give away sickness, he is woefully incorrect. One may say that this
is the age of grace and God would never behave like this anymore. However,
judgement of illness and even death are parsed out like this in the New
Testament often. As the word of God says, “For I the Lord do not change;
therefore you, O Children of Jacob, are not consumed.”[3]
And elsewhere it is written, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever.”[4]Johnson also taught in that same interview:
No. Two
thousand years ago, Jesus made a purchase. He does not decide not to heal
people today. The decision two thousand years ago was to heal. Either the
payment was sufficient for all sin or no sin. Either the payment was sufficient
for all sickness or no sickness ... The brushstroke of God’s redemption
was to wipe out the root of sin, the root of illness and the root of poverty.[5]
This did not surprise me, but it
did once again bring back into my purview how widespread the Word of Faith
Movement had become. Johnson is correct that Jesus sacrifice was truly
sufficient for all sins. That must be true; if there was one sin not
atoned for, then no sins are atoned for. If there is even one sin for which
Jesus did not die, there would be no salvation for anyone. The second
cannot be true. Christ’s sacrifice was not sufficient for all sickness, because
if one sickness is not healed, then He did not die for all sickness. All men
die, many from illnesses of one sort or another. Christians still get sick and
still die. The Bible nowhere says unambiguously that Jesus died to heal
all sickness, it is just not there. If even one single person is not healed, in
this line of reasoning, then the atonement is lacking.
People could certainly become discouraged in the Christian
life if they don’t experience healing for some illness or disability if people
held to this teaching. It can cause needless depression and despair. But there
is something more at stake than discouragement here. When healing doesn’t
happen, people might stop seeing themselves as the problem. They might
stop thinking that the lack is with them. What I have witnessed happen with
individuals involved in these movements, is that they will begin to think that
the lack is with the Word of God. That it isn’t real or true, and even
worse, that Christ’s atonement is also insufficient.
If this was not erroneous and
implausible enough, it gets worse. The deficiency of God not healing is
not on God’s end but rather on our end. Bill Johnson writes on his blog:
How can God
choose not to heal someone when He already purchased their healing? Was His
blood enough for all sin, or just certain sins? Were the stripes He bore only
for certain illnesses, or certain seasons of time? When He bore stripes in
His body, He made a payment for our miracle. He already decided to heal. You
can’t decide not to buy something after you’ve already bought it. There
are no deficiencies on His end — neither the covenant is deficient, nor His
compassion or promises. All lack is on our end of the equation.[6]
Healing is up to God, not up to us. Healing is the sovereign
prerogative of God. Many healings that we would have thought should have taken
place in the Bible do not. 2nd Corinthians 12:1-10 describes Paul’s thorn in
the flesh. Most commentators believe it was some problem with his eyes.
Job was physically afflicted by the devil at God’s permission. Timothy had
“frequent illness.” Jesus did not heal everyone (Mark 6:1-6). One thing Jesus
never did was to produce a miracle without faith (Mark 6:2-3), and He did not
produce a “sign from heaven” upon request (Mark 8:11-13), or a miracle that
contradicted God’s plan (Mark 15:29-32).
Other examples of God’s
sovereignty are the Apostles. They were killed ruthlessly. In other
words, God did not deliver them from suffering and death, but rather at his
sovereign command, He permitted their suffering under His gracious hand. Jesus
gave us a command to invite those suffering under the weight of disease and
disability into our homes for feasts, but doesn’t command us in that same
passage to heal those we invite. His hope in the command is rather that we show
kindness, and hospitality to those who are suffering (Luke 14:12-14). God,
speaking to Moses, displays his ultimate sovereignty over illness and
disability when the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him
mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?””[7]
Another example, Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan, in the Old Testament was injured in an accident and
crippled. David took it upon himself after Jonathan’s death to show kindness to
the house of Jonathan and invited Mephibosheth into his home to eat at his
table for the rest of his life (2 Samuel 4 & 9). Leviticus displays to us
that taking care of the disabled, and those who are suffering, has something to
do with our reverence for God, “You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling
block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.”[8] In
other words, if there is no reverence for God then one might not care for those
suffering under disabilities. If, on the other hand, there is a fear and
reverence for the Lord, then there will be a care for people who are suffering
under these disabilities. Healing, suffering, and diseases are more about God
and his sovereign plan than about our hope for immediate healing.
God, in the Old Testament, often wielded
sickness, ailments, disease, disability, even plagues to His sovereign ends. The rebellion of Korah in the Old Testament, as previously mentioned, is a prime example. God
killed with a plague 14,700 people in one day as a judgement on rebellion
(Numbers 16). God often used these circumstances as judgement on people for
wickedness. However, He also allowed these situations for His glory, for
instance, Naaman in the Old Testament. It says that the Lord had given victory
to Syria because of Naaman and he was a mighty man of valor. He had the favor
of God, but he also had leprosy. Naaman sought healing from Elisha, and God
gave healing, inasmuch as He had allowed the leprosy to begin with. John 9 is
the most stunning instance of God’s sovereignty over disability and illness. The Disciples see a man born blind and ask Jesus “Rabbi, who sinned, this
man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus responds to them, “It was
not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be
displayed in him.”[9]
God had allowed the blindness in this man that he would one day encounter
Jesus, and the works of God would be put on display in and through him.
