What is your boast?

Of the many questions the patient asks the doctor in the time of severe illness, two of the most common are these:

• What’s the diagnosis?
• What’s the prognosis?

Diagnosis is the act or process of identifying the nature of an illness. And prognosis is a prediction of the probable course and outcome of an illness. Or another way of putting it: diagnosis identifies the illness; prognosis gives the implication when it comes to our lives. Now of the two, we would be hard-pressed to say which is more important. From the doctor’s perspective, the diagnosis is crucial in order for him to treat the illness. From the patient’s perspective, the prognosis is crucial to how he’s going to live with the illness. And to emphasize one at the expense of the other is to risk ship-wrecking whatever chance there may be for a healthy recovery.

This truth is paralleled in our relationship with God. To stress identification of Biblical truth over its implication, and vice versa, is to fall into one of two extremes: either dead orthodoxy or legalism. The healthy walk will include both, diagnosis and prognosis , identification and implication, doctrine and ethics.

For a transcript of this sermon in DOCX format follow the outside web link.