Faith Before Deliverance

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

Luke 17:11-14

I want to point out what I think is an extremely important detail in this account. We do not know how these ten men knew about Jesus or what He was capable of doing, but we do know that they believed that Jesus could help them. Further, they were not just looking for relief from their leprosy. They believed in and obeyed Jesus by faith.

Immediately after these men ask Jesus to have mercy on them, He tells them to go show themselves to the priest. When a person thinks he has leprosy, he goes to the priest. That is how these men ended up in the leper colony. When a person thinks he has been healed, he goes to confirm it with the priest, and there is a ritual that is performed confirming the healing. But why did these men go? They had already been confirmed to have leprosy, and Jesus has not healed them yet? So, why did they go?

Because Jesus told them to.

Even though they had not been healed yet, these men trusted Jesus and obeyed Him out of faith in Him and His ability to heal them. If they had been healed before being sent to the priest, it would have required no faith to obey Jesus. But the fact that they were still leprous proves that they were being obedient by faith – all ten of them.

Many times we must obey God even though we do not understand or have not yet been delivered from our sorrow or pain. God gave us faith in the new birth so that we can trust Him and His faithfulness to His promises. 

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Hebrews 13:5

This verse, while teaching us to trust God for our daily needs, also teaches us that we can have contentment even though we are not fully delivered. Our soul and body long for the day that we will be fully transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. However, we have not been left empty until resurrection morning. We have not yet been adopted in the resurrection, but we have been given the spirit of adoption. So, we can call God, Father, not Judge (Romans 8:15).

Paul tell us that even though we do not see all trials, troubles, and even death put in subjection yet, we do see Jesus, and we can trust and obey Him right now. 

Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Hebrews 2:7-9

Even though we do not see it yet, all of life’s troubles, sorrows, and pains have already been solved on the cross. Let us therefore glory in cross!