|
"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God," 2 Corinthians 7:1.
The Old Testament laws concerning purification were an outward symbol of what must happen spiritually to us today. We are responsible for cleansing ourselves from every habit and attitude that would hinder the purpose of God in our lives.
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up," James 4:4-10.
The very premise of this article is based upon the supposition that all of us are unclean without the works of God in our lives.
Before we speak of cleansing, we should speak of our filth. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Since Adam and Eve disobeyed God, mankind has been cursed with a carnal mind that persistently and perniciously contaminates us with ungodly thoughts and deeds. The fact of our filth is indisputable.
The law of God in the Old Testament listed many unclean things such as unclean animals, unclean fowl, unclean sea creatures. In most cases, it was forbidden to eat of any unclean animal (or to even touch its dead body). Certain human conditions were listed as unclean, such as leprosy and menstruation.
One of the primary issues in godly obedience is to identify and separate unclean things from the clean; (Leviticus 10:10, “And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean.”)
A Lesson from a Medical Doctor
Philip Harrelson related the following story in his “Barnabas Letter” that illustrates the profound importance of separating the unclean from the clean.
The year was 1818, Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis (pronounced ZEMMELVISE) was born into a world of dying women. The most magnificent hospitals of the day were losing one out of every six young mothers to a mysterious scourge commonly referred to as “childbed fever.” For twenty-six years, this disease would continue to incapacitate and destroy young mothers in the throes of labor and at times even destroying the lives of the newborn children.
In 1844, at twenty-six years of age, the now Dr. Semmelweis, decided that there was a connection between the mothers’ deaths and the practice of physicians. A doctor’s daily routine began in the labs where autopsies were performed. It was in the process of the autopsies that physicians would perfect their surgical techniques and their knowledge of anatomy and physiology. Yet, there was one alarming practice that occurred in this setting.
Many of these practitioners would leave directly the lab, go from the place of the dying, and move to the place of the living. These men would never pause to wash their hands and something from the diseased dead would be transmitted to those battling into the gates of life.
In fact, the often ignorant and trusting public would look at a physician with a blood-stained lab coat and would see this as a sign of his “success,” a morbid badge of honor. The more soiled his lab coat was, the better physician he was considered to be. (If you find this hard to believe, you owe it to yourself to read up on the history of medicine in the U.S. and abroad. Semmelweis practiced in Vienna.)
Young Semmelweis was the first man in history to associate this type of practice with resulting infection and death. Therefore, he began to wash his hands in a chlorine solution when he left the lab to practice medicine. After eleven years and the delivery of 8,537 babies, he lost only 184 mothers-about one in fifty. This was in the days before C-sections, which in itself can preserve the baby in instances of breach presentation, cord compression, placenta previa, and other anomalies. Semmelweis’ average was considered very good.
With this concise record keeping on his part, he began to lecture, debate, even argue with his colleagues, and where he could, he implemented mandatory hand-washing among those whom were his subordinates and interns under his direction. He fought with such vigor and strength that he was accused of madness. He struggled to get doctors to wear clean clothes in deliveries and attempted to get clean wards in which to practice medicine. Still these resistant colleagues of his would refuse to comply with his standards. The standards of Semmelweis were ridiculous and went against the current thoughts of the day.
He once argued, “Puerperal fever (childbed fever) is caused by decomposed material, conveyed to a wound. I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proved all that I have said. But while we talk, talk, talk, gentlemen, woman are dying. I am not asking anything world shaking. I am merely asking you only to wash. . . For God’s sake, wash your hands.”
Years passed and the nineteenth century rolled around. Enter another young physician named Joseph Lister. Having come into contact with some of the records and journals of Semmelweis, he began to soak his surgical instruments in carbolic acid and the results were astonishing. What previously had been considered as risky and hazardous surgery now became routine. Interestingly enough the majority of physicians ridiculed and ostracized Lister also, but he too, plodded steadily on. Today, before a surgical procedure begins, the surgeon will stand outside of the operating room and “scrub” his hands with a Betadine scrub or Hibiclens soap for ten minutes before he even enters the room where the patient is.