Additionally, those born with
disabilities are woven together in their mother’s womb by the all-powerful hand
of a good and loving God. Psalm 139 describes a God who “knitted me together in
my mother’s womb.” Everyone, everywhere from Adam to the present who has ever
been born have been God’s wonderful needlework. He has formed each and every
person uniquely in our own individual ways. In the same vein Paul describes
that the body of Christ needs weaker members. 1st Corinthians 12:12–27 says,
“the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indespensable,”[10]which shows us that we need those who are frail to make the body of Christ
whole. Without the weaker parts of the body of Christ the church is not complete.
Healing, health, birth, life, death, suffering, sickness, and disease are all
given or permitted according to the prerogative of an almighty supreme God,
not according to our sufficiency or deficiency.
When and if God chose to heal
people it happened, and continues to happen in response to an effectual faith,
in accordance with His great mercy and kindness. Johnson would have us believe
if people are not healed that the, “lack is on our end of the equation.” If Christ
purchased our atonement on the cross and our sins past, present, and future are
forgiven then our healing ought to have also been accomplished immediately.
Just as our full atonement is consummated upon repentance and faith, so also
should our healing according to this logic. If we were to apply Johnson’s
teaching fully, Christians who have placed their faith in Christ, should never
get sick. In actuality, our full and complete healing will not be achieved
until we receive our incorruptible bodies at the resurrection of the righteous.
The
previous quotation from Johnson is to me a crass reminder of my own experiences
of the control, the hurt, the pain, the guilt, and shame that this cult-like
message from Bethel and Bill Johnson produces. The covenant is not deficient;
all lack is on our end of the equation. If we took Johnson’s teaching at face
value, our daughter is infused with a disease from Satan, and our faith is too
weak to secure her healing. The lack is on our end of the equation, and
that is why she is not healed. It was so offensive and hurtful to us as a
family so many years ago, but our feelings are not the crux of the matter, the
truth is. If this were true, as previously stated, then all believers, as soon
as they put their trust in Christ, would immediately be free from illness,
poverty, and death, because Christ bore our illness and poverty on the cross,
just as He did our sins. If our sins are forgiven and are gone, so also should
all our sickness, disease, torment, and poverty. In actuality, they are not
done away with. The truth is, even the Christian will struggle under these
until we receive our glorified bodies and death is finally done away with.[11]
The
reality is that we die and death is the ultimate illness. About one-third of
people who die daily die of some sort of illness. About two thirds of daily
deaths are people who die naturally of old age (that number is almost 90% in
industrialized countries). The only way that Johnson can get away with
this disconcerting view is that he qualifies it with the phrase “all lack is on
our end of the equation.” If we die of cancer as a Christian, the lack must
have been on the cancer victim’s end. But that is precisely where the
perspective breaks down. We all die at some point. Death is the ultimate
disease, which takes this perplexing theology out of the realm of the logical
and moves it into the realm of the absurd. This view certainly pours on the
guilt, shame, and hurt when God does not heal despite deep faith and hopeful prayers.
Surely God can and does heal us when we pray in faith,[12] but does God do it as a rule? Or is it connected to the forgiveness of our sin?
Is healing bound up into the atonement of Christ? The other possibility
is that of the historic orthodox view of Christianity. In Genesis 3, when sin
entered the world, it affected everything. Death entered the world through one
man’s disobedience as Romans 5:12, 19-21 shows us:
Therefore,
just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men because all sinned ... For as by the one man’s
disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many
will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where
sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death,
grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.[13]
We can see here that the obvious
judgment on Adam’s race was death and decay, but on the other hand, by the one
man’s obedience, many will be made righteous. No mention of the restoration of
health, wealth, or prosperity, but rather in verse 21 a righteousness leading
to eternal life. So yes, one day He will restore our lowly bodies at the resurrection
of the righteous,[14]
but until that day, the earth is “groaning with the birth pangs.”[15]
In conclusion, this view is
perilous because it creates an inclusion to the cross of Christ that has not
been historically accepted in any of the manifold views of the atonement. The only verse that could be used, as a proof text, is found in Isaiah
53:5, which says, “ ... and by His wounds we are healed.” The danger here
is to build a whole theology from one isolated text. Take, for example, the
passage in Mark 16:18 that says we will pick up serpents and drink deadly
poison and not be hurt. We cannot build a whole theology and practice off
of one proof text. Unfortunately, many churches do practice snake handling
and drinking poison. Did Mark and Isaiah mean that we ought to practice these
things? We should rather address the “whole counsel of God” when addressing
puzzling passages of Scripture so as to clarify their meanings. The WOF,
TWM, and NAR add the element of health, wealth, and prosperity into the atonement
that has never before been hypothesized, and in so doing, expand the atonement
to unbiblical boundaries.
I always like to close my blogs with a moment for worship. We can know God has our good in mind when we go through various trials because he is good. Be blessed by this song and sing with Shane and Shane "Though you slay me yet I will rejoice."
[1]
“Bill Johnson – God is good, ALL the time,” YouTube video, 07:31, April 6,
2010, posted by “Whizzpopping,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SehJOzfj0Rg,
accessed April 10, 2016
[2]
“Bill Johnson: God Does Not Cause Illness and Never Chooses Not to Heal,” Do
Not Be Surprised, accessed April 10, 2016, http://www.donotbesurprised.com/2013/08/bill-
johnson-god-does-not-cause-illness.html
