Set Free From Disease

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.... — Galatians 3:13

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law! According to Deuteronomy 28:15-22, 27-29, 35, and 58-61, sickness is part of the curse of the Law. The dreadful diseases and curses enumerated in Deuteronomy chapter 28 are part of the punishment for breaking God’s Law. In fact, every sickness and every disease is part of the curse according to Deuteronomy 28:61, which says, "Also EVERY sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed."

The King James Version of the Bible would lead us to believe that God Himself puts sickness and afflictions upon His people, for it reads, "The Lord will smite thee..."

Dr. Robert Young, author of Hints to Bible Interpretation, points out that in the original Hebrew, the verb is in the permissive rather than the causative sense. Actually, this verse should have been translated something like this: "The Lord will allow you to be smitten... The Lord will allow these plagues to be brought upon you..."

Many other verbs were translated in the causative sense in the King James Version. For example, Isaiah 45:7 reads, "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." Does God create evil? No. That would make God a devil. God may permit evil, but He does not create it.

Amos 3:6 in the King James Version declares, "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" If the Lord commits evil, then He has no right whatsoever to judge man for sinning. But God has not done evil; He only permits evil because of man’s free will — his right to free choice. There is a vast difference between commission and permission.

When King Saul backslid, First Samuel 16:14 says, "... the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him."

What actually happened was that Saul’s sin broke his fellowship with God, and God permitted the evil spirit from the devil to trouble him.

The original Hebrew of these scriptures was in the permissive tense, but the verbs were translated in the causative tense.

No, God does not send plagues and sicknesses upon His people as these verses seem to indicate. The overall context of God’s Word does not teach that these things come directly from God. In fact, it teaches quite the opposite.

When God’s people broke His commandments, they were no longer under His divine protection. All He could do was permit the devil to bring those afflictions upon them. The people’s sin and wrongdoing brought those dreadful plagues upon them.

Deuteronomy 28 lists several diseases in the curse of the broken Law. Among them are pestilence, consumption (tuberculosis), fever (including all types, such as typhus, scarlet, typhoid, smallpox, and all other eruptive fevers), inflammation, extreme burning, the botch (boils) of Egypt, hemorrhoids, scab (all skin disease), itch, madness, and blindness.

According to verse 60, we can add to this list "... all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of." And verse 61 makes it all-inclusive: "Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of the law."

We can conclude from these scriptures that sickness and disease are a part of the curse of the Law — and they should come upon us. But, praise God, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law..." - (Gal. 3:13).

Is sickness a blessing or a curse? God’s Word declares it is a curse. Some people would have you believe God "blesses" His children with sickness and disease. (If He does, I would prefer to let someone else have that "blessing"!) But, according to God’s Word, sickness is a curse, and health is a blessing!

Dis-ease is broken ease. Sickness is pain and suffering. It makes slaves of family and friends who must care for sick loved ones. Disease and sickness are enemies of mankind.

Sickness is a thief and a robber. It has robbed many a mother of her health, beauty, and joy. It has robbed her husband of his wife, and has deprived her children of their mother, for she is no longer able to fulfill the duties of wife and mother.

Disease has robbed many men, coming upon them in the midst of manhood, filling them with anxiety and fear, and robbing them of faith.

Sickness and disease rob people of happiness and health and money needed for other things.

Sickness and disease are not the will of God for His people. He does not want a curse to be upon His children because of their disobedience; He wants to bless them with health.

"Oh, yes," some people have said to me, "I believe God was Israel’s Healer under the Old Covenant, and He wanted the children of Israel to have health. But we’re not living under that covenant."

That’s true. But if the Old Covenant provided for healing and the New Covenant (or Testament) does not, I wonder if the New Covenant is as good as the old? Thank God, the Bible says that the New Covenant is better:

HEBREWS 8:6 6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a BETTER covenant, which was established upon BETTER promises.

Let me remind you that our text is from the New Testament: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us..." - Gal. 3:13.

It is not the will of God that we be sick. Sickness and disease are not of love. And we know that God is love.

In Luke 13, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. A woman came in who was bent over. She could have had arthritis or something of that nature, because her body was permanently bent over. She couldn’t stand up straight. Jesus called her to Him and said, "...Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity" - v. 12.

When the ruler of the synagogue became angry because Christ had healed the sick woman, Jesus said, "Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, WHOM SATAN HATH BOUND, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" (v. 16). Jesus said it was Satan who had bound this woman.

In preaching to Cornelius’ household, Peter said:

ACTS 10:38 38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

This scripture makes it clear that the people Jesus healed were oppressed of the devil.

Some people today would have you believe that God sends sickness upon people to bless them. They will tell you, "Stay away from those meetings where they pray for the sick to be healed. That’s of the devil."

If they are right, then God and the devil must have swapped jobs, because when the Gospels and the Book of Acts were written, Satan was oppressing people and Jesus was healing them!

The Bible tells us, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" - Heb. 13:8. Jesus never changes! From the beginning to the end of His public ministry, Christ was successfully combating Satan. His battle was not with men, but with demons who indwelt men.

It puzzles me that people will take medicines and do everything they can to get well, but if you suggest they have someone pray for their healing, they will say, "It may not be God’s will to heal me."

Well, if it isn’t God’s will for them to be well, they shouldn’t take any medicine or treatment! They would be out of God’s will trying to get well! That sounds ridiculous, and it is. But I used that to make a point.

I do not mean to discredit the medical profession. Doctors are fighting the same devil we are. I merely want to point out that the idea that healing is not God’s will is human reasoning and wrong thinking, and it has robbed many people of the blessings of healing and health.

Don’t ever tell anyone that sickness is the will of God for us. It isn’t! Healing and health are the will of God for mankind. If sickness were the will of God, Heaven would be filled with sickness and disease.

In His earth walk, Jesus was the will of God in action. He came to unveil the Father to us. He is the Word of God. He is God speaking to us. (See John 1:14 and Hebrews 1:1,2.) If you want to know what God thinks about sickness, look at Jesus! He went about healing the sick!

ISAIAH 53:4,5 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs [sicknesses], and carried our sorrows [diseases]: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Matthew quotes a portion of these scriptures:

MATTHEW 8:17 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.

The Holy Spirit, looking back at Calvary, wrote in the past tense through Peter:

1 PETER 2:24 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

We have been healed by the stripes Jesus bore. And according to Galatians 3:13, Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of sickness and disease!

I challenge you to insert the name of any disease you or a loved one desires to be healed from into Deuteronomy 28:61, which says that every sickness is a curse of the Law. Repeat to yourself, "According to Deuteronomy 28:61, [insert name of sickness or disease] is a curse of the Law. But according to Galatians 3:13, Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the Law. Therefore, I no longer have [insert name of sickness or disease]."

Jesus has set you free! He has paid the price for you. He has ransomed you by His death, burial, and resurrection. You are not under the curse, because Jesus has set you free from the curse of the Law. And that curse includes sickness and disease!