The beliefs of Semmelweis and Lister have both outlived them and proven again and again the inestimable importance of separating the clean from the unclean.. People become diseased and often die when the unclean thing contaminates the clean.
God revealed these core precepts to Moses while in the wilderness with the children of Israel. God showed that His people should not touch unclean things, and if they did, they should be purified.
"Detoxify or Die"
In modern times, the human body is often contaminated by many environmental toxins. There are now hidden pollutions in our water supplies, poisons such as mercury in our seafood, toxins in the hundreds of chemicals that we use daily in our kitchens, bathrooms, garages, etc., even dangerous additives in many of the processed foods and drinks we consume.
Dr. Sherry A. Rogers, M.D. wrote a book entitled “Detoxify or Die”, in which she makes the case that most cancers and serious diseases that are now epidemic can be traced to these toxic exposures. She emphatically urges her readers to adapt a daily regimen of detoxifying to rid the body of these hazardous toxins. She suggests that a daily “cleansing” with large doses of Vitamin C, Alpha Lipoic Acid, and N-Acetyl Cysteine (a powerful immune system builder) will help flush these toxins from our systems. She says that unless modern Americans learn to detoxify, the disease rates can only increase dramatically in the future.
The spiritual application of these premises is identical. The world, the flesh and the devil continually contaminate the soul with sin and degradation. Everything around us seems to drench us with the filth of this world. The magazine racks in every grocery story spit filth in our faces every time we check out at the counter. Radios and televisions are blaring violence and obscenities everywhere you turn. The Federal Communications Commission continues to loosen the restraints on vulgar language in the media.
Morally, our world is a sludge pit. The most popular recording artists and movie stars are often the ones who employ the most lewd and filthy lifestyles.
Unless the child of God faithfully practices a daily regimen of “detoxifying”, cleansing and purification, he or she will inevitably become contaminated and filthy with the sins of the world. The results will be manifest in backsliding and spiritual death.
Fortunately for all of us, God has always led the way in providing his people with powerful cleansing agents. From the days of man’s very first sin in the Garden of Eden, God has provided a means and method for cleansing and forgiveness of sins. When God first shed the blood of an animal to provide skins to clothe Adam and Eve in their nakedness, He was making a precedent of cleansing and forgiveness for sin. From that day, God would always provide some means for cleansing and forgiveness for those who desired it.
I. PHYSICAL PURIFICATION UNDER LAW
God actually required washing before the giving of the law. In Exodus 19:10, the LORD said unto Moses, “Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes.” Verse 14 adds, “and Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.”
Nothing suggests that these people’s sins were being taken away by that process, but there is certainly a connotation that God wanted the people to cleanse themselves before He gave them a powerful revelation of Himself. God does not want the filth of this world to stand in His presence.
From earliest times, He instituted means for the people to cleanse themselves. Paul referred historically to them in Hebrews 9:10: “Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.” We will see that the physical washings of the Old Testament were symbolic of the spiritual washings of the New Testament.
The focus of this lesson is cleansing - making oneself clean. The Hebrew word for clean is “tahor”, which means clean; pure; absent of impurity, filthiness, defilement or imperfection. In order for anything to be clean, certain cleansing agents must always be employed. We see the best of them illustrated in the Old Testament plan.
A. Washing
1. Utensils, Clothing, Vessels
The Levitical law prescribed that whenever the priests offered sin offerings, once the blood of the sacrificial animals stained their garments, they were required to wash them clean, (Leviticus 6:27). In Numbers 19, any tent where a person died was deemed unclean, and the entire tent with all its contents and vessels had to be purified by the priest.
2. Human Body (Leprosy, Contaminations)
If anyone was suspected of having leprosy or a plague, they were to be examined by a priest. If it was determined that they did indeed have the disease, they were required to live outside the camp and were declared “unclean”. If they were found not to have a disease, they were still required to wash their garments to ascertain that they were “clean”, (Leviticus 13:34, 14:8). When someone was cured of leprosy, they were to bathe their flesh before returning to the camp, (Leviticus 16:28).
