You can hear this chapter as it was preached over three Sundays by clicking on this link:
Sermons for Chapter 2. The Victims of Sin. THREE PARTS.
Note that what is below and what was preached are not the same! The same material is covered, but the sermon and the text expand upon it differently. In the book which will come from all of this, both of these contents will be combined. For now, the reading and listening experience will vary!
The world today is filled with victims. This includes both those who are genuinely victims of oppression, physical, mental and emotional violence, injury, disease and more, and also – to be blunt – those who live in a perpetual state of ìpoor me,î either stuck or reveling in a daily role of victimhood, presuming others are there to meet their every need.
Sermons for Chapter 2. The Victims of Sin. THREE PARTS.
Note that what is below and what was preached are not the same! The same material is covered, but the sermon and the text expand upon it differently. In the book which will come from all of this, both of these contents will be combined. For now, the reading and listening experience will vary!
The world today is filled with victims. This includes both those who are genuinely victims of oppression, physical, mental and emotional violence, injury, disease and more, and also – to be blunt – those who live in a perpetual state of ìpoor me,î either stuck or reveling in a daily role of victimhood, presuming others are there to meet their every need.
Healing is available for all of these conditions, and
this book will reveal Who does it and how you can be a part of it. Letís begin
with some foundational insights.
The Problem
Sin and the redemption of the sinner are the focus of much
of the churchís theology as well as the fuel of its striving to save the world.
The church uses both fear of judgment and invitation to a better life to help
individuals turn from their lives of sin to Jesus as the way of salvation.
While this is an essential part of the Good News of Jesus Christ, it is not
all of it.
Sin is not victimless, but the church often seems devoted primarily
to the redemption of sinners and only secondarily to the victims of sin.
Yet the gospel is also for the victims of sin, and it promises
redemption and healing for them.
Romans 5:9 is usually translated like this: ìHaving now been
justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.î The New
Living Translation says, ìHe will certainly save us from Godís judgment.î Explanations
of this verse usually emphasize how we are under Godís judgment because of our
sin and how we can be acquitted because Jesus, who was innocent, took our
place. In our theology, we assert that God is justifiably angry toward us but
that we escape His wrath because of Jesus.
It would be truer to the original text, however, to say that
Godís wrath[1]
is against evil. We are subject to His wrath because as sinners we are
participants in evil, immersed in evil, literally ìdevoted to sin, evil (a`martwlo,j, hamartolos).î Romans 5:8
declares,
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were
still sinners [still devoted to evil], Christ died for us.
This verse illuminates what the gospel is about. God is
angry about evil but loves us so much that Christ died for us even while we
were still devoted to evil.
Why is God angry about evil?
This is a foundational question. Is it because it interferes
with His authority? Because Satan is competition for Him? If so, God is petty
and insecure and, thus, not God. Rather, He is angry about evil because of the
harm it does, because of the relationships it destroys, and because of the
suffering it causes—in short, because it has victims.
There is no victimless sin. For every sinner and sin there
is always a victim. Sometimes the victims of sin are the sinners
themselves; more often the victims are others. But there are always victims,
and Jesus died for them too. His heart clearly was for the marginalized, the
outcast, the prisoners, the blind and the wounded. He even told us that when we
served them, we served Him:
Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the
least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.[2]
The world and the church are filled with sinners, but they
are also full of sinís victims. And just as Jesus desired to heal both sinners
and sinned against while He walked on earth, He wants us, as His body, to serve
and heal them in the world today. He loved and touched and healed them, and He
commanded us to do the same. ìHeal!î is both the command Jesus gave to those He
healed, and the command He gave His followers when He sent them into the world.
It is the command He gives us, you and me.
The Good News is for both the redemption of sinners
(all of us) and the healing of the sinned against (also all of us).
Without both of these, the gospel is incomplete.
Sin wounds – physically, mentally, emotionally,
spiritually. That is why God hates it and why He loves to heal its victims. And
just as there are great sinners (that is, those whose devotion to evil has many
victims), so are there great victims (that is, those who have been crippled by
the sin done to them). The church must be willing to see and offer the Good
News to both, yet it often ignores or condemns the victims while it attends to
and redeems the victimizers. Healing prayer is focused on healing victims from
the effects of sin. This must apply to all, and most certainly it must include
those most profoundly wounded.
Few of the terms used in this book require explicit definition.
Those whose meanings may be unique or uncommon include:
∑ Healing Prayer—prayer that explicitly seeks and
relies upon the supernatural intervention of God through the agency of the Holy
Spirit for the healing of victims of sin in the physical, mental, emotional,
and spiritual dimensions of their lives.
