The Healing Christ

This is a very wonderful message.

First of all, we need to know that God created man with 4 particular characteristics:

1. First, God created man in His image, that man might bear His likeness, expressing Him. This is shown in Gen. 1:26.
2. Second, God gave man His authority for His dominion, which indicates that man is His representative. This is also shown in Gen. 1:26.
3. Third, God created man with a spirit to contact and receive Him. This is shown in Gen. 2:7, Prov. 20:27, and John 4:24.
4. Fourth, God put man in front of the tree of life, indicating that He desired that man would receive and eat Him as the tree of life so that man might live God. This is shown in Gen. 2:9 and John 6:57.

However, man became sinners and were not able to fulfill the above 4 characteristics. Instead, man was fallen with 4 major diseases according to the book of gospels, especially in the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. These 4 major diseases are:

1. First, fever. Fever signifies a person's unbridled temper, which is abnormal and intemperate.
2. Second, leprosy. Leprosy signifies isolation from God and from men.
3. Third, paralytic. Paralytic signifies being paralyzed by sin and thus is unable to walk and move before God.
4. Fourth, the flow of blood, the issue of blood. This signifies a life that cannot be retained.

But praise the Lord! Do you know that our Christ is the healing Christ? In Mark 2:17, "Those who are strong have no need of physician, but those who are ill; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

We are sinners who are feverish, we are lepers, we are paralyzed by sinners, and we can't retain life in us. As sinners, we came short of the glory of God and are doomed. But the Lord Jesus Christ came and ministered as a Physician, not as a judge. The judgment of a judge is according to righteousness, whereas the healing of a physician is according to mercy and grace. The Lord came to minister as a Physician; that is, He came to heal, recover, enliven, and save people. Don't misunderstand me. Yes, our Lord is still the righteous Judge. If we sin, He will have to judge us. But at the same time, He is also the healing Christ, the great Physician. He judges and He heals.

Once, an elderly saint told me that if as a Christian, in our Christian pathway, we have never realized that we are sinners, our Christian life has not yet begun. A sinner who doesn't recognize that he is a sinner will never treasure the cleansing blood that Christ shed for us on the cross. That is why we will pass through certain situations and we will be enlightened that we ARE sinners. We are GOOD FOR NOTHING. We have no right to judge others. Even the Lord Jesus came as a Physician primarily. Who are we to judge and have no mercy upon others? I was very, very touched by this point.

Furthermore, the Lord serves us with His forgiving authority and His cleansing power. He forgives our sins, cleanses us, and brings us back to God, thus restoring us from our feverish condition. He restores our fellowship with God and man, thus restoring us from our leprous condition. Because of Him, our sins are gone, and we have God as our everything. Now we are enjoying God as our life, our light, our everything. We are feasting with the Lord. This is the gospel, and this is also the way to carry out the gospel service. (Ref: Life-study of Mark)

But how do we experience Him as the healing Christ that we may be restored, enlivened, and be able to enjoy God as our everything? We need to practice 4 things:

1. First, day by day we need to spend personal time with the Lord.
2. Second, learn in the presence of the Lord to be dealt with under His light.
3. Third, be infused with His burden according to His perfect will to care for people.
4. Fourth, have a change in our disposition to be fishers of men and feeders of lambs.

The gospel service is not an outward work. The gospel is a kind of living. When we spend time with the Lord and enjoy being ministered with life by the healing Christ, we are being healed from our sicknesses, and thus we are able to learn to live out a kind of living that reflects our enjoyment of Christ. Then, we become the living testimony of Jesus.

Yes, we will still sin because our flesh prompts us to sin. But we have the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:9). Of course we do not sin purposely. In fact, a believer who has experienced the forgiveness of sin will never dare to sin on purpose. Only those who do not know what is the forgiveness of sin dare to sin again and again, taking the blood of Christ for granted. This is foolishness. There is a verse in the Bible that says, God is not mocked. Although God is full of mercy and compassion towards man and is always ready to forgive us of our sins whenever we confess, we still need to revere Him in a proper way, that is, the proper fear.

The key is this: Our Christ IS the healing Christ. For Him to heal us, we just need to spend time with Him. In fact, the highest profession on earth is to spend time being infused with God that we may shine forth God. (Ref: Life-study of Exodus, msg. 62)

Amen!