Similar rules of washing applied to menstruous women, following copulation, even to men returning from war. In Numbers 31:24, those returning from war, (because of their contamination with blood), were required to wash their clothes and bathe before returning to camp.
3. Sacrifices
Leviticus 1 instructs the priests to wash even the animal parts that were to be burnt on the altar. They had to be cleansed ceremonially before they were presented to the Lord.
B. Sprinkling
Vines Expository Dictionary defines sprinkling from the Hebrew root “zaraq”. It means to throw, sprinkle, strew, toss, scatter abundantly. The law prescribes sprinkling for four different agents: water, blood, oil, and ashes. In each case, the purpose is for the cleansing of something defiled. When these Old Testament characters strewed the water, oil, blood or ashes upon an unclean person or thing, it symbolically represented the application of God’s own purifying and forgiveness of sins.
It also spoke prophetically of the future day when Jesus Christ would become the ultimate offering for the sins of the people so that they might inherit eternal life.
“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance,” Hebrews 9:13-15.
1. Water
In Leviticus 14, cured lepers were commanded to be sprinkled with water for cleansing. In Numbers 8, all the Levite priests were to be sprinkled with water for purification, as well as washing their clothing and bathing.
Numbers 19 tells the story of the ashes of the red heifer. This is one of the great doctrines of the Bible. An entire lesson could be devoted to the ceremony taught in this chapter. We will speak of it under the third heading below - because it combined water with ashes.
2. Blood
Again, in Hebrews 9:19-22, Paul explained the role of the blood, both in the Old Testament and in the New. “For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
Interestingly, in several instances, both water and blood were applied simultaneously, which supports the New Testament teaching of our sins being washed in the blood of Jesus simultaneously with our water baptism in His name!
3. Ashes
Numbers 19 profoundly addressed the need for purification among the people of God. “This is the ordinance of the law, which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke: and ye shall give her unto Eleazer the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face,” (Numbers 19:2, 3). The entire chapter employs blood, water, and ashes in a variety of applications. The specific purpose was to prepare a “water of separation” to be used on anyone and everyone who had been defiled. The list of defilements included the tents, vessels and all the people who were in the presence of a dead body. In addition, “whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days,” (Numbers 19:16).
The real issue here is God’s requirements that His people separate themselves from the defilements of this world, represented in the reality of death. Sin and death are always linked in scripture. Therefore, God demands separation from sin and death unto life and salvation, and in this case the remedy was the ashes of the red heifer mingled in the waters of separation.
Charles H. Spurgeon wrote in 1863, “The true heading of all the books of Moses is to be found in the words of Jesus, ‘Moses wrote of me.’ Take the Lord Jesus Christ with you as a key, and how ever difficult the riddles of Leviticus or Numbers may at first sight appear, there is not one enigma in the whole collection which will not speedily open and yield instruction. To the Israelites themselves, these rites and ceremonies must have been rather an exercise of faith, than a means of instruction. ‘I cannot perfectly understand why this heifer is slain, or why yonder lamb is offered,’ said the pious Israelite, ‘but though I cannot understand, I believe there is virtue in it all, and I reverently do, even to the smallest particular, that which God, through his servant Moses, has commanded me to do.’ To us, the types are not a dark mystery to perplex our faith, but an open vision to delight our eyes. Having believed in Christ Jesus, having received him as the Father’s sent One, and being reconciled unto God by his death, we look back to the ceremonies of the old law as
the patterns of heavenly things, to endeavor to discover some new light in which the Savior’s beauties may be set, and to behold him from some different point of view, so that we may love him the better, and may trust him the more.”
Any true Bible student is keenly aware of the forceful symbolism seen in the Old Testament laws of purification toward the redemptive cleansing that would be provided through the blood, water and Spirit in the New Testament by Jesus Christ.
Even the Prophet Ezekiel could see the New Testament coming when he spoke in Ezekiel 36:25-27: “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”.
II. SPIRITUAL PURIFICATION UNDER GRACE
The subject of the atonement of Jesus Christ embraces all the elements of the plan of salvation. Atonement is the process by which sin is removed. It is the way that God expiates, placates or cancels sin. Atonement is the entire cleansing process by which our sins are disannulled, forgiven, pacified, pardoned, reconciled.
