Humanity’s Disease; God’s Cure

By David Ettinger

The Nature of Humanity
Humanity’s natural state is to oppose God. By nature, human beings want to go their own way and not have to submit to authority, especially that of the Creator.

Isaiah 53:6 sums this up well: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.” Romans 8:7 confirms this: “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”

Thankfully, God addresses humanity’s disease of disobedience by giving us the rest of Isaiah 53:6 (emphasis added): “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him [the Messiah] the iniquity of us all.”

Jesus is humanity’s salvation, or “cure.”

This theme (humanity’s disease, God’s cure) runs throughout the Bible, but my favorite expression of it is found in the Book of Jeremiah:

“Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the LORD. This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it’” (Jeremiah 6:15-16).

Humanity’s Disease
This passage brilliantly sums up humanity’s sinful condition. We sin, but it is our reaction to our sin which Jeremiah takes to task. Humanity is at the point where our sinful conduct elicits no shame whatsoever, so much so, that we have lost the ability to even blush.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Western culture. There was a time when pornography and lewd behavior were found in dark alleys and bootlegged films. But now they reside in ordinary households where families gather around their TVs to watch content which would have been frowned upon a generation ago.

Sometimes when I hear of popular TV programs, I’ll visit the IMDB website to see what the content is like. I always regret it as just about every sin and perversion is fully described, no attempt made at discretion. Whatever common shame was once experienced by such “detestable conduct” has evaporated into the ozone of Western godlessness.

Not only do such programs proudly display their “detestable conduct,” they are honored for them by award shows and critics’ accolades.

This rampant sin of degradation and disobedience will be repaid by God: “So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them” (v. 15). God promises a time of judgment upon the human race, and it is indeed coming.

God’s Cure
But despite our unbridled sinfulness, God seeks to save, not destroy. John 3:17 says: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Jesus offers humanity eternal life to those who accept His sacrifice on the cross for them.

This is beautifully stated in Jeremiah 6:16: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”

The “ancient paths” may refer to Micah 5:2: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

This prophecy of Christ’s birth indicates that though the Savior entered time as a human infant, He is, in actuality, the God who was always there; the Eternal One.

This Eternal One – the Lord Jesus Christ – is God’s cure for the fatal disease of the human race, and the path to Him is clearly stated: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Humanity’s Disease, Part 2
But alas, we have the final verse of our Jeremiah passage: “But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

In these two verses of Jeremiah, the prophet identified humanity’s fatal disease, revealed the cure for it, but in the end, the majority of the world’s people have refused, continue to refuse, and will go on refusing God’s offer of salvation.

God’s final judgment is a sure thing, but until then, He offers salvation.

May we who love the Lord be faithful in telling the unsaved that they are suffering from a fatal disease, but that there is a cure for it, and it is as close as their own hearts and lips!

David Ettinger is a writer/editor at Zion’s Hope, Inc., and has written for Zion’s Fire magazine since its inception in 1990.

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