September 25, 2013
Romans 5:12, 14
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
Now that’s a curious title for this blog – You Sin…You Sneeze! I will have to explain what I mean.
There are some of the Christian faith – especially those of the Name it, Claim it & Frame it! mindset – more commonly called The Prosperity Gospel – who will say “If you are sick, your faith is not strong enough. Because God wants all His children to be in perfect health!” So if you have so much as a cold, you are led to think that it is because you lack faith or understanding of the promises of God!
But there is an element of truth in that thinking – though The Prosperity Gospel has warped it far beyond the original meaning. And this is what I want to explore in this blog.
Consider what Paul wrote in Romans 5:12 and 14
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through
sin; and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned….death reigned
from Adam….
Before sin entered into the world – recorded in Genesis 3 – God created man to be perfect. He was never to die, never to be sick. God warned Adam in Genesis 2: 16 and 17:
Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall
surely die.
Adam ate, and Adam died! Oh, he didn’t die physically right away! That took another 930 years, according to Genesis 5:5. Yes, I know, some believe it is fantastical embellishment when the great ages of early man are recorded. I may write some blogs in the future on the scientific evidence of why the recorded ages are accurate. But Adam died spiritually. In Genesis 3:8 it says:
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool
of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
LORD God among the trees of the garden.
They ran and hid from God! Spiritual death is separation from God! And if such separation is not rectified during this lifetime, then it will result in eternal separation from God in hell!
The point of this blog is this: sickness and death did not enter into creation until sin made its appearance! So, in that sense, all sickness is the result of sin! In other words, You Sin…You Sneeze!
In the Romans 5 passage above, Adam passed on to all succeeding generations what is commonly referred to as the sin nature. It is that propensity of humankind to sin! Sin is more than just the outward action. Jesus said in Matthew 15:18 through 20:
…those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart; and they
defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which
defile a man….
It is from the nature within human beings which sin comes. We are all sinners! This is what Paul writes in Romans 3:10 and 23: “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one….for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God….” That’s why we all need Jesus Christ as our Savior! Only He paid for all our sins on the cross! Only He can reconcile us back to the Father!
So why is that You Sin…You Sneeze? God has left us a constant reminder – even with so much as catching the common cold – that we are sinners and we need a Savior!
So the next time you sneeze, realize that you are a sinner and need a Savior! The next time you see any sign of sickness in anyone, realize that we are all sinners and need a Savior! The next time you read an obituary – or attend a viewing or a funeral – realize that we are all sinners and need a Savior! And thank God He has left in place such a constant reminder that we are all sinners and need a Savior! You Sin…You Sneeze!