Disease and Cure

There was a man who didn't really feel that sick, but he went to the doctor for an annual checkup anyway. The doctor called the man a week later with the results of a blood test and asked him to come back in for a follow-up. The doctor informed the man that he had a strange disease and that he was dying. However, the doctor told the man that if he took this special medicine that the disease would go away and the man would live. The man told the doctor "But I feel fine! Nothing is wrong with me. I don't believe your diagnosis and I think you are lying to me. You're just trying to take my money by telling me I have some disease that really doesn't exist, you worthless, lying quack." The doctor gave the man a stern warning once again that he would die if he refuses treatment, but the man, who felt perfectly fine, still denied treatment. He wound up dying.

Contrary to the popular belief of unbelievers, true Christians don't teach that people go to hell because they don't believe in Jesus. People die and go to hell because they have a disease called sin. Most people deny they have this disease, and they deny it up until their dying day when it is too late to do anything about this disease. They deny they have this disease because they feel like they are pretty good people, that their good outweighs their bad, and that God (whoever they make Him out to be) will forgive them because they tried their hardest.

People; it just doesn't work that way. Just as in the story of the man with the disease who refused treatment died, so too will you die if you refuse Jesus. You have a disease called sin that makes you have all sorts of evil thoughts, commit evil deeds, and consent to evil acts. It doesn't matter how much "good" you do, you will never get rid of this disease. Good does not make up for bad, just like quitting smoking after you have lung cancer doesn't make lung cancer go away.

The prognosis: You have a disease called sin which leads to eternal death.
The cure: You need Jesus Christ to take away your sin disease so that you may live and have peace with God.

John Chrysostom on the Sabbath

"[W]hen he [God] said, ‘You shall not kill’ . . . he did not add, ‘because murder is a wicked thing.’ The reason was that conscience had taught this beforehand, and he speaks thus, as to those who know and understand the point. Wherefore when he speaks to us of another commandment, not known to us by the dictate of conscience, he not only prohibits, but adds the reason. When, for instance, he gave commandment concerning the Sabbath— ‘On the seventh day you shall do no work’—he subjoined also the reason for this cessation. What was this? ‘Because on the seventh day God rested from all his works which he had begun to make’ [Ex. 20:10-11]. . . . For what purpose then, I ask, did he add a reason respecting the Sabbath, but did no such thing in regard to murder? Because this commandment was not one of the leading ones. It was not one of those which were accurately defined of our conscience, but a kind of partial and temporary one, and for this reason it was abolished afterward. But those which are necessary and uphold our life are the following: ‘You shall not kill. . . . You shall not commit adultery. . . . You shall not steal.’ On this account he adds no reason in this case, nor enters into any instruction on the matter, but is content with the bare prohibition" (Homilies on the Statutes 12:9 [A.D. 387]).

"You have put on Christ, you have become a member of the Lord and been enrolled in the heavenly city, and you still grovel in the law [of Moses]? How is it possible for you to obtain the kingdom? Listen to Paul’s words, that the observance of the law overthrows the gospel, and learn, if you will, how this comes to pass, and tremble, and shun this pitfall. Why do you keep the Sabbath and fast with the Jews?" (Homilies on Galatians 2:17 [A.D. 395]).

"The rite of circumcision was venerable in the Jews’ account, forasmuch as the law itself gave way thereto, and the Sabbath was less esteemed than circumcision. For that circumcision might be performed, the Sabbath was broken; but that the Sabbath might be kept, circumcision was never broken; and mark, I pray, the dispensation of God. This is found to be even more solemn than the Sabbath, as not being omitted at certain times. When then it is done away, much more is the Sabbath" (Homilies on Philippians 10 [A.D. 402]).