∑ Han—a Korean word introduced by Andrew Park as a
category referring to the sinned against, their state of oppression and
victimization, and the consequences of sin for them, whether caused by an
individual or an institution.[3]
∑ Peculiar—a term used colloquially to describe people
who are social misfits, often as a result of their woundedness as victims of
sin (Han), but which ironically (and irenically) in older English usage means
ìa hidden treasure.î
Heal! rests on the biblical revelation that
God is willing to heal. ìThe God Who healsî is even one of His names in the Old
Testament.
Healing has occurred throughout the history of the church,
even though at times it is has faded among those who disbelieved, failed to
ask, or injected misunderstandings and theological error into their
understanding of God. This book relies upon Godís numerous promises in
Scripture to heal, His healing initiatives throughout history, and the belief
that healing can be taught and ìcaught.î Since healing can be
demonstrated, experienced, and learned by others, the effectiveness and the
success of the teaching can also be seen.
Just as sinners need forgiveness, sinís victims need healing.
Healing, as construed in this book, is confined to repair
and recovery from wounding. It is distinguished from forgiveness and redemption
from sin, which are used here to refer to sinners who victimize. Broader
definitions of these terms might allow them to cover both kinds of
needs—of sinner and sinned against—but they are used narrowly here
for the sake of clarity.
Jesus sent His disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, into
the entire world to share the Good News and to heal and minister much as He
did.
Some victims of sin have overcome their wounding; others can
seem quite ìnormalî and not attract attention. But other victims often have
physical or social affects that single them out for ostracism or belittling.
Our culture (including the church) looks at many of them as ìpeculiar,î and
many in the church at large are made uneasy by their presence and behavior,
which may be in the form of self-destructiveness, drug or alcohol misuse,
weight gain or loss, anger, withdrawal, sexual confusion, helplessness, or
other disability. Sometimes they dress oddly, do not bathe, or act in other
ways outside social norms.
So wounded are they that often they would agree they are
properly the object of the scorn they experience, and it is common for them to
see themselves as unworthy of respect or love, whether from other people or
from God. At times the wounding causes them to invent a new persona in an
attempt to escape the pain and disguise the one who was in harmís way. In some
cases this even appears to result in multiple persona (called ìpartsî or ìaltersî)
in a single person, who presents to the world the one that seems appropriate in
the face of a specific need or threat.[4]
Many of the wounded become wounders themselves, even sinning in the same way
they have been sinned against.
Of course, some victims of sin can appear quite ìnormal,î
though the simple reality is that those who seek out healing are often among
the most needy. They manage to develop or maintain a normal affect and so
appear without obvious wounds. But the sin of which they are victims still
intrudes into their present lives and disables them, leaving them broken and
incomplete, just in less obvious ways—some hidden and some delayed in
time, to burst forth later in life.
Clearly, training in healing must acknowledge a vast range
of needs in those being prayed for, and this training teaches those who pray
for healing to be sensitive to these realities, to avoid judging on
appearances, and to withhold the kind of disdain common in our culture and in
our churches. Nevertheless, the practical essentials of healing can be taught
regardless of the specific need or the depth of the wounding.
Understanding how to willingly seek Godís intervention, how
to give up control to the Holy Spirit, and how not to interfere or misdirect
are the basics of healing, and they are independent of the degree of need. They
are not just for the profoundly wounded or their wounds, though these are
important. Teaching about the badly victimized is an element of the overall
training, but it is not its sole focus.† Understanding deep need equips those
who pray to respond more broadly to all needs, but the basics remain the same
across the spectrum.
The effects and affects described here are common
consequences of sin and as such are open to healing through prayer.[5] Jesus charged His
disciples to heal the sick, and we are the inheritors of this charge. Just as
Jesus trained His disciples by ìuse and practiceî (one of the root meanings of disciple
in Greek), those who have learned healing prayer teach it by doing, by explaining
what is being done, and by inviting those being discipled to do it as well.
When trained ministers (that is, disciples) pray, the Holy
Spirit responds willingly with healing. Even in large group demonstrations, it
is not uncommon to see the Holy Spirit touch and heal people profoundly
throughout the room, even though the prayer is apparently focused on just the
person in front. When invited, the Spirit ìblows where it wishesî (John 3:8),
which is often well beyond the expectations of even the trainers. It is
eloquent testimony to Godís willingness to heal.
Jesus explained this willingness in this way:
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to
him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among
you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a
serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a
scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask Him![6]
In teaching believers to exercise this gift of healing, it
must be made clear that this promise of Jesus is not a spiritual abstraction,
but a real event with a real effect in the real physical world.
In some cases, the coming of the Holy Spirit produces
physical healing. In others, it frees people in the present from the
destructive intrusion of the past into their minds, emotions, and spirit. That
is, instead of being disabled by the wounding and damage of the past, they are
released from its power and begin new chapters in their lives, free from the
bondage that was their constant reality. In time, they often become the most
compassionate and willing to pray for the healing of others.
