Christ the Way out of Sickness and Depression

Believer, God's word is very clear on the cause of sickness and depression; see Proverbs 17:22- "A joyful, cheerful heart brings healing to both body and soul. But the one whose heart is crushed struggles with sickness and depression."

See the NKJV: "A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones."

Also consider Proverbs 15:13-  "A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken."

In essence, we see a trend here: Sadness leads to a broken spirit/crushed heart which subsequently "dries up the bones" or causes a person to struggle with sickness and depression.

"Dries up the bones" here is not symbolic neither is it an allegory for something "spiritual." We see its application in our health everyday - bone marrow which keeps us alive and healthy is produced in the bones. It produces stem cells which produce red blood cells that transport oxygen/get rid of carbon-dioxide. These stem cells also produce platelets that trigger blood clotting so we don't bleed out and die from even tiny cuts and different types of white blood cells that help the body fight infections. The bone marrow produces what God's word says is where the life of every living thing is -

Leviticus 17:11 tells us: "The life of every living thing is in the blood, and that is why the Lord has commanded that all blood be poured out on the altar to take away the people's sins. Blood, which is life, takes away sins."

So in previously healthy people, sadness of heart leads to a broken spirit/crushed heart which "dries up the bones" or causes sickness and depression. So much that we have yet to discover concerning the connection between our minds and bodies/psychosomatic illnesses!

Dry bones have little to no capacity for producing new blood cells. This deficiency leads a host of medical conditions - fatigue, frequent/prolonged infections, rapid or irregular heart rate, headaches, dizziness - and other conditions that can be severe, chronic or even fatal. 

Thank God that we have the medicine for "dry bones" in the same book of Proverbs (15:30)- 

"The light in the eyes [of him whose heart is joyful] rejoices the hearts of others, and good news nourishes the bones."

The NIV says: "Light in a messenger’s eyes brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones."

And what is this "good news" that gives health to the bones? Believer, it is none other than the Gospel of Christ. The word "gospel" is from the Old English word "gōdspel," -  gōd (good) + spel (news, a story.) 

Christ Himself was the first to preach the Good News that makes the bones healthy, and on the same day of His resurrection. 

Remember the two depressed and despondent disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 - Cleopas and possibly Mrs. Cleopas? They were sad because they felt thay their hope of redemption was lost since Christ had died. Remember the root of dry bones is a sadness of heart. Christ drew near to them as they conversed and reasoned, but they didn't know it was Him: Luke 24:17-19:

"And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” 

19 And He said to them, “What things?”" 

They responded with an account of Christ's life, His arrest and crucifixion and how the women who went to His tomb could not find His body. See what Christ did after this: Luke 24:25-27.

25 "Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

Check out the result of Christ's OLD TESTAMENT teaching about Himself on Cleopas and his companion in verse 32:

"And they said to one another, “Were not our hearts greatly moved and burning within us while He was talking with us on the road and as He opened and explained to us [the sense of] the Scriptures?"”

The Living Bible (TLB) puts it this way: "They began telling each other how their hearts had felt strangely warm as He talked with them and explained the Scriptures during the walk down the road."

Their sadness was lifted! No more depression.

Believer, this is what the Good News does: it brings joy to our heart. It removes sadness, guilt, condemnation that kills, and that confident expectation of bad things happening. It lifts burdens. It makes for a merry heart knowing that your salvation isn't about what YOU must do but ALL about what CHRIST has done. Just by hearing it, it nourishes our bones (makes us healthy) and gives life in a way that we are yet to understand. We get to live right.

That same evening, Jesus appeared to His disciples in Jerusalem (the same Luke 24;) check out what He did in verse 45 (MSG)- 

“He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way.”

Remember the heart of Cleopas and his companion were "strangely warmed" as they heard Christ teach the Good News from the OLD Testament? The health-giving power of the Holy  Communion also features in this Luke 24 account of their meeting with the risen Christ.  There is increasing sadness, ssicknesss and depression among churchgoers today because what many are hearing isn't the Good News that makes the heart merry and nourishes the bones:

Many leaders and churchgoers are interpreting the stories of the Bible in a way that is different from that which Christ teaches - many are interpreting the Bible to mean that God is making demands of believers to keep the Law or else we perish in hell. Following this false doctrine is an effort in futility according to Romans 3:20-

"For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are." 

This (keeping the Law for righteousness) is the way to make sin an increasing factor in the lives of believers according to Romans 5:20-

"The law was given so that sin would increase. But where sin increased, God’s grace increased even more."

Also, Isaiah 64:6 tells us that our best efforts at doing right by human effort are like "a menstrual rag" in God's sight- 

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

That false doctrine that says: "Now that you are born-again, you have to do your best to keep the Law, or else" is not the Gospel.

