The unclean & the Unblemished One

"The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ 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 13:45-46

The laws surrounding diagnosing & treating leprosy ought not to be misunderstood as ostracizing lepers and treating them as second-class citizens. On the contrary, this is one of the earliest instances in medical history of safely quarantining a patient to prevent the spread of certain infectious skin diseases. However, the deeper truth that God was revealing to us was that every sinner is worse than a spiritual leper.

1) Consider firstly the appearance of a leper:

A leper's condition is appalling to look at; Blisters all over the skin, a loss of sensation leading to damaged fingers, toes or even the nose, terrible discharges with a stench. And this what every sinner looks like before a pure and radiantly holy God; We are vile, covered in the filth of our sins which is a stench to God (Isaiah 65:5), we have been numbed by sin to the dreadful consequences of sin and as a result were being eaten away by sin, little by little until we should receive the wages of our sin: death (Romans 6:23).

One cannot be saved unless they have a low view of themselves like the thief on the cross who realised he was a justly condemned criminal. Until we realise that we are not half as good or impressive as we think we are, we shall struggle to see our need for forgiveness. Rather, we come to the cross of Christ as poor, naked, lepers who have nothing to offer and come begging with empty hands.

2) Secondly, consider the isolation of the leper:

A leper was to live outside the camp, away from everyone else until healed. We may think of ourselves as being charismatic or possessing a magnetic personality that draws many to us. This is our blindness. In reality, we are cut off from the holy presence of God by our spiritual disease; cut off from a relationship with God, we cannot dare to demand any one of His blessings, and with death we are forever cut off from His general grace to suffer torment in the fiery darkness of hell where there is howling and gnashing of teeth.

3) What then is the cure?

If my reader has come to a humbling knowledge of their sinful status before God and is pleading with the Lord for mercy, then let me offer the good news of healing for the spiritual leper! Blessed be God the Father for sending us His only beloved Son (the umblemished, spotless Lamb of God) who was willing to leave His celestial throne above and condescend to us lepers and come to live among us, so that He might reveal the cure for our disease: Christ Jesus, the Balm of Gilead (Jeremiah 8:22) and our great Physician (Luke 5:31-32). He announces that He as not come for the healthy but for us who are sick. But how will He achieve this? By living a pure life of obedience that we shameful lepers did not live, and by taking the filth of our sins upon Himself on the cross so that God treats Him as He should've treated us by cutting Him off for our sakes! (Matthew 27:46) And Isaiah tells us: "By His wounds, we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

Blessed be our beloved Lord Jesus, who came down to us filthy lepers, and has cleansed us of our spiritual leprosy by His own wounds, so that we might be made clean and be able to come back into the presence of God to know Him, love Him and serve Him by bringing other lepers to Christ the great Physician.

"Nothing in my hands I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling.

Naked come to Thee for dress,

Helpless look to Thee for grace.

Rock of Ages cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee."

~Augustus Montague Toplady, 1776