THERE are few of us who have not, at some time or other in our lives, suffered from severe illness, or met with some serious accident, which has threatened even the loss of life itself. Then, cast upon the bed of protracted pain, or left to experience the languor and tedium of long-continued sickness, how welcome has been the aid of the intelligent medical man, and the attention of one’s kind and sympathizing friends. When we were in health, and in the cheerfulness of life and vigor, we may have slighted or despised the assistance which the physician could give; but when really sick and afflicted we have been glad to avail ourselves of his help, upon the principle declared in divine truth, that “they that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.” (Luke 5:3131And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. (Luke 5:31).)
The occasion upon which the Lord uttered these words shows that men act much in the same way with respect to their souls; that while they continue righteous in their own eyes, or unconscious and unconcerned as to their real state as sinners before God, they do not value the salvation which has been provided, and is presented by Him who came “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” But when, by the working of the Spirit of God, they are in any degree awakened to their actual lost and ruined condition, then they are happy to have such an one as the great and good Physician of souls to whom they can go for pardon, life, and healing.
We all know that one of the effects of illness is to make us see everything around us through a false medium. All appears to go wrong, while we probably think that the cause lies, not in ourselves, but in others. And one of the worst consequences of sin is, that it blinds the minds of men to the knowledge of their actual condition as known to the all-seeing eye of God, and declared in His word. Man knows not “the plague of his own heart,” and, therefore, he goes not to Him who alone can effect a cure.
The case of the leper in Israel, as presented to us in the 13th chapter of Leviticus, illustrates the truth that man cannot, and is not expected by his own knowledge to form an accurate estimate of his state as a sinner, but that he must have the judgment of the good Physician Himself, whose eyes are “as a flame of fire,” and who “searcheth the reins and heart,” and knows what is in man as well as what proceeds from him. In that chapter it is said that “the priest shall look on him [the leper], and pronounce him unclean.” And so God, who cannot err, has declared of man that “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the role of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores.” (Isa. 1:5, 65Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (Isaiah 1:5‑6).)
As only God knows the deep necessity of man as a sinner, so none but He could have provided the remedy to meet it. But, blessed be His name, He has provided an all-sufficient and permanent remedy for sin in the death and resurrection of His own dear Son; for on the cross the holy and just One “was wounded for our transgressions,” and “bruised for our iniquities.” There “the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” There He made “HIS soul an offering for sin.” There Christ “poured out His soul unto death, He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many.” (Isaiah 53.) Thus, having suffered “the just for the unjust,” and “by Himself purged our sins,” He “was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,” and “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,” there to be “a Prince and a Saviour.” “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14, 1514And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:14‑15).) How, then, was the serpent lifted up? In the 21St chapter of Numbers we read that the people of Israel sinned by speaking “against God,” and that “the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.” Moses, however, at the command of the Lord, “made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” Even so has the Son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ, been lifted up on the cross, and exalted to the right hand of God; and now one look of faith to Him is present and everlasting salvation to the sinner.
So in the case of Naaman the Syrian, recorded in 2 Kings 5. He was a leper, and, as such, the type of a sinner, and he could do nothing to recover himself from his leprosy; but he was directed to go to Elisha, whose name it appears signifies, “The salvation of God,” and who thus beautifully typifies Christ. And what did Elisha, in the name of the Lord, direct him to do? Simply to “go and wash in Jordan seven times.” Naaman at first resisted; but afterward, upon entreaty, submitted to God’s way of cleansing him; and the issue was that “his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” And so the sinner who submits to God’s way of cleansing him from his sins, and believes in his heart that Jesus was delivered for his offenses, and was raised again for his justification (Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)), becomes “clean every whit,” through the purging of his conscience by the precious blood of Christ; and is thus made meet for the very presence of God Himself.
But suppose the Israelite, instead of looking to the uplifted serpent, had tried remedies of his own, would he have lived? No; he would certainly have died. And if Naaman had, in his anger, gone back to the rivers of his own country, as he had at first proponed to do, would he have been clean? Nay; he would have remained a leper still. And so the sinner who despises or neglects God’s role remedy for sin, and follow the devices of his own heart, remains a sinner still, subject to the righteous judgment of God for not having believed in the name of His only begotten Son. His own heart would, indeed, tell him that human nature is not so bad after all, that it has some good left still, debased as he may admit it to be; but that by leaving off this and that sin, and attending to the ordinances of religion, all will be right at last. If, however, he follows the counsels of his heart, which “is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” he must continue in his uncleanness, and so remain unfit for the presence of God; and if he persist in this course he must in the end perish in his sins.
Many assent to the great truths of the gospel, by allowing that man is a sinner, that he cannot save himself, that Christ died for sinners, and that He is able and willing to save them. But the mere assent of the understanding is not faith in the Son of God; for “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” A sick man may be told of a physician who could cure his complaint, and may admit that he could successfully treat his case, but if he will not submit to the prescribed treatment, of what avail will his knowledge of the skill of the physician be to him? None whatever. And so the sinner, who, with his mere natural understanding has received “the knowledge of the truth,” but who has not living faith in Christ, has only aggravated his guilt by not obeying the gospel of the grave of God, which has been proclaimed in his hearing.
But the word of the Lord is still, “Him that cometh to me I will in no vise cast out.” (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37).) “There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth for I am God, and there is none else.” (Isa. 15:26) “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” (Ex. 15:2626And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26).)
“A dying, risen Jesus,
Seen by the eye of faith,
At once from anguish frees us,
And saves the soul from death.
Come, then, to this Physician,
Who loves to bless and give;
He asks no hard condition,
“Tis only, Look and live.”