Oswald Chambers said, “Beware of the pleasant view of the Fatherhood of God - God is so kind and living that of course He will forgive us. That sentiment has no place whatever in the New Testament. The only ground on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ; to put forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive sin and reinstate us in His favour is through the Cross of Christ, and in no other way. Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony of Calvary. It is possible to take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and our sanctification with the simplicity of faith, and to forget at what enormous cost to God I was all made ours.
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace; it cost God the Cross of Jesus Christ before He could forgive sin and remain a holy God. Never accept a view of the Fatherhood of God if it blots out the Atonement. The revelation of God is that He cannot forgive; He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God by the Atonement.”
In order for us to be fully clean when we stand before God, we must carefully follow the New Testament protocol for cleansing and forgiveness through the gospel plan of atonement.
A. Purifying the Flesh
Paul quickly dismissed the Old Testament efficacy after Jesus Christ took its place. He denounced any notion that Old Testament cleansing could save. Only the cleansing that comes through Jesus Christ can cleanse today. Galatians 5:4, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”
Paul did not dismiss our personal responsibility, however. Even though the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ can be freely received, we are ultimately responsible for presenting ourselves to him sacrificially and in full consecration. It is so important that we examine our entire way of living, submitting every unclean thought and behavior to the cleansing process.
We are responsible for cleansing ourselves of every habit and attitude that would hinder the purpose of God in our lives.
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice," Ephesians 4:22-31.
1. Fleshly Appetite
Whereas the Old Testament focused on physical contamination by death and disease, the New Testament focuses on spiritual contamination by the world, the flesh and the devil. That is the basis of the argument for the new birth. Unless we are born again, according to John 3:5 and Acts 2:38, we remain within the domain of the world, the flesh and the devil. Only by rebirth of water and spirit do we truly separate ourselves from the unclean defilements of earth and enter into the clean and righteous sanctified life of the Spirit of God. God’s forgiveness only works in His supernatural dominion.
Therefore, it is imperative that “every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure,” 1 John 3:3. “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” 2 Corinthians 7:1.
2. Repentance
Repentance is defined as the turning from sin. We repent by confessing our sins, petitioning the Lord for forgiveness, and separating ourselves from the former sins. It is likened unto a death to self. Once dead to sin, the old nature must be put away. Even as a dead carcase must be buried, so our old nature must be buried with Christ in baptism.
3. Baptism
The waters of baptism do indeed save us, according to 1 Peter 3:21. Just as the waters of purification in the Old Testament cleansed the defiled and made them pure, so the waters of baptism in Jesus’ name applies the precious blood of Calvary to our impurities and washes and makes us clean. Peter also said that water baptism actually remits - puts away - sin (Acts 2:38).
B. Purifying the Soul and Spirit
1. Obeying the Truth
When we obey the Word of God, it washes our spirit of uncleanness. “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish,” Ephesians 5:25-27. We do well to submit our entire behavior to the dictates of the Word of God. “Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit,” 1 Peter 1:22.
2. Through Faith
As we exercise faith in God, our unclean doubts, fears and unbelief are purged from our hearts - “purifying their hearts by faith,” Acts 15:9.
3. Through Fasting and Repentance
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up,” James 4:8-10.
4. Purifying the Spirit
"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me," Psalm 51:10.
C. Continual Purification
1. By the Word of God
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," Titus 3:5.
"That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word," Ephesians 5:25.
2. Through Ongoing Repentant Spirit
3. Through Submission to the Holy Spirit
"I am not asking anything world shaking.
I am merely asking you only to wash...
For God’s sake, wash your hands."
Dr. Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis, 1844
“The revelation of God is that He cannot forgive;
He would contradict His nature if He did.
The only way we can be forgiven is by
being brought back to God by the Atonement.”
Oswald Chambers, 1912
I am continually writing new content for this site.
Please return often for more material,
and tell your friends about
www.kenraggio.com
, too!
THANKS!
And God bless you!
Ken Raggio
|
