? No rebel cell in me?
Two hours before writing this sentence, I received a call from a friend whose adult son had just been informed by the doctor that health professionals had done everything possible and, except for a miracle, the cancer would be fatal. the second child my friend would lose to cancer. Should I mention this because I’m painfully aware that not everyone has a break from the cancer diagnosis like me?
- There are many ironies about my own experience with cancer: my prostate cancer biopsy took place on our thirty-seventh wedding anniversary.
- And surgery to remove the cancer gland took place on Valentine’s Day.
- It’s not a matter of laughter.
Let me lay the groundwork. It was a routine examination with my urologist, after years of dealing with the disruptive effects of enlarged prostate. I was sixty years old and, I thought, I was healthy. It’s strange how we assume we’re healthy when we don’t really have any idea what’s unfolding in us.
When people ask me now: How’s your health?I never say “okay” like I used to. I say, “I feel good. “Which, translated, means: “I don’t know how I am, only God knows. As far as I know, I could have a fatal cancer or an aortic aneurysm that will explode tomorrow. “, or a blood clot in my leg that will break off tonight and cause a fatal stroke in my sleep.
Is that what has changed in this simple habit of saying?My routine exams are over. But the doctor said, “I noticed some irregularities. Would I like to do a biopsy? I said, “Okay, if you say, when?”Now, ” he said, “if you have time,” pausing again, as it all falls apart?
He takes me to another reconnaissance room, tells me to put the bathrobe on the hook and says he’ll be back in a few minutes with the biopsy team. He goes out and leaves me alone.
At that moment, do you remember your best friends, those with whom you spend the most time and who tell you what you need to hear the most, and at the right time, you need to listen?Well, I had spent a lot of time, time that morning with my friend, the Apostle Paul. In fact, I liked your words so much that morning that I memorized them.
While I was sitting at the examination table with my legs dying, wearing my hospital T-shirt with an opening in my back and not knowing what to expect, Paulo’s words came back to me.
“For God gave us not anger, but salvation for our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we watch or sleep, we may live in union with Him” (1Q 5:9-10).
It was a wonderful gift for me. Perfectly synchronized, perfectly expressed. Paulo had told me these words that morning. But it was God who made arrangements for me to read them during my devotionals; God put in my heart memorizing them; God reminded me of them in the exam room; and God gave me faith to accept them as the sweetest gift I could give myself. me at that moment. Yes, even sweeter than “Are you healthy?”
But Paul was god’s instrument, Your emissary to my need. He knew the voice of God, because he knew the voice of his ambassador. It was my old friend Paulo, Here’s the news as he gave me:
First, he said, “What are you going to live in?It’s not anger! If you have cancer, isn’t it God’s punishment?”
To feel the full force of this, you must understand that I share Paul’s unwavering faith that God absolutely controls whether someone has cancer or not. Paul said, “For him, and for him, and for him are all things. , eternal glory, amen?! (Romans 11,36). He said, “From this [God] who does all things according to the counsel of his will, (Ephesians 1:11).
So when Paul said to me, “Isn’t it God’s wrath?” he didn’t mean, “If you have cancer, it’s not God’s. “No. Si have cancer (which I had), it’s certainly because of God’s ultimate goals. God controls all molecules in the universe, He is God!There are no rebel cells out of your control.
What did Paul mean when he said, “Isn’t it God’s wrath?Is it cancer or not,” God doesn’t punish you? It’s not a punishment. God has his goals, but they do not include punishment for my sin. God is all merciful, all love, how do I know?Paul answers that question. I’ll go back to point four below.
Secondly, Paulo spoke to me, while waiting for the doctor, about the positive side of “This is not anger. “He said, “God prepared you not for anger, but for salvation. “
This cancer is not anger. This is the way to salvation. Salvation is a positive consideration for the absence of anger. He said, “The biopsy will say “no cancer, ” will it be saved from cancer?”No, that’s not what he meant.
There’s no doubt about it. Paul said, in fact, that he could die of cancer they were about to detect. So what is salvation? He’s going to make it.
Third, Paul told me that God does not guarantee that I will escape the death of this cancer.
He said he’d be saved, whether he was awake or asleep. It means “if you live or die. ” Paul called death drowsy not because after death there is no conscious communion with Jesus (Philippians 1:23), but because the body of a dead Christian seems to sleep, and this body will rise from the dead (like the dream) on the last day (1Co 15. 20).
Do you think the comfort could be small, not knowing that I would survive this cancer, but that’s not how it worked. What I needed at the time was a much stronger, more lasting and unwavering comfort than living a few more years after cancer. I needed what I already had: “It’s not anger. You’re destined for salvation. Is that true? If you live”. or die?!
Fourth, Paul gave an impressive answer to the question I left open at the end of point number one: “How do you know that cancer is not God’s punishment for your sins?”or without cancer, with death or life, Paul told me that he would obtain the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for me. “
At times like these, we understand why Paul said, “First, did I abandon you?: that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and resurrected on the third day, according to the scriptures. “(1C 15. 3?4). ? Especially?It’s “Christ died for our sins” because?
Because if he’s already dead for them, we won’t die for them, that would be a double risk. Was that why you came? That my condemnation under the wrath of God (John 3:36) was carried by Jesus when he died on the cross (Romans 8. 3). Does he who joins Christ by faith in him not enter into judgment, but has gone from death to life?(Jn 5:24).
That is why Paul said, “Now, then, there is no longer condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). No condemnation because Christ has already suffered condemnation. No anger because Christ has endured anger. This is what Paulo told me so clearly, firmly and cheerfully, while waiting for the biopsy: “This cancer is not anger. “
Was the last thing Paul told me very personal? I mean, what he meant by salvation. “God did not prepare you for anger, but for salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for [you] so that [you] may be awake or asleep, [you] may live with Him. “
Whether he lives or dies, he’ll live. But not only do you live in a nebulous and indeterminate immortality, but, very precisely, will you live with it?The one who died for you and was resurrected. Which means at least two great truths. The first is that I will live forever, because in whom I live, I cannot die: “having risen Christ from the dead, he no longer dies”; (Rom 6. 9). The other is that I can live forever with the one who loved me enough to die for me. It is a very personal and deeply satisfying promise.
The doctor called me the next day and said, “You have cancer. Would you like to meet with you and your wife when it suits you and discuss your options?We’ve chosen the radical option: eliminate it. Did that happen seven weeks later?””On Valentine’s Day, that was 12 years ago. How am I doing? I feel good. “