That false doctrine that says: "Yes we are saved by Grace but we still have to keep the Law as a guiding principle for morality so that we don't fall from grace"  is not the Good News. This horrid mixture that is neither Law nor Grace is the "neither cold nor hot" that Christ spoke of in 3.

The Good News is Righteousness by faith. See the Good News that brings health in Romans 5:9-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

By hearing the Good News, we GET TO "live in triumph over sin and death,"  a product of our receiving God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ -- Romans 5:17-

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

No human additives. The Good News tells us in Titus 2:14-

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

The Good News is Grace. In Him, we do not continue to wallow in sins as many opponents who rely on their puny arm of flesh (human effort at suppressing sins) that will fail for freedom from sins say. The Good News (Grace) frees us from every kind of sin.

Remember, what Jesus did when He appeared to His disciples in Luke 24 (verse 45)- 

“He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way.”

Here's one such way to read the Old Testament that Christ Himself teaches us. He says in John 3:14-16:

"14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

Remember the bronze serpent that God told Moses to make when snakes were biting the Israelites to death in the wilderness? Christ draws a parallel between the way that the Israelites got to escape death and the way that we get to “not perish but have eternal life.”

The Israelites that had been bitten by snakes only had to look at the bronze serpent on the pole - for us, Christ lifted up to free us from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin, grant us everlasting righteousness apart from the Law and give us eternal life. Believing this way is seeing Christ lifted up.

Imagine the Israelites trying to suck the venom out of their wounds, rushing off to do burnt offerings/give gifts to God or doing their best to keep the Law in order to be healed and escape death instead of looking at the snake on the pole. They would have been distracted from looking at the snake on the pole with all of their futile efforts at doing what the law commands in order to be made whole. The effect of the venom within isn't stalled by these futile activities. Rather, it gets worse. Death is the result.

But this is exactly what many in the church today are doing with that false “Yes we are saved by grace but we still have to obey the Ten Commandments and do good things in order to be godly, made whole, escape God's wrath and make it to heaven” doctrine.

1 Corinthians 15:56 says: “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.”

Many churchgoers are still experiencing the effects of the sting of death (like the snake sting that killed some of the Israelites) in the form of proliferation of acts of sin, depression, sickness, lack, oppression, stress, everything that is as a result of the sin nature (sting of death) inherited from Adam because they are not looking to Christ alone for salvation, even salvation from sins and addictions. Just as rushing off to do things in order to be healed would have made the snake venom wreak more havoc, the Law that many churchgoers are trying to keep in order to be godly/saved gives sin power over them. Romans 6:14 says:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

The more one tries to do things by human effort (keep the Law) in order to be godly and saved, the more sins will multiply — same way the Israelites would have died if they had opted to run around looking for how to be free from the snake venom (sin nature) and its symptoms (acts of sin and their consequences) that lead to death, giving the venom time to spread and wreak havoc. Paul makes reference to this scenario in Romans 7:5—

“When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.”

The old nature is the sin nature inherited from Adam by all of his descendants — Romans 5:19 says “By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.”

The one with the old nature is not a new creation in Christ. He might profess Christ but he struggles to keep the Law and do good things in order to be godly aka “be like God.” He does not believe what Isaiah prophesied of Christ's suffering for us in Isaiah 53. See the result of His decease which He accomplished at Jerusalem in Isaiah 53:11-

"After He has suffered, He will see the light of life. And He will be satisfied. My godly servant will make many people godly because of what He will accomplish. He will be punished for their sins."

The one with the old nature does not believe Romans 5:9— "And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

The one with the old nature thinks his righteousness before God is a function of how well he can keep the Law. He expects God's wrath to fall on Him for his sins that Christ died to take away. He is constantly worried that he does not measure up and thus gets depressed! The Law that he tries so hard to keep has this effect: Romans 7:5—

“When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.”

Just as the Israelites looked at the snake on the pole and got to live, believing Jesus (Grace) through whose obedience we have everlasting righteousness is the only way to escape the grip of sin. This is the only way to live in triumph over sin (the snake sting and its symptoms) and death. See Romans 5:17-

“For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ.”

This is the Good News that nourishes the bones, getting rid of sickness and depression as we continually look to Christ lifted up and not to ourselves for salvation from sin and death (death here is a process that covers all earthly ills including sickness, lack, depression, oppression, etc then physical death and finally the second death in hell.)

Only believe. Right believing always produces right living.

Also see the analogy of Hagar and Sarah as the two covenants of Law and Grace in Galatians 4. Sarah (Grace) did not need Hagar (Law) to raise Isaac (the church- you and I in Christ.) Grace is enough. Beware of any preacher that tries to introduce the Law as your nanny, helper or whatever. Cast out the bond woman and her son. 

The letter kills but the Spirit gives life, and with the Spirit of the Lord, it is neither by might nor power.