C&MA 4-Fold Gospel: Christ our Healer
Dr. James Smith
24 April 2005
During his life and ministry, the founder of the C&MA, Dr. A.B. Simpson became convinced that there were 4 basic messages in the gospel, which summarized what he called, “the complete blessings of Christ which should be emphasized among Christians.”
He called it the 4-Fold gospel; Christ is our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King and from the earliest days of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, nearly 120 years ago, the C&MA has been passionate about overseas missions.
So far in the series, we have talked about Christ as our Savior and Christ as our Sanctifier.
In discussing, Christ as our Savior, I used the image of Jesus as our great physician. Christ is a skillful doctor and His cross is a surgical instrument.
God cares so much for us that if we believe that His son can literally “save us,” he will cut away everything in our lives that is sick or dying and bring us into a new place of health.
In Christ, then, “salvation” has deep implications for not only our spiritual lives, but for our mental, emotional, psychological and even physical well-being.
In discussing, Christ as our Sanctifier, I appealed to the image of a house or home.
In the spiritual life, Christians know that God is not interested in simply cleaning up our lives or “fixing up the old house.”
God isn’t even remotely interested in the “old shack” of our lives. He’s interested in the land, so to speak. And in salvation, Christ comes and tears downs the old shack of our lives, clears the land and then builds a completely new house.
Christ, as the builder and proper owner desires to come and permanently live and dwell in the house.
And sanctification isn’t primarily our work anymore than salvation is. Jesus is our Savior and our Sanctifier and His sanctification is experienced as both crisis as well as process.
This morning we come the third point of the 4-Fold Gospel; Christ our Healer. And let me start by saying that Christians have had all kinds of ideas about healing, particularly over the last 150 years.
The C&MA has never been sensationalist or had any of the so-called “faith healers” in our ranks.
And yet, we have held on to this foundational doctrine that Jesus Christ is able and has power to heal the entire person; physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically as well as spiritually.
And the image or idea that I’d like to work from this morning is the famous saying of the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, “You are what you eat,” for slightly different purposes.
Because we notice the Bible begins in a garden with a hungry man and woman. And the food that they ate and the world that they were a part of was given as a gift of God and to commune with God.
Very few people would deny that humanity is hungry, but very few understand that our hunger can only be satisfied by God.
And Adam and Eve’s original sin is not simply one of disobedience, but ceasing to be hungry for God and so losing their appetite.
And so, when the C&MA talks about the idea of healing, it naturally points to Christ who is our healer.
Jesus Christ always must be the center of any message on healing or as Simpson said, “Christ always deals with the whole man when healing a believer.”
Healing, then, has to do with a total walk with God and not simply an isolated occurrence or experience. After all, any doctor will tell you that the return of feelings of hunger after prolonged sickness is a sign of real health.
And so a Biblical notion of healing requires a dedicated and sanctified walk with Christ. And also, very much includes our bodies.
Taking proper care of our bodies is a very, very spiritual act and the C&MA has always taught that if believers disregard or misuse their bodies, they should not expect healing from God until they deal with the sins committed against the body.
After all, the Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:13, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.”
And so Christ our healer longs to see the bodies of His followers considered as temples.
But of course, analyzing the disease is one thing, applying a remedy for its cure is quite another.
The image of John 15 practically reminds us that we must abide in Christ; obeying and fellowshipping with Him and that such obedience and fellowship is an essential mark of true Christian discipleship.
If we separate ourselves from the Vine, which is Christ, we can expect to starve and die. Separation from the vine means that we are cut off from the life giving and healing sap. After all, we have no ability to cleanse, heal and repair ourselves.
Just as Christ is our Savior and Sanctifier, so He is also our Healer.
As the old Alliance theologian, Dr. George Pardington has written, “Dear friend, you are spiritually starving. Your life is like a bottle corked tight in the ocean. All around is the limitless sea, yet the bottle inside is empty and dry.
Spiritually open up your whole being to God. Wait upon the Lord, study His word. Feed upon Christ. Drink in the peace and rest, the joy and power of the Holy Spirit. Learn to live by the moment. Every time you feel hunger, feed upon the Living Bread.
Every time you feel spiritual thirst, drink of the Living Water. Thus you will know the joys of fellowship with Christ, and your whole life will be kept fresh, fragrant and fruitful in the fullness of the Spirit.”
In other words, remember, you are what you eat. And when we try to fill our hunger with things other than God, we are steeping ourselves in unreality and in unhealthy things.
After all, health . . . heals. And Jesus Christ is the ultimate reality check. He is to be our health.
And yet strangely, we live at a point in human history where we’ve never had more abundance, but less health.
Even many of our homeless and poor in the U.S. are fat and dying because of the abundance of cheap and fattening foods that were never available previously. And if you don’t believe me, take a look at 19th century frontier cook books. They are incredibly simple and boring.
To sum up the meat dishes, they typically say, “Cook meat over the fire ‘till done. Sprinkle with pepper or nutmeg if available . . . then serve.
Some of us need healing in our lives, but we’ve done nothing about it. We’ve sought to fill our hunger with things other than God.
And our physical habits are usually mirrors of our spiritual habits and choices.
Some of us need to get off our dead behinds and physically exercise. Some of us need to exercise and sanctify our imaginations.
Some of us need to look over our eating habits and quit eating all that junk. Try broccoli and bottled water for a change.
If Christ is at the center of our lives, all these things will be sooner or later be addressed, because Christian discipline and consistency is key for our health.
Jesus Christ is our Healer and His healing is for the whole person, but we cannot truly lay hold of this truth, if we hunger for the wrong things. Christ will not be manipulated for our personal whims and preferences.
Christ will be Lord of the body, or not Lord at all.
Let’s Pray
