READ LEVITICUS 13
This chapter gives the impression of reading an ancient medical guidebook. It feels outdated, vivid, and filled with hopelessness. The fact that the remedy for dreadful skin diseases was merely to wait in seclusion serves as a reminder that this is not how the world was intended to be. Disease, decay, and separation were never part of God's original plan for humanity. The Fall in Genesis 3 not only led to our spiritual brokenness but also brought brokenness and death to all of creation. Humans were expelled from the Garden of Eden due to spiritual impurity, and the consequences extended far beyond what Adam and Eve could have foreseen.
Isn't our sin comparable to the skin diseases described in Leviticus 13? If a priest were to examine us, to scrutinize our lives, what would he find? Perhaps he wouldn't detect leprosy or visible wounds, but there is an underlying brokenness and deterioration within each of us. Often, we view our sinful decisions as individual acts with consequences that only impact ourselves or those directly wronged by us. We fail to acknowledge the far-reaching and contagious nature of our sinfulness. Sin isolates us, causing fractured relationships and suffering that spreads from one person to another or from one generation to the next. This is not how life was meant to be. While we may not bear open wounds, we still require a Savior to heal us urgently. The imagery presented in this chapter can serve as a reminder of the sin that afflicts each of us, leading to separation from God and one another.
We cry out, "Unclean! Unclean!" until Jesus Himself cleanses us. 1 John 1:9 reassures us that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He has come to restore us and redeem us from the decay within and around us, offering completeness and an eternal bond with Him. Though we were once far from holiness, we have been purified. John 15:3 states, “ Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” We praise God for cleansing us, fulfilling and liberating us from the law we were once bound to, and bringing us into true fellowship.
QUESTIONS
1. Which wrongdoing is holding you back? Where do you require restoration? What has Jesus already liberated you from?
2. What other Bible verses can you discover that address God's saving action in us and in the world?
3. How can you demonstrate living in the completed work of the cross?