Sovereign Grace Church

The beloved physician.


(COLOSSIANS 4:14)

My soul, catch a thought of what the apostle hero speaks of the servants to think of the master! If Luke the physician was beloved, how much more so ought JESUS to be by thee in this sweet character. The SON OF GOD came, as the great physician of the soul, to heal all that were diseased, to bind up the brokenhearted, to give sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

My soul, dost thou know JESUS in this tender and affectionate office? Hath he examined thy case, made thee sensible of thy disease; and art thou, through his mercy, restored to health? Though, through shame and fear at the first, you would never have made known your case to HIM, had HE not first, of HIS own free accord, called upon you, yet hath HE done so? Have you heard him ask the tender question, “Wilt thou be made whole?” And have you rejoiced to come under his care? Do you know what it is to have his blood applied to heal the wounds of sin, his righteousness to cover them, his grace to refresh under them, and his name as ointment poured forth, to make a fragrancy from all uncleanness? Moreover, hath JESUS shown to thee the freeness of his remedies, without payment, without money, and without price? (REVELATION 21:6) And doth he do all this, and a thousand affectionate offices beside, which belong to the physician, calling himself by that endearing name, Jehovah Raphah, “I am the Lord that healeth thee”? (EXODUS 15:26)

No longer let it be said, then, “Is there no balm in Gilead; no physician there?” (JEREMIAH 8:22) But tell to every poor sin-sick soul, Jesus is the beloved physician, who visits the poor and the needy, and heals all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people, he hath healed me.