November 30, 2021

For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20

During His three-and-a-half-year earthly ministry Jesus went about healing. His heart overflowed with compassion for all those suffering ones. Note that healing and forgiveness came before the follow-up instructions (John 5:14, 8:11, 15:4-7). In essence, He was saying: “Now that I have lifted you from a pit, come walk with Me and you will learn how to live as a citizen of Heaven.” Jesus did not necessarily highlight the willful failures that had subjected them to Satan’s harm, but He did (and still does) make it crystal clear that His healing and forgiveness are an invitation to step into the light of Heaven.

In the New Testament we see no admission whatsoever on the part of Jesus (He is God!) as the cause of the heartbreaking suffering that He encountered. This confirms the Old Testament revelation (see the first two chapters of Job) that it is Satan who is ever at work to hurt and to harm. Jesus publicly stated the culprit’s identity after He was criticized for healing a woman on the Sabbath:

“So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath”? Luke 13:16

Our amazing, loving Creator-God is even more anxious to heal us than our enemy is to inflict harm. Another way of saying it: the love of God is more powerful than our adversary! Do I believe it? Paul said, “I beseech you . . . by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice . . .” (Romans 12:1). Do I recognize the mercy extended to me? If so, I will agree with my Creator that my body is to be His temple. Upon coming to this agreement with my Master,

“all the rules, regulations, and requirements of the law concerning the body are summed up for me in this revealed truth: my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” Oswald Chambers

Jesus said: “You search the [Old Testament] Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” John 5:39

“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 1 John 1:6