THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER

Leviticus 14 sets before us in striking type the means which God has provided for the bringing of a soul from the place of distance, where all were on account of sin, into His own presence, so as to be quite at home there. Many who no longer fear going to hell are not at home in the presence of God, and we wish to show them what will make them so.

This work is divided into two parts. First, that which was done before the leper came into the camp; second, what was done after he was in. The former gave title and fitness to enter; the latter made him at home there.

The first part of this work consists of two things, one of which is connected with righteousness, and the other with holiness; for God is both righteous and holy. If we are to be with Him it must be in a manner consistent with both these attributes.

First then we have two birds taken, one of which was killed, and the other, after having been dipped in the blood of the dead bird, was let loose into the open field. The two birds represent Jesus Christ in death and in resurrection. He, “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God”, Heb 9: 14. On the cross He took our sins upon Him. There He was made sin for us; and there He suffered the judgment of God due to sin. There it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him, and to put Him to grief; and there He said to God, “Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves”, Ps 88: 7. Herein God’s righteousness in relation to sin was displayed and vindicated.

God’s claims having been satisfied by the death of the lamb which He Himself had provided. He was now free to act in grace toward the sinner. The question of God’s righteousness was the first and great thing to be settled before any blessing could come to man. Christ, by the shedding of His blood, has satisfied all God’s righteous claims, so that there is nothing now to hinder God receiving the sinner who approaches Him through faith in that blood, Rom 2: 25. The resurrection of Christ is the proof of the value of His blood. God “brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus ... through the blood of the everlasting covenant”, Heb 13: 20. This, then, is the first great fact set forth in the type. God’s righteous claims in relation to sin have been satisfied by the death of Christ. The second fact is, that the value of this blood is applied to the believer. By it he is judicially cleansed from all sin, and justified from all things, so that he is righteous in the eyes of God. The man who was to be cleansed was sprinkled with the blood of the dead bird; and not only so, but after this he washed his clothes and bathed himself in water; and he was clean. He was then fit, and allowed to come into the camp where God was. The water is a symbol of death. When Christ died, out of His pierced side came forth blood and water. Man is not only a sinner by his acts, but sinful in his nature—conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity; therefore nothing that deals with his sins only can alter the man himself, and make him clean, and so fit for God’s presence. Death must take place. As a child of Adam, he must die that he may live before God in Christ. This is what is true of the believer. He has part in the death of Christ, for “our old man is crucified with him” (Rom 6: 6), and now he lives to God in Him in an entirely new life. This is illustrated in the case of Naaman the leper. He had to wash in Jordan seven times to be clean. The leper went into Jordan, but the leper did not come out of Jordan. When Naaman came out of Jordan his flesh was like the flesh of a little child—he was a new man. In figure it was a new creation; and nothing less than this avails to make a man fit for God. The old nature is not washed or made clean, but set aside by the judgment of God in the cross, and a new nature—the life of Christ—imparted to the believer; and thus he lives to God, and is made fit for the inheritance of the saints in light. He is clean every whit.

After this washing the leper was to come into the camp—a proof that he was fit for the presence of God, and entitled to enjoy his blessings under the eye of God. So every believer is in all the value of the blood and water which came forth from the pierced side of Christ. He is in all the justifying and cleansing efficacy of the death of Christ, however little may be his intelligence and faith as to this truth. He is justified from all things, and is clean every whit. This is what was set forth by the first part of the work which was done for the cleansing of the leper. What more, it might be asked, could he require? Nothing as regards his fitness and title to enter; but though inside the camp, he was outside his tent. He was not yet at home there. He had to tarry abroad for seven days. Then began the second part of the work of cleansing; namely, what took place inside the camp. In order to be really at home in the presence of God, it is not only necessary that we should be in all the value of the death of Christ under the eye of God, but also that there should be an intelligent appreciation of the work of Christ in our own conscience. We should realise, or make our own by faith, the varied aspects of the death of Christ, typified by the means used for the leper inside the camp. This is what we learn by the second part of the work after the leper was brought into the camp.

