Being Conformed To His Image

Does God use sickness and disease to conform us to his image? Romans 8:29 states the following, “Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren”. Romans 12:2 follows with, “be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. It is said of our Lord and Saviour that he was the lamb of God that took away the sin of the world and by His stripes we are healed.

Sickness, disease and death, are the result of sin. Without sin, there is no sickness and disease and we are without sin in Christ. We have a better covenant than that of natural Israel and even in the first covenant, healing was provided for God’s people. Psalm 103, verses 1 through 5 states the following: “Bless the Lord oh my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all our iniquities; who heals our diseases; who redeems our life from destruction; who crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfies our mouth with good things; so that our youth is renewed like the eagle’s”.

Taking into consideration all of the above and finding no case in scripture that states that God uses sickness and disease to transform His people into the image of His Son, we must question any doctrine that would teach such. God uses evil in all it’s many facets to bring us to Christ, but only in contrast to His goodness. “It is the goodness of God that leads us onto repentance”. His goodness is revealed against the backdrop of evil. For example, while we were yet sinners and enemies of God, Christ died for us. When this light shines in the midst of or darkness, the truth made known to us and we enter in to the kingdom of His dear Son. Then and only then does the process of conforming begin, as we come to know Him and are renewed in the spirit of our mind, being transformed by the renewing of our mind in Him. The outer man perishes but the inner man, is renewed day by day.

Scripture does not teach that the outer man perishes through sickness and disease, but rather is caught up into the inner man. Death is swallowed up of life and darkness is swallowed up of light as the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, quickens our mortal body. Our mortal body is the one we currently have while we yet await the transformation to our glorious body, which is like unto His. This mortal body should experience the benefits of the Spirit it is joined to. It was said of Moses, in Deuteronomy 34:7, “and Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated”.

We as belonging to the Lord should prosper and be in health, even as our soul prospers (3 John verse 2). Healing first takes place by the Spirit in the soul, and as the soul prospers we should prosper and be in health. Health is a result of the wholeness we experience as we are being conformed into His image.

The apostle Paul said of the Church at Corinth, that many were sick among them and many sleep because they did not properly discern the Lord’s body. We can eat and drink damnation unto ourselves and be chastened of the Lord. It is the result of not properly judging or discerning ourselves, as to who we are and how we are in Christ. How important it is to realize our wholeness and completeness before we can be of any help to others.

Art Groesbeck