Law of the Leper
“And if the leprous disease breaks out in the skin, so that the leprous disease covers all the skin of the diseased person from head to foot, so far as the priest can see, then the priest shall look, and if the leprous disease has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of the disease; it has all turned white, and he is clean.” Leviticus 13:12, 13
Herein lies the law of the leper. It may seem strange and confusing to us that the leper was pronounced clean when his whole body was covered with the white disease of leprosy. But once the disease had finished running its course and the skin on the entire body was covered with the white, dead skin of the disease and no raw, open sores were found, the leper was no longer contagious to the community. He was thus pronounced clean.
The application for us today is fairly obvious: Just like the leper who is covered from head to toe with disease is the one who knows himself to be altogether lost, ruined, covered from head to toe with the defilement of sin, having no righteousness of his own, pleading himself guilty and unclean before the Lord and putting his faith only in the righteousness that comes from Christ. Only then is the sinner pronounced clean through the blood of Jesus, through the Grace of God.
The hidden, unfelt, unconfessed sin is the REAL leprosy of today…it makes the sinner unclean before the eyes of God. Nothing is more deadly in the life of a human than pride and the attributes that it produces: Self-righteousness, self-esteem, self-love and an arrogant, independent spirit from God. This is the true, unclean, diseased leper in the eyes of God and how is this ungodly thinking contagious today! This real disease is deceptively promoted as good and the Cure for the disease is promoted as evil. Isaiah’s words are as true today as ever before! (5:20).
When sin is felt, when it’s confessed to Christ, and the Lord looks upon the diseased sinner with grace and mercy and bestows the gift of faith to this pleading, unclean leper sin is dealt a once and for all death blow. This is the only path to healing, cleansing and wholeness in the eyes of God. There is no other healing medicine available or needed.
We must confess ourselves to be what we truly are apart from Christ…sinners. We are totally depraved and no confession short of this is the truth. If the Holy Spirit is at work within us, convicting and convincing us of who we really are apart from Christ, this confession won’t be a difficult task.
Only when we see ourselves as totally sinful, from head to toe, having no cleanliness on our own, can we then trust in Christ and Him crucified and be pronounced clean in Him. Let’s thank the Lord for this indescribable gift.