1 John 3:8 “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
Our Lord Jesus has never and will never change (Malachi 3:6). And so, in the light of that truth we can look at the above quoted passage of scripture. In this passage the apostle John teaches us that when our Lord Jesus walked in the flesh He destroyed the works of the devil. Our Lord Jesus did that by healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead and preaching the gospel to the poor (Luke 7:22). And so because the Lord never changes He is still doing those same works today through His body the church, for Jesus said that those who believe in Him will do the same works that He did and even greater works than He did (John 14:12). There can be no doubt that every believer, in dealing with the unsaved, should be healing the sick, casting out demons and preaching the gospel to the poor. Raising the dead is not for the unsaved however, and we will discuss that point in more detail in a following section.
Acts 10:38 “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the bible reveals to us what Jesus did during His earthly ministry. In this passage the Holy Spirit specifically mentions that Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil. He does not say that Jesus went about doing good and healing everyone that was sick, but rather He mentions that Jesus healed everyone that was being oppressed by the devil. Very clearly the Holy Spirit is telling us in this passage that Satan is the originator of sickness and disease in the earth. And so when God sent His Son into the earth He gave Jesus the mandate to go into Satan’s territory, for the scripture teaches us that Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), and destroy his works of sickness and disease that he had placed upon mankind. As an aside I need to address an incorrect teaching along this line, which states that God cannot place sickness on individuals because He doesn’t have any, only Satan does. That teaching is completely inconsistent with scripture however, for the bible clearly teaches us that God is the creator of all things (Revelation 4:11), which would include all the viruses, etc, that can cause sickness in people. And if anyone doubts whether God is able to place sickness on an individual they can ask both Moses (Exodus 4:6) and Miriam (Numbers 12:10), who have both personally experienced God placing sickness on their bodies. So how does Satan fit in to this narrative then? Satan, who is an angel created by God, has no ability to create viruses himself, nevertheless God has given him authority to use viruses, etc, to make people sick. And so that is exactly what Satan does, which is why the above passage of scripture reveals to us that the ones that our Lord Jesus healed were those who were oppressed by the devil. The Lord Jesus still has the same mandate to destroy the works of the devil. The only difference now, is that Jesus no longer physically walks on the earth today, and so He can only fulfil that mandate through His church, for we are His body in the earth today.
Michael E.B. Maher
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