A few months ago I was reading through the Gospel of Luke in my devotions. I came to Luke 5:17-26 and what I read in those verses caught my attention. This is the story of the 4 men who bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus while he is inside a house teaching. Since the crowds that followed Jesus were so large they could not get close to Jesus and they decided to do whatever it takes to get their friend to Jesus. This meant that they were willing to tear open the roof so they could lower their friend down on his cot. After they open the roof and lower the man down Jesus does heal him of his paralysis, but not before his sins have been forgiven. Jesus did care about the man’s physical needs but he chose to first focus on his spiritual needs.
This story shows us that our reconciliation with God through faith in the finished work of Christ is the most important need in all of our lives. Our lives are full of physical, emotional, and spiritual needs but no need we have is ever going to be more important than our need to have our sins forgiven and to be made right with God. Jesus demonstrates this truth through the way he interacts with the paralyzed man and Jesus should be a model for all of us as we interact and talk with people who are hurting and need healing and restoration in their lives.
When I meet with people in counseling one of the first things I discuss with them is their relationship with Jesus. People can come into counseling with all kinds of different presenting issues or symptom issues going on in their lives and it might seem strange to them to focus on Jesus and a personal relationship with Him first, especially when they want a quick fix for the problems they are facing. But the quick fix doesn’t deal with the heart issues, it only deals with the presenting and symptom issues and sooner or later they will find they have cycled back into the same struggles.
This is why I love a truly Biblical approach to helping people with addictions because the Bible makes it very clear that all of our addiction problems are sin problems that are rooted in our hearts (James 4:1-3). The addictive habits that rule our lives are really idols that rule our hearts instead of Jesus ruling our hearts. The main issue is a problem of false worship going on at the heart level. Addiction is not an incurable disease that people have to cope with for the rest of their lives, it is a sin problem in the heart that they need to repent of and turn to Christ for forgiveness and healing. When people repent and turn to Christ they will find new power that they have never had before, power from God that will transform their entire life (2 Corinthians 3:18). There are a lot of programs and places that are not based on the Bible that people can go to when they need help dealing with addictions in their lives. They might even find that one of these programs might help them get sober, but it cannot deal with their greatest need or give them eternal hope. As a Biblical Counselor I want to offer people eternal hope through Jesus! God offers so much more than just getting sober and cleaned up, He offers eternal life through Jesus Christ!
Going back to Luke 5 we have to note that Jesus did heal the paralyzed man and make him able to walk. The Gospel has implications for the whole person. Jesus cared about the man’s physical needs but He knew that his eternal needs were vastly more important. As we minister to others may we follow the example of Christ.