Terminal but Treatable Diagnosis…

Mary Ann Wray

There is nothing worse than receiving a medical diagnosis with no proposed remedy. It suggests you have a terminal disease. You would leave the doctor’s office despondent and without hope because you’ve basically been given a death sentence. 

Likewise, mankind has been diagnosed by God with a terminal disease called sin. In fact, the Bible says we were born in sin. David the psalmist lamented that he was conceived in his mother’s womb in iniquity. 

The Bible also tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That’s a pretty terminal and dire diagnosis wouldn’t you say? But God is love and in his loving kindness and mercy he doesn’t stop with the diagnosis. He has provided the remedy, the prescription if you will, to be healed and treated of the diagnosis of sin. Without the remedy to a terminal disease, one would die. Likewise, without the remedy to the terminal disease of sin, we all would perish. 

As in any prescription or remedy for a sickness, one has to be willing to take it and do what the doctor says in order to get well. Eternal punishment and separation from God is the result of sin from if it isn’t treated.

God has provided the remedy for this terminal spiritual disease. It began and came into existence after the fall of man (Adam & Eve) we see in Genesis Chapter 3.

The remedy is grace. But like any remedy, it must be applied to be successful. It must be received and utilized through a conscience decision to use it for the medical diagnosis .

We all must first recognize that we are sinners, born in sin, and as such, are at enmity with God. It takes the humility and faith of a child to see one spiritual condition before a holy god. The thief on the cross recognized his sinfulness while the other thief, mocked Jesus. Jesus extended his grace to the one thief because he admitted he deserved to be punished for his sin. You might say well I’ve never stolen anything and maybe you haven’t. But none of us can say that we are without sin. All of us at one time or another have broken one of the 10 Commandments. All of us at one time or another has said, thought, or done things, contrary to the wheel of God. The fact is all of us have sent and come short of His perfection. God knows this about man. He gave us the lawn under the old covenant, but no one could keep it perfectly. The Pharisees thought they could, but Jesus just showed them what hypocrites they were. That’s why in the fullness of God he sent his son Jesus Christ who is fully God and fully man. He was tempted in every possible way that man could be tempted yet he never once sinned. He became our scapegoat for sin. He became the sacrificial lamb.

So how do we apply the grace of God for our sin diagnosis? All of John chapter 3 spells it out very plainly and succinctly. There is a very familiar passage of scripture contained within it in i.e., John 3:17... God so loved the world that he gave is only begotten son that whoever would believe upon him would not perish, but have everlasting life. However, if you continue reading the following passages, you will see that there is a judgment and a condemnation for those who do not put their trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. What Jesus is saying here is that we must choose between life and death, grace or punishment. There is no gray area.

You see, the wages, payday and outcome of sin is death an eternal punishment separated from the love of God. But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. In Ephesians chapter 2:8-9 Paul tells us that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, not through works less any man boast. 

None of us are good enough, none of us are smart enough, not none of us are holy enough, to work or earn our way to heaven. We cannot gain access to Heaven by ourselves. God provided the remedy that is simple enough for a child to understand.

Are we humble and childlike enough in our faith to apply the remedy of the disease of sin to our own lives? Jesus said, “Except you are born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” Being born again, simply put, is applying the remedy for sin that God provided for us on the cross of Calvary and validated through Jesus, bodily resurrection on the third day. If you haven’t already, 

will you apply the remedy to the terminal spiritual disease of sin? It’s an open prescription to anyone who wants it…