March 14

Wilt thou be made whole? - John 5:6.

WHAT answer have we returned or are disposed to give to this question? for we are now as capable as was the impotent man of answering this question, and Christians are daily and hourly answering it; and we can testify our readiness to be cured in four ways. First, By our inquiry after the way and means of recovery, saying, “What must I do to be saved?” The Scriptures will be searched now to find the only thing which they were principally designed to make known, namely, a dying, risen Saviour.

Secondly, We show our willingness to be cured by our applying to the great Physician, resorting to his footstool, and crying “Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.”

Thirdly, Our readiness to be cured is proved by our submission to his prescriptions, without murmuring or complaint. When the man of God had prescribed for the cure of Naaman, Naaman was wroth, and went away and said, “Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper.” So he thought, but it did not become him to think but to acquiesce. “But,” said he, “are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel; may I not bathe in them and be clean?” So he turned away in a rage, and had nearly missed his cure. How different was it with the poor blind man, when Jesus made clay and anointed his eyes, and said unto him, “Go to the pool of Siloam and wash;” he did not question but believed: he went and washed, and received his sight.

And this is the disposition of every awakened and convinced sinner-every one who is willing to be healed by the Saviour; he will say: “If by any means, Lord prescribe, I submit, however mysterious to my reason, however humiliating to the pride of my heart, to whatever provision or sacrifice thou requirest; Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” He wishes not merely that the disease may be checked, but that he may be free from the very principle, from the very cause of the malady. He desires to be entirely whole.

And, Fourthly, The willingness to be cured will also appear in the eagerness with which we shall sometimes look after convalesence. We know how much is at stake-our eternal life. O, with what anxiety do we ask, “And shall I be cured, or must I after all perish under this fatal disease of sin?” And O, what pleasure we shall experience if we discern any sign, however small, of recovery-any little appetite we have after the provision of God’s house, any little strength, any little ability to walk if not to run in the way of God’s commandments.

How this will encourage our souls. Am I thus desirous to be made whole?