In the last year or so of Paul's life, when he was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote a letter to his son in the faith, Timothy. And, looking back across the years of his ministry, he spoke of the coming of our Savior Christ Jesus, "who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Tim. 1:10). That is the great and central fact in the good news about Jesus Christ: He has done what no other can ever do - he has abolished death. That is what is unique about the gospel!
Death has many forms. We actually begin to die long before we take our last breath. Death seizes us in many areas of our life other than the physical. There are many forms of death. Boredom is death. Sickness, of course, is death, but despair is also death. Fear and worry are forms of death. Mental illness is death, but so is bitterness of spirit. Death can seize our life while we live, and rule over great areas of our life long before we ever die. We know that from experience. But the great good news of Jesus Christ is that he has come to abolish death, death in every form, whatever it may be.
In Acts 9 we see two stories of healing from two different kinds of death. We will see how in each case the power of Jesus Christ abolishes death. The first incident is a picture of death's power to paralyze.
Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. - Acts 9:32-34
If you have ever been to Israel, you have probably been to Lydda. If you fly into Israel that is where you land. The airport outside Tel Aviv is at the ancient town of Lydda. It was to this village that Peter came on his way down from Jerusalem, visiting among the new churches of Judea and Samaria. The church had been thrust out from Jerusalem and pockets of Christianity had begun in all the villages in Judea and Samaria. In Lydda he finds a man who had been paralyzed for eight years.
Now Peter was no faith healer. He was not like the TV faith healers in America today who make grandiose claims of possessing powers to heal people. Peter never said that he had any power to heal anyone. "Jesus Christ heals you," he says. Peter was but the instrument and channel of his healing power. This man was made well instantaneously. As we have seen before in Acts, these physical miracles are a picture of the spiritual miracle that God wants to perform in every human spirit. God heals physically. He still does, and there are numerous perfectly valid instances of modern healings. But one thing is true of those today, just as in New Testament days: God heals physically only selectively. He never heals everybody that is sick. Jesus did not even when He walked the earth. He healed selectively, because it is intended to picture the healing of the soul. That is what God really wants. Any healing of the body is, at best, temporary.
Every one who was ever healed in New Testament days died later on. The healing of their bodies was just temporary because it was designed to be a picture. It is God's wonderful way of illustrating the healing of the sinful heart which would be eternal and which is really what God wants!
Jeff Frazier
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