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Mental Illness and Depression (iv)

Friday, 27 October, 2006

Jesus

With Jesus comes the inauguration of the kingdom of God. At Jesus' baptism, God's voice from heaven says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). He isn't just declaring Jesus to be the Christ and King, he's also declaring Jesus to be the suffering servant from Isaiah—the one who would bear our griefs, carry our sorrows, be wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities—the one whose stripes will bring us healing (Is 53:4-5).

Physical

The healing Jesus brings is physical. Throughout Jesus' ministry, he healed the sick, caused the lame to walk and opened the eyes of the blind. In those days, the lame and the blind were excluded from the temple because their physical deformity made them unholy. Jesus reversed this by healing people right inside the temple (Matt 21:14).

His acts of healing looked forward to the day when the kingdom of God came into full flowering—the day when all physical illness and deformity would disappear. On the cross, Jesus ransomed our bodies that were in bondage to decay and in slavery to sin (Rom 8:21; 6:20). His resurrection means that we too will be resurrected, and our bodies will become imperishable, clothed in immortality (1 Cor 15:53). In heaven, we will never get sick.

However, as we are not yet in heaven, even though Jesus has already come, we must remember that we still live in a sinful age, and therefore illness is to be expected. We mustn't say, like people who teach the prosperity gospel, that God will grant us perfect health in the here and now.

This is not to say that God doesn't heal people: he certainly does, and 3 John 2 makes it clear that it is right to pray for good health. But don't think that, just because you've prayed, you can throw away your medication and expect to be healthy. That's a promise of the new creation which has not yet been fulfilled.

Situational

What of the situational? Jesus came to heal more than illness: he came to heal sin. He came to break sin's curse. He deals with our sin by bringing us forgiveness through his blood on the cross.

It's interesting that sometimes physical healing is linked with forgiveness of sins. The link is there in Psalm 103:3 and Isaiah 33:24, and even Mark 2:1-12 where Jesus heals the paralytic. But again, as I said before, we shouldn't think that sin necessarily leads to suffering. Jesus is asked this in John 9 when his disciples ask him whose fault it was that this man was born bind. He replies that it wasn't because of anyone's sin but rather it was for the glory of God.

The forgiveness we receive through Jesus enables us to have right relationship with God, and therefore right relationship with each other. Being forgiven means that we are better able to forgive each other for the wrongs committed against us. Even though aspects of life will still make us sad, we know that our suffering does have purpose: God is moulding us so that we become more like Christ (Rom 8:17, 28).

We also know that we will not suffer forever. We have the hope of heaven, for in heaven we will dwell with God who will “wipe away every tear from [our] eyes ... death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:3-4). I don't know about you but I'm really looking forward to that!

Mental

One final note about the difference Jesus makes to our mental state: Earlier I quoted Kirsten Birkett who said “Before heaven no one will have perfect psychological health”. She argues that, in Christ, we're on our way towards that goal for our aim as Christians is to become like Christ, “the only truly right-thinking human who ever lived”.

Before we were saved, we were lost in the futility of our thinking. Passages like Ephesians 4:17-23 and Romans 1:21-28 highlight the degeneracy of our mental condition. But then, when we decided to follow Jesus, our minds became transformed and renewed. The Holy Spirit within us changes us and teaches us to know the mind of God.

Birkett writes, “Knowing the mind of Christ, we have the capacity to aim for right thinking and judgement about the world.” We can now understand what it is to live in right relationship with God, right relationship with each other and right relationship with the world. The ultimate fulfillment of this will be heaven when our spiritual and psychological transformation will be complete.

Okay, that's all I have to say about the theology of illness. I strongly encourage you to read J.C. Ryle's essay, Sickness, which is available from Matthias Media. He says some good stuff which I haven't touched on here.

Over to Emma.

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