FREEDOM FROM THE EFFECTS OF SIN
Numbers 5:1-4 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ¡§Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever becomes defiled by a corpse. ¡§You shall put out both male and female; you shall put them outside the camp that they may not defile their camps in the midst of which I dwell.¡¨ And the children of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the LORD spoke to Moses, so the children of Israel did.
Leviticus 13:1-8 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: ¡§When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes on the skin of his body like a leprous sore, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests. ¡§The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of the body; and if the hair on the sore has turned white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous sore. Then the priest shall examine him, and pronounce him unclean. ¡§But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and its hair has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the sore seven days. ¡§And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day; and indeed if the sore appears to be as it was, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him another seven days. ¡§Then the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day; and indeed if the sore has faded, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. ¡§But if the scab should at all spread over the skin, after he has been seen by the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen by the priest again. ¡§And if the priest sees that the scab has indeed spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy.
Leviticus 13:45-46 ¡§Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ¡¥Unclean! Unclean!¡¦ ¡§He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
Matthew 8:1-4 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, ¡§Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.¡¨ Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, ¡§I am willing; be cleansed.¡¨ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, ¡§See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.¡¨
THE CONDITION
Leprosy - To understand what leprosy is all about, we need to go back to Lev 13 and 14 - God told Israel that if anyone had a swelling or an eruption or a spot on his skin, he had to go to the priest and show the spot to that priest - that implies that the pronouncement of uncleanness had a religious significance, not a medical one ¡V sin ¡V leprosy caused the Leper to live in isolation - wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose - the torn clothes and unkempt hair were signs of mourning, grieving - the leper had to grieve because there was death in his body; though still alive he was on his way to the grave - he had to sing his own funeral dirge and so make clear by his appearance to one and all that the wages of sin is death - the leper was instructed to "dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp" - Why the isolation? - God had decreed that uncleanness was contagious; whoever touched an unclean person or thing was in turn also unclean - Hence uncleanness had to be removed from the people - there¡¦s a second reason - the leper was sent out of the camp, out of the presence of God - he was in effect cut off from the communion of the saints and God - because God wished to impress upon Israel just how terrible were the results of sinfulness - that implied rejection by God ¡V hell - the presence of leprosy taught that the sinner was hopelessly lost in sin and misery.
The effect of sin on Spirit Soul and Body - sin caused the following consequences - Spiritually unclean - not allowed in Temple a prisoner cut off from all normal life - Socially unclean - people they touched became unclean - Physically unclean ¡V a physical manifestation.
THE CLEANSING
Notice the Leper asked to be cleansed not healed - And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, ¡§Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.¡¨ Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, ¡§I am willing; be cleansed.¡¨ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. ¡V it was common knowledge as to the source of this affliction ¡V it didn¡¦t need healing but needed cleansing ¡V that¡¦s a lesson for us most of our afflictions find their source in sin ¡V if we deal with sin we deal with the source ¡V
How the Lord cleansed ¡V The Divine Exchange - In response to the plea of the leper, Jesus cleansed him "immediately his leprosy was cleansed." - Matthew tells us that Jesus did more than simply speak a word and so make the leper clean. Jesus "put out His hand and touched him," Matthew notes. The fact that Jesus stretched out His hand indicates that Jesus¡¦ physical contact with the leper was not accidental; no, Jesus consciously made an effort to reach out and touch this man - Jesus touched him, and that¡¦s to say that He touched the unclean, touched the dead! Now, we are to know that the law of God had stipulated that whoever touched "the dead body of any person shall be unclean 7 days" (Num 19:11). Indeed, "every one that is unclean through contact with the dead" had to be "put out of the camp" (Num 5:2f). For God did not wish to see the camp defiled; after all, He was holy and lived in the midst of the camp. Jesus made a point of touching the leper. That means in turn that Jesus made a point of Himself becoming unclean - By touching him, Jesus took on Himself the uncleanness that burdened the leper. This uncleanness was transferred from the sinful leper to the sinless Jesus - the leper became clean because Jesus took death, that bitter fruit of sin, upon Himself. Here is illustrated the doctrine of imputation; Christ takes the curse of the sinner upon Himself and fills that sinner with His righteousness. The cured leper could now go to the temple, could return again to the courts of God. - there is something here that is different than what is stipulated in the Old Testament - to touch an unclean person or object meant ¡Vaccording to Old Testament lawƒ{ that you became unclean yourself. But your becoming unclean through touching a leper did not mean that the leper now became clean. No, according to Old Testament law, the only way in which an unclean person could become clean was through washings. Cleanness could not be transferred from one person to another Haggai 2:10 ¡V this meant that a spiritual truth was being displayed ¡V the truth of the Cross
THE CROSS
Matthew 8:14-17 Now when Jesus had come into Peter¡¦s house, He saw his wife¡¦s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them. When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ¡§He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.¡¨
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, He
took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses - Isaiah 53:4 - took - Greek: to take in order to carry away; to remove, to bear or lift with the idea of removal - plainly mean the same as the Hebrew: to bear, to take the debt of sin and sickness upon one’s self, and
carry it as his own - What was it He bore away by taking upon Himself? The case before
us is not just sins but our grief¡¦s ¡V sicknesses - and sorrows- pains - He did not bear them merely to enter into the fellowship of our sufferings, but to deliver us from them. It would be useless for Him to bear them in our stead if He still left us to bear them. Naturally sins were borne, but so were all sicknesses and diseases and all evil which sin brought into the world - Such were not mere types of spiritual diseases as some teach, but actual diseases borne by Christ along with sin. The ultimate redemption by atonement is not only to remove all sins, but also all sicknesses with complete redemption of body as well as soul ¡V infirmities - feebleness of mind and body, frailty, disease, sickness, weakness. All this Christ bore on the cross, fulfilling Isaiah 53. Every infirmity is not
a disease or sickness but all these are infirmities - any weakness in body, soul, spirit, is an infirmity ¡V sicknesses - always of physical not once of spiritual sickness so often referred to by modern teachers.
Jesus bore our sins on the Cross ¡V received sins consequences ¡V and gave us His life in exchange.We need to appropriate the work of the Cross into our lives and live again.
