Jesus Only

When Jesus was lifted up on the cross, He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world. He became sin for us in order that we might escape its deadly grip and be healed from the serpent’s venom. This was foretold in the protevangelum (the first gospel) of Genesis 3: 14, 15, “So the Lord said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than any beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman. And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel’” (NKJV). Here is where the prophecy of Genesis 3: 15 found fulfillment—on the cross. Jesus, through His suffering and death, paid the supreme sacrifice for man’s sin, and satisfied the claims of God immutable law. Through His sufferings on the cross, Christ vanquished Satan, sin, death and the grave. Through the shedding of His precious blood, He opened up a fountain for sin and uncleanness; says the prophet, “In That day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness” (Zechariah 13: 1, KJV).
All who have been snake bit, and in whose nature is the poisonous venom of sin, are invited to plunge beneath the fountain of the shed blood of Jesus. Here, at the fountain drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, the antidote is to be applied for the healing of every sin sick soul. This is the central—all encompassing sign of a healthy church. All other signs (pointing to the health of the church) are mere indicators of this one central truth: that the church (individually and collectively) must find its health and well being in the application of the atoning blood of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1: 29, 36). The prophet Isaiah sums it up this way: “Surely He has borne our griefs (literally- sicknesses) and carried our sorrows; yet we esteem Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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” (Isaiah 53: 4-5, NKJV). Healing is found no where else save in the shed blood of the Lamb of God.
The wounds of, and the healing for, the human race, is holistic—mental, physical, social, and spiritual. The healing remedy is found only in the “balm in Gilead.” When the prophet saw the deep wounds of the people he stated “For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt…Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?” (Jeremiah 8: 21, 22). No recovery! The picture is heart breaking, for this simple reason; the prophet’s rhetorical question suggests that the healing balm of Gilead was within reach of all, the Great Physician was in attendance. The problem was that the people failed to apply the only legitimate remedy.
How often in the history of mankind have we seen the search for what ails us simply in our own capabilities, or homemade remedies? I have often heard the practitioners of the so-called healing sciences such as psychology, sociology, and even in the medical arts, exalt the virtues of their remedy for the healing of the deep wounds of humanity, above and beyond any so-call faith in Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ as a source of healing is looked upon by the new swing in Freudian psychology or Jung’s personality theories, as merely a crutch or a misguided notion in our weakness and inability to take charge of our own lives. I am not against Jung and Freud, or the medical arts; they have their part to play. But the pendulum has swung way too far! Man is taught to look within himself for spiritual, mental, and social healing. The healing sciences are gifts from God to man but they have their limitations. They cannot cure the root problem in man, and that problem is sin. Any attempt to deny man’s need of a higher power outside of himself or to suggest otherwise is to participate in a denial of Christ and to become a part of the spirit of rebellion against Christ.
In the post-modern context there is even an absolute denial (a contradiction in terms) of any absolute help outside of man’s own ability. Those who are promising help and freedom are themselves the servants of corruption, and are just as snake bitten as any one else. They themselves are appointed unto mental, physical, spiritual and social death. How can a so-called psychologists or family therapist prescribe healing for my marriage and family when they can’t manage to save their own? How can the philosopher pontificate on the healing remedy for the human soul when he or she is too often the victim of vices that cripple their own souls and keeps them shackled in chains? How many like the sick man at the “pool of Bethesda” are still looking for some “man” to take them to the water’s edge, when the source of healing is standing right over them? “Do you want to be made well?” is the question posed by Jesus to all humanity. The answer: “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool.” How tragic! The Fountain of all healing is within the reach of the touch of faith, asking all sin-sick souls “Do you want to be made well?” And humanity is still responding with the wrong answer “I have no man.” See John 5: 1-8. We are still looking to the pretenders, the false practitioners, and the usurpers of God’s sovereignty and will, for the cure as to what betides man. Mean while untold millions are perishing within reach of the only cure for the human race—Jesus.
Men may despise, reject, and deride the name of Jesus; they may spit upon Him, slap Him, insult Him, and laugh Him to scorn; but I say, as do all others who believe in His name may say, as did Peter “If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well. Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4: 9-12).