Word for Word 5/6/20

Rev. Ron Pederson
Rev. Ron Pederson

God’s Cure For Diseases
 
Every Fall a new flu shot is available at drug stores and clinics. It is never 100% effective but it greatly reduces your chances of getting the flu.  God has also blessed us with many vaccines through the years that are 100% effective.  There is a vaccine for polio, chicken pox, the measles, the mumps and many other diseases.

But what about Covid 19? Will there finally be a cure for that? Of course no one knows the answer to that question. I think it fair to say that most of the experts believe there will be a cure eventually. And how long will it take?  Dr Fauci said that it will likely take a year to a year and a half to develope a vaccine for Covid 19. No one knows for sure.

But in the meantime we can practice sensible guidelines that will limit the spread of this virus. And we can also pray and ask God to allow a cure, if it be His will. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know that God does, and we are in safe hands leaving the outcome with Him.

But we also have another disease that is even more deadly in the end, and that is our sin disease. Our first parents, Adam and Eve contracted this disease when they sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit. And this sin disease has spread to all of us, to all of Adam’s descendants. The bible says: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

But God did provide a cure - A cure that is 100% effective.  God sent His Son Jesus to undo our sin disease. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 519).

In the Old Testament the Israelites were bitten by venomous snakes because of their sin. And God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole and whoever was bitten could look at that bronze snake and live. This pointed ahead to the cure that Jesus has provided for us. Jesus said: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:14-16).

We have all contracted this sin disease.  And we all know what the symptoms are: the guilt, the shame, the fear of death.  But we have the cure in Jesus. In Jesus we are cleansed, all our sins are washed away. The bible says: “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Do you feel the guilt of your sin?  Look to Jesus. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of  the world” (John 1:29).  Put your faith in Jesus and be cleansed personally of all your sins. In Jesus all our sins are forgiven. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

We hope and pray that God will eventually allow us to find a cure for this virus. And we thank Him that He has already provided a cure for our most deadly disease, our sin, by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross guilty of all our sins. And now His blood cleanses us from all sin. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:2-3).

Rev. Ron Pederson
King of Grace Lutheran Church (ELS/WELS)
Waukon