JESUS CHRIST did not come with a life-shortening suggestion but with a life-saving power. His highest wish is for us to prosper and have health in both soul and body. He said, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth (3 John 2)".
The story of Jesus is the story of deliverance. In the power of His pure and healthy being and in the strength of an undivided personality, the Master of men came into this world to bring release to man from his fears and frustrations, from his spiritual, physical and mental illnesses, and to make him a whole man.
The healing that Jesus brings is more than spiritual, more than mental, more than physical—it is those and more. His healing is to make us "whole"—healthy in soul, mind and body, healthy in our relationships with others, in our attitudes, our habits, in our way of life, all the days of our life.
Jesus is a complete Deliverer from the hurts and ills of life.
There is an old legend handed down that tells how even the wooden cross on which Jesus died brought healing:
"Helena, the mother of Constantine, while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, gave instructions to search for the cross of Christ. As the workmen looked through the rubbish heaps of Calvary, they found three crosses, but the inscription which was over the head of Christ was lying in a separate place. There was no clue as to which of the three crosses was the one on which our Lord died.
"Maarius, the minister of the Christian church in Jerusalem, said, 'We will test the true cross.' The sick were gathered together. They tried one cross, but there was no leaping of the lame nor opening of the eyes of the blind. They took the second cross, yet there was no response. But when they took the third cross, blind eyes were opened, deaf ears were unstopped, the lame leaped to their feet and the sick were made whole."
The wooden cross that stood on Calvary is gone. The Christ who hung thereon is ascended and reigns from heaven. Outwardly we the cross no more. But Jesus the Person lives on, and in Him the lost, straying, suffering multitudes of every generation may find perfect deliverance. Jesus Christ is as real today as when the multitudes saw Him with their physical eyes. He is spiritual reality-the center of the plan of redemption of humanity —spirit, soul and body.
