Cut It Out
In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self-ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ - Colossians 2:1
Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. Helen Keller
Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit.” - Mark 2:17 (MSG)
Having something cut out or cut away is reserved for the professionals, someone who knows what the heck they are doing. Things get pretty serious pretty quick when a diagnosis of cancer is presented to a patient. I’ve had family and friends who have been presented such diagnosis and the treatment decided upon ... cut it out. Tumors or cancer compromise and encumber us from a life we would have if we were free from its presence. These unwelcome conditions are treated best when found early. Everyone knows that, the sooner the better.
The connection between our physical bodies needing this kind of attention (the earlier the better) and our spiritual bodies, our soul's wellbeing, is uncanny. We cannot live free with “things" in the way; cancers of the body or cancers of the soul impede our lives and life in the Kingdom. We need a great physician.
The good news ... Christ is that great physician. All his healing, miracles for those afflicted; the blind, deaf, leprous, crippled or lame, ALL were to show his power and authority to work at an even deeper level. Christ’s ability to heal the body always points to his ability to heal us at our core. Matthew 9:4-6 ...
But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven and the penalty paid,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? [Both are possible for God; both are impossible for man.] But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority and the power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and go home.”
Paul writes in Romans 2:28-29 ...
For he is not a [real] Jew who is only one outwardly, nor is [true] circumcision something external and physical. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and [true] circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by [the fulfillment of] the letter [of the Law]. His praise is not from men, but from God.
When we come to God, declaring we need his help, inviting him to cut away what is in our way, something is removed that is preventing us from living free, we are given a grace and a healing that enables us to an overcoming life. In the spiritual realm, we are far more than sinners saved, far more than trying not to sin … we are rebuilt, remade to thrive—to be fully alive! God in us and we in him-the only true treatment and remedy to everything that ails us and impedes us from living free.
How are you living the overcoming life Christ has afforded us?
Is there anything in the way of you being loved and loving others that you can go to God for treatment?
