The Remedy

December 15 John 3:1-20 Advent Week 3

Did you ever have someone ask you, “What ails you?” This usually happens when someone is acting pretty weird or out of character. The person asking writes the strange behavior off as the result of something that ails the person, not as a fundamental flaw.

God doesn’t have to ask us what ails us. He knows what ails us. He knows what’s at the root of our “strange” behavior.

Something does indeed ail us. And it is also a fundamental flaw.

When we ask this question, we don’t tend to have a remedy for what is ailing the sick person. We’re just wondering what the cause is.

The preemptive good news is that even before we start asking why we are in this sick state we are in, God has provided a remedy. He has given us a place to look to in order to find healing and salvation. It’s not a matter of trouble shooting the problem. The problem is that we have a sinful nature.

Some in the world would have us believe that we do not have a sinful nature but that we are basically good inside. Which of course wonderfully explains how everyone gets along so well in the world and why there is so little violence and disrespect.

God certainly knows we are not basically good and He is all about providing what we need – the remedy for what ails us. He has done that in His son Jesus. We live under the curse of sin until that curse is taken away. And that curse is taken away on the cross Jesus died on. The curse of sin and death is lifted by His substitutionary death – so we do not have to suffer the fruit of our sinful sickness.

When Jesus is lifted up on the cross and we see Him for who He is and for what He is accomplishing on that cross, we find our healing.

Looking to the cross is where life begins for the sinful. Only by His remedy are we made whole. When we look to Him and to Him alone.