The Holy Spirit directs and empowers this change through
healing prayer—prayer that directly seeks the Spiritís intervention in
peopleís lives for the healing of the effects of the sins committed against
them by others and by themselves, as well as for their ongoing sanctification.
Thus, the basic assumptions of training in healing prayer are:
∑
Sinís victims need healing.
∑
Healing is repair and recovery from wounding, not forgiveness
from sin.
∑
Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus empowered His followers to be
healers.
With this foundation laid, the hypothesis of this book can
be asserted clearly and with confidence: By the power of the Holy Spirit,
victims of sin can be healed, and believers in the body of Christ can be
trained to be the agents of this healing.
Of course, the victims of sin are not just the badly
wounded, nor are most of the elements of healing prayer specific to the needs
of the most wounded. The foundational aspects of healing prayer are broadly
applicable.
All of us, including those badly sinned against, are
sinners, and the ministry of healing does not seek to minimize or ignore this.
In fact, healing the damage of sin done to us sometimes begins with our
receiving forgiveness for the damage of sin we ourselves have caused. But often
this is not true, and healing for the victims of sin has specific
characteristics, dimensions, and requirements that are often unknown or ignored
by the church. Perhaps this is why the profoundly wounded are more likely to
seek out opportunities for healing prayer and attend teaching on the subject
than those who are less obviously wounded.
In healing prayer, the Holy Spirit is invited to work in the
prayer ministers and in the victim, both to lead to forgiveness of others and
to the healing of the damage done to the victim. This prayer is appropriate for
anyone, since all are sinned against, just as all are sinners, but it brings
particular satisfaction and joy when those who have been badly hurt are healed.
As the healing unfolds, even the people once regarded as peculiar by an often
cruel culture and church are revealed to be Godís ìpeculiarî people in the
sense intended by the King James Bible, which uses peculiar to translate
the Hebrew word meaning treasure, jewel, or valued property:
Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord
hath chosen thee to be a peculiar[7]
people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.[8]
There are a significant number of healing ministries in the
church at large today, ranging from charlatanry to genuine, caring, and
effective efforts, but even in the best of these, there is little other than healing.
That sounds odd to say – since healing is wonderful! – but the
secret of Godís gifts to us is that they are then be used to bless others. Those
who are healed should learn to do healing prayer themselves! Perhaps combining
the best lessons from these healings with insights from Scripture and the
leading of the Holy Spirit can produce a resource that will benefit the
individuals being trained and allow them to take the training home to impact
the world at large.
This is of particular importance to the church in its
understanding and care of ìpeculiarî people. Not all who seek healing prayer
have so profound and apparent a wounding as these. While some people come for
healing prayer much as they would visit the family doctor for a minor illness,
the ministry of healing prayer would be a failure if it served only such needs.
It is in its ability to serve those more seriously wounded that the church
gains true understanding about the depths of Godís love and His willingness to
heal.
Because many in the church have not even thought about the
badly sinned against, much less learned how to love and heal them, these people
quickly realize that they do not fit and are not understood, and they therefore
feel pain while in church and quickly flee. This is both an acknowledgment of
how the church has failed to be Christís body and a challenge to it to grow in
Christlikeness.
I have delighted in how powerfully the Holy Spirit moves
when invited, and how touched people are who have witnessed His power,
experienced His infilling, or been healed by Him. The ministry of healing is
very focused on how these transformational experiences have the power to draw
unbelievers to Jesus Christ and believers into a deeper healing and sanctifying
relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.
Healing is always a sovereign move of God, not something
that can be packaged or manufactured. Yet there are areas where training is
important:
∑
In correcting misunderstandings about the nature of healing
∑
In identifying things that can act as barriers and distractions
∑
In finding methods to focus participants and lead to greater
effectiveness in prayer
Some churches put little emphasis on the Holy Spirit, and
some ìcessationistsî believe that the miraculous healing work of the Holy
Spirit ceased after the apostolic age. While the principles of healing prayer
are broadly applicable, some additional teaching and caution may be required in
introducing this teaching in such venues.
[1]
ovrgh, orge
[2]
Matthew 25:40
[3]
Andrew Sung Park, The Wounded Heart of God: The Asian Concept of Han and the
Christian Doctrine of Sin (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1993).
[4]James
G. Friesen, Uncovering the Mystery of MPD [Multiple Personality
Disorder] (San Bernadino, Calif.: Hereís Life Publishers, 1991), 41–67.
[5]
The teaching also values the contribution of professional therapy and medicine
(including psychiatry) and explicitly teaches those who pray must avoid amateur
attempts at these professions.
[6]
Luke 11:10–13
[7]
------ cegullah, Hebrew for treasure,
jewel, valued property.
[8]
Deuteronomy 14:2 kjv
