God, the Healer!

‘A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said.

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed.’ – Mark 1:40-42 NLT

Mark 1:40-42 is talking about the man with leprosy. However, there are few things we need to learn or remind ourselves in these verses if we are looking at these verses in a spiritual perspective.

First, we need to know our God is loving God, who is filled with grace, mercy, and compassion (Psalm 145:8-9). Because of this, God sent His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ as an image of Himself, into the world to crucify Himself on the cross for our sins. In addition to this, God has exchanged our eternal destinies from the death to the life through Jesus (John 3:16-18; 1 John 4:9-10). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Otherwise, if God is filled with hatred, unmerciful, and arrogant heart, all of us would probably be dead already “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Falling short of the glory of God is probably biggest sin that we ever make because, by falling short of the glory of God, we deny and ignore the fact that we have not been created by God to be His image (Genesis 1:27) and the Spirit of God is not working powerfully within us (John 14:15-27). Nevertheless, we have not only been created to be His image, but we also have been created to be His children (Ephesians 1:4-6). I used to repent before God all the time because I felt that I was always falling short of the glory of God. This is probably because I was stressed about my time-management of making all for the glory of God, such as receiving the knowledge of God from different online sources. This is part of being righteous before God but I should keep reminding myself that believing in Jesus Christ is the main source of being righteous before God (Colossians 1:16-23).

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21)

Second of all, we must realize that our God is forgiving God as well, due to the fact that He has already paid our death penalty through Jesus Christ (1 John 1:8-2:2) and because of the love of God. In fact, God wants all of us to reach to the point of repentance because He does not want to anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:8-9). This is probably the reason why He has given us such a long time to live in this world. We often think that repentance is only necessary when we are going to receive salvation through Jesus, and after that moment, we believe that we do not need to repent because of the love of God. Sometimes, I do not like to repent to God as my repentance seems like it is obsolete and useless to me. The main reason for this is what I have repented before God, it seems that they are coming back to me. Thus, I should make a promise to myself that I should fix in not doing again whatever I have repented about. Nevertheless, continuous repentance before God is actually very necessary to our lives as we are becoming perfect in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:14) and as followers of Jesus are in the process of sanctification and holiness (Romans 6:16-23). This does not mean that we have to repent before Him purposely, but it means that we have to rejoice in the repentance and we have to strive to become more godliness (Titus 2:11-14) and holiness (1 Peter 1:13-17).

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:1-7)