The Right Heart

"I was constantly challenged by Christian women and men who thought deeply about the faith and about life. It was at church and among my Christian friends that I first discovered faith, not as a set of ideas to believe but as a true story of the whole universe, a tale of love, loss, promise, and costly rescue, in which we all play a role."  ( Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory )

"...who thought deeply about the faith and about life." 

Centuries before the socials and the immortal news feed, French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal said that all men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. 

Throughout the ages of church history and into our own day, many false narratives have infiltrated and even flourished within the Church. If we are to follow Jesus and serve in the Great Commission, it's crucial we get the Christian narrative right. As Dr. Alister McGrath reminded us in his work that Christianity has a deep narrative structure, articulating a grand story that connects together God, Jesus Christ, and believers. 

And we have a clue we are getting it right when we see the story change our own lives. How can we expect others to listen or care about the story when it isn't beautiful to us? 

"But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are are healed." ( Isaiah 53:5 ) 

This verse is the beating heart of the biblical narrative, God's redeeming response to the human dilemma and agonizing despair of being born destined to sin, covered in guilt and shame. 

For years I went to several churches that used this passage to make a case for physical healing, even building a false doctrine upon it. It was used as a platform to pronounce that it is always God's will to heal physically, and if you're not healed you don't have enough faith or are swimming in some egregious, besetting sin. 

This is a gross misinterpretation at the least. To ascribe physical and mental healing to these verses and use them to teach in this manner is to reduce the most precious doctrine of the Christian narrative - the atonement of Jesus Christ - to a superficial level. 

Of course Jesus healed all types of diseases in the Bible and still heals physically and mentally today; that's not the argument here. It's a very good and proper thing to pray for and desire our loved ones to be physically healed. Storm heaven for them, but this chapter in Isaiah is speaking about the deeper healing of our spirits that gives us peace with God. 

This peace has been erroneously taught as a security in our physical environment, but is in fact, the life-giving truth that because of the punishment Jesus took for us on the cross, we are now no longer regarded as God's enemies. We are no longer at war with God, but we now have peace with him through the finished work of Jesus Christ.  ( Romans 1-9 ) 

When we contextualize this verse, we see no where does Isaiah mention physical healing in this passage. The verses beforehand describe in stark detail the rejection Jesus faced for us, how he was despised by the people he created. And the verse that follows "and with his wounds we are healed" says:

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we turned - every one - to his own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." ( verse 6 )  These verses deal with our sin, our transgressions and our iniquity; the things that keep us separated from a holy God and enjoying a relationship with our Creator. 

In Mark 2:5 when Jesus told the paralyzed man lying on the mat, "Son your sins are forgiven," before he healed his physical body, he was adjudicating to the lame man, his friends and all those gathered around that this is the deeper healing we need. Forgiveness of our sins. Without this healing, you can't enter the kingdom of heaven. 

It's not just the prosperity gospel or word of faith churches that replace the beauty of the atonement with physical healing; we are all bent toward this tendency because of our fallen nature. We must be intentional in driving the Gospel truth deeper into our hearts. 

When we come to the altar to worship together whether as a church, or in family devotions, or alone on our knees by our bed or in the great outdoors, are we coming for God himself or for what he can give us or do for us? 

Are we entering his gates with thanksgiving in our hearts and his courts with praise for all of the spiritual blessings he has bestowed upon us by his love, grace, and mercy in Jesus? Or are we first seeking signs, wonders, financial help, or physical healing instead of his righteousness and his kingdom?  

Are we coming and seeking for God to expose our hidden sins to us and the displeasing motives of our heart so we can receive forgiveness and help with our inner struggles in our sanctification process? Or are we so busy in the noise of our lives and our needs, we don't come quietly to first seek for him and self-reflect in the light of his glory? 

It's interesting that in his epistles we don't see the apostle Paul praying for physical healing or security, although we know he must have. He prayed for his thorn to be removed, and he raised a man from the dead that he fell out of a window. But for his church plants he prays for them things like to be filled with the knowledge of God's will, to have strength to comprehend together the love of Christ, for church unity, for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, to set their minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth....... 

We can never go wrong by opening our Bibles and praying straight out of the story, then meditating on the truths and preaching them to ourselves. 

We can never stop gazing at the Gospel like a multi-faceted diamond enamored by its beauty and studying each glorious part with blazing intentionality. When the mercy God has had on sinners like us becomes clearer, him redeeming us through the life and death and resurrection of his Son to be adopted as his dearly beloved children to live in a fully healed, resurrected body for all eternity, it changes us. 

The Gospel has transformed my prayers for physical and mental healing and really all needs. I've found that I pray better and clearer now for these things because I understand the narrative better. We will never reach the bottom of this over-flowing well, but may we never stop diving and searching. 

When we understand what Christ has done for us, it radically changes how we live our lives. It changes our worship. The beauty at the heart of the biblical narrative has the power to transform the lives around us, but we have to have the story straight in our own hearts first. 

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"He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." ( Colossians 1:13 - 14 )