If a Christian is facing an illness that will not go away and needs encouragement, the Lord healing the paralytic who was lowered through the roof in Mark 2:1-12 can touch our deepest wounds but not in the way many might think. When the man who could not move of his own volition was lowered to Jesus in the crowded room, Jesus did not immediately heal him. Instead, he forgave his sins. The forgiveness of sins is where we find our ultimate reassurance. Only later, when the Pharisees complained that Jesus did not have the power to forgive sins, did he heal the man. The healing was secondary and served the express purpose of letting everyone know he had the power to blot out our transgressions.
We need the forgiveness of sin much more than we need physical healing. When we think of the horrible diseases that wreak havoc on our bodies and the lives of those we love, such as cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and many others, we know the devastation they can unleash. The Christian does not make light of the horrors of disease to make sin seem worse. Instead, we look at infirmity with all its bodily indignity and pain and then remember that sin is even more devastating because it destroys our souls. Considering the horrors of illness while understanding that sin is worse only sheds light on how much we desperately need forgiveness.
This truth that sin is worse than disease means the woman who spends her final year in intense pain as breast cancer slowly steals her life but has her sins forgiven is much better off than the woman in perfect health yet unpardoned. The man who has lost the ability to work because multiple sclerosis has destroyed his body but has had his sins blotted out by the blood of Jesus is glorying in a much superior position than a healthy man making millions without Christ and the forgiveness he offers.
How do we know Christ can forgive us? Because he has power over every disease—even death itself. When he walked on this earth, he healed countless infirmities—including leprosy, which was the very picture of sin. More importantly, he rose from the dead after dying for our transgressions. Every one of those instances serves as a testament that he can forgive our iniquities because he is God incarnate.
When we call to the Lord in this life, he may or may not set us free from our infirmities, but he will never fail to forgive the sins of those of us who come to him in faith and ask him to wash us clean.
Sin being worse than sickness is why Jesus hung out with sinners. Our sin is the actual sickness in our lives. Disease can only kill the mortal body, which will eventually die anyway, but sin kills our souls and condemns us to eternal punishment. Jesus hung out with sinners because they were the ones in need of a physician. If Jesus had never come for sinners, you and I would be without hope.
Sin is the reason the horrors of sickness exist. This truth does not mean that if someone is sick, it is because of some specific sin in their life, but when Adam fell, all manner of distress was unleashed upon this world—even death. But for those of us whose sins are forgiven, even if disease takes our life, we will one day be healed when these mortal bodies are raised immortal. In heaven, where there is no sin, there will also be no sickness.
The sickly saint has every reason to rejoice. If sickness threatens to lay our body in the grave, like David, we can still say, “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied with your likeness when I awake.” All of this is possible because the Son of God has the authority to forgive sin.
-D. Eaton
The Fight of Faith 