I Want to Be Clean!

For the past few days I have been absolutely miserable. I will spare you the details, but it has been bad. I hate being sick. I have felt terrible, unproductive (as I really should be packing to move north this weekend!), and just disgusting. With all this down time it has given me plenty of time to think, and the topic of my thoughts has been leprosy.

No, I don't have leprosy.

Leprosy was the most dreaded disease in Biblical times, caused by unclean habits. It was quick to spread and usually incurable. If anyone touched a leper, he or she was almost sure to get the disease as well. Leviticus tells us how leprosy was treated: "He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp" (Leviticus 13:46). 

As the disease was so contagious, the only way to keep it from spreading was to isolate the lepers completely. The leper was cast into exile, separate from the pure. He tore his clothes to show extreme agony and grief. His head was bare to express extreme humiliation. He would cry, "Unclean! Unclean!" so that the pure would keep away and not risk contracting the terrible disease themselves. 

Unclean. This word has really gotten to me over the past few days. Synonyms are "filthy" and "impure". This led me to Isaiah 64:6, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."

WE are called unclean. Even our "righteous acts", the good that we try to do, are considered unclean. Everything about us is unclean. We need to be separated from the pure. Our sin does that-- we are separated from God.

However, the story doesn't end there. In steps Jesus! He said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17). Good news, because that's all of us. Christ came for the unclean, those who are "sick" with sin. Every single human falls into that category. 

In His death on the Cross, Christ took on all of our sin, all of the filth that separates us from God. He took all of that upon Himself, and He carried it to the grave. And when He rose again, He left it there! And now, by faith, we accept His righteousness in place of our sin. We trust in HIM to make us clean, instead of trying to rid ourselves of the filth in our own strength. And we are no longer unclean, no longer exiled from God. By faith, we stand perfectly clean before God. How cool is that!

"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed." -- 1 Peter 2:24