On the seventh day there was a second washing. He was to shave off all his hair, wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water. The soul thus realises for himself by faith what was true of him already by the death of Christ. He sees that his former history as a child of Adam—a sinful man—is closed in the cross, and that there the old things have passed away. He says in faith, “I am crucified with Christ”, Gal 2: 20. He reckons that he has died indeed unto sin by the death of Christ. Not that sin is dead, but that he is dead to sin—has done with that condition which was characterised by sin. “He that is dead is freed from sin”, Rom 6: 7. Not that he has lost the sense of the flesh being in him, for, as a fact, it is still there, but he now knows that he is not in flesh before God. But then no one ever reaches this point without an experimental knowledge of what he is in the flesh, such as we see depicted at the end of Romans 7; so that the soul under the dealing of God cries out, “O wretched man that I am!”, v 24. He is made to feel the reality of what sin is in the presence of God, in view of His holiness, and his own powerlessness under it. It is then the Spirit of God turns his eye to Jesus Christ, and shows him how by the cross he is clear of the whole thing—all has been washed away in the death of Christ by the judgment of God. There the former things, for his faith as well is for the eye of God, have forever passed away—our old man has been crucified with Christ.

Now we reach the eighth day. This is the beginning of a new week for the believer. It speaks of a new history in a new life. It is the resurrection-day, the beginning of a new creation. It is a great point in the history of a soul when he intelligently, and by faith, reaches resurrection ground, and sees that he has an entirely new standing in Christ. Christ, when He was raised from the dead, was the beginning of the creation of God. The believer, who is in Christ, is of this new creation, where all things are new, and all things are of God. He understands what it is to have put off the old man, and to have put on the new, where Christ is all and in all. Instead of for ever groaning over the old things, he now rejoices in the new—he glories in the Lord; this is what marks a soul who knows the liberty wherewith Christ has made him live. But we have something yet to learn as to the death of Christ. On the eighth day he was to take a trespass-offering, a sin-offering, and a burnt-offering, with its meat-offering, and the priest presented him and them before the Lord. In type it is the believer presented to God as identified with the precious efficacy of the work of Christ; he has the same standing before God, and is in the same acceptance as Christ Himself. Then the trespass-offering was killed, and the priest took some of the blood and put it on the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot of the man who was to be cleansed. The trespass-offering represents that aspect of the death of Christ which has met the actual sins that our conscience may charge us with, “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa 53: 5), He “bare our sins in his own body on the tree”, 1 Pet 2: 24. But what we learn here is, that the blood which atones for our sins, and delivers from the judgment of them, also consecrates us to God. We are redeemed from all iniquity, but we are redeemed to God; we are bought with a price, therefore we are to glorify God in our bodies, which are His. The ear is for God, see Isaiah 50: 4, 5. “Morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned”. The hand is for God, to serve Him as Jesus did, who could say, “I do always those things that please him”, John 8: 29. The feet are for God, to walk in obedience to His will, and not in the way of our own choosing; following Him whose feet were ever swift to run in the way of God’s commandments, and who was obedient unto death. Not seeing this, even Christians sometimes talk about consecrating themselves to God, and call it a higher Christian life. But we are consecrated to God absolutely by the blood of Christ, and therefore cannot speak of consecrating ourselves. Nor is it higher Christian life; anything else cannot be called Christian life. We can, however, seek to acknowledge that we are consecrated to God, and to maintain it practically, but for this we need power. That is what we get next in the type. The oil, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, was put upon the blood, and points to the fact that the believer is consecrated to God in the power of the Holy Spirit. “He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God”, 2 Cor 1: 21. “They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you”, Rom 8: 9. Our bodies have been taken possession of by the Spirit of God, and we are called to walk in the Spirit. “If we live by the Spirit, let us walk also by the Spirit”, Gal 5: 25. It is impossible to maintain this consecration to God by our own will or efforts. If we yield ourselves to the