The Four Biblical Roots of Sickness.

There are four clear roots of sickness or physical ailment that I can see provisioned for in scripture:

1.     A person is sick because of general sin. This covers the reality that we live in a fallen and broken world and ultimately sin has fractured everything. When Adam and Eve sinned, death entered.

2.     A person is sick because of specific sin. In the gospel of John Jesus heals a crippled man in chapter 5 and says “go and leave your life of sin that nothing worse may happen to you.” The implication is that specific or individual sin can be the cause of this type of sickness or disablement. We also see this in Revelation 2:22 concerning the woman Jesus calls Jezebel, to whom he says, “Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed [and the others who sin with her]…unless they repent of her works.” This is also the case with the paralytic in Matthew 9 and Mark 2; the sin was the barrier to healing and not his faith. Jesus healed him to prove his sin had been forgiven and that he had the authority to forgive sins.

3.     A person is sick because of the influence of a demonic spirit which has taken hold of a person. In these cases, we see Jesus casting out the demon from a person then bringing healing to the body. A good example is Luke 9:37. A key thing with this type of illness that I have seen are degenerative types of illness which work to destroy people. That’s what the demon’s goal is with this boy. Demons want to destroy or at least to bring serious harm.

4.     A person is sick providentially. This is a tough one for people to grapple with as it becomes harder to reconcile theologically. There is a man born blind in John chapter 9. The disciples want to know whether he or his parents sinned, and Jesus said, “it was not that they sinned, but it was for the glory of God that the works of God might be displayed.” So, was this man blind his whole life that God might display his Glory? Yes. Sometimes suffering is willed by God for his own purpose and because of something we cannot see. It doesn’t make God evil he has the right over what he makes just like the potter and the clay. It just means that this falls within the category of what is hidden and what we may not ever know. Don’t stumble over this - the hidden things belong to God. What has been revealed, more importantly who has been revealed, shows us the heart of God - that’s our wonderful Jesus.

What we can know in all cases is this good news – we see clear examples of sicknesses resulting from all four roots being healed by Jesus. This helps us to see that it’s clearly God’s will to heal and that it is good and right to seek healing in every case no matter the root cause.

God is willing to heal, and he does heal. “I am the Lord who heals you,” (Exodus 15:26).