When men are sick, they are glad to see the doctor and happy to follow his advice, but when they have recovered from the illness they don’t want him to stay. It is a fact we have come to know and see played out in our own experience as well as in the religion of our day. Someone becomes very ill, or meets with a calamity, or suffers a great loss and they come to church looking for answers and comfort. And so, a quick remedy is prescribed, and they do what they’re told, and when the pain and sorrow go away, so does the “doctor” and “his remedy.”

It is not so with Christ. He is the Great Physician and He is himself the remedy. He is not the expensive errand boy that religion describes bringing this and that to us from God, but is Himself the Gift of God. Radiating from His person is life, peace, comfort, joy, love, kindness, fellowship, and mercy. Salvation is in Him, life is in Him, and therefore Christ in you is the hope of Glory. Take away Christ and the leprosy is still there. Take away Christ and we return to the beggar’s blanket. Take away Christ and we return to our paralysis by the pool waiting for a hand to lift us into the waters.

To have Christ is to have a well of water springing up, bread continually coming down from God out of heaven, and wisdom that leaves the foolish physicians scratching their heads. “Of Him (God) are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Cor. 1:30) The gospel is the glorious name of our God manifested in His Son who saves sinners by the merits and means of Himself. “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).