Cure for the Sin Malady

By Rick Blumenberg / @RickBlumenberg

The "Good News" of the Gospel is that God sent his Son Jesus, the Christ, to be the remedy for the malady we call sin. Adam and Eve, our first parents, committed sin against God and each other and thus infected not only themselves, but their prodigy with the “disease” of sin—a deadly inherited disease for which there was no cure. The good news in this sad story is that God, knowing that with the freedom to choose, mankind would sin, had already prepared a remedy through Jesus Christ his Son. When Christ died on the cross and God raised him from the dead all mankind was provided with the antidote for past sin, plus an inoculation against future sin we might otherwise commit.

Both the antidote and the immunization are applied by way of a process called faith. In much the same way that medical treatments can be given by various methods including pills or hypodermic needles, the spiritual antidote for this disease is called active faith in Christ. Even as an immunization for a particular disease is created to cure the disease and is available for everyone, the sin cure (Christ’s death and resurrection) was made available by God for everyone. The bad news, however, is that much the same as with medicine available for health concerns, the cure is only effective for those who take the medicine.

We also know that all medical treatment is a two step process. It must be given by someone who has the ability to prescribe it and the infected person must be willing to take the treatment. God has prescribed faith as both the antidote and the immunization but it is our responsibility to accept by faith, the death and resurrection of his Son in our behalf. If we don’t accept the treatment as an act of faith and take the only medicine that can help, we never receive its value.

We already have the terminal illness we call sin and we all need the antidote to prevent spiritual death.  By accepting Christ as Savior and then Lord of our lives and allow him to fill us with his Holy Spirit we are also given a limited immunity against future sin. I say “limited immunity” because even as born-again Christians we still have to choose godliness and reject Satan’s temptations if we want to continue in this glorious state we call spiritual health.

The concept of immunization is also valid when we think of a child who grows up in a godly home and is taught from childhood of the loving-kindness of God. Having been taught to love God these children often find faith as natural as breathing and never go into deep sin before accepting Christ as Savior. This Christian home upbringing is the inoculation or immunization against open sin so the child accepts Christ as Savior as soon as they understand the concept and thus never experience the horror of deep sin.

The godly child still needs the antidote for sin because they have inherited the deadly disease and without a personal relationship with Christ through faith they will not know the grace and love of God personally and will eventually lose the inherited relationship of a godly upbringing. This faith child who responds affirmatively as soon as they realize the need, is saved from just as much as those persons who waste their lives in sinful pursuits and are later saved from them. The good thing is that the child of faith is saved from sin’s horrors before they commit the sin instead of afterwards.

So there you have it—my medical theory of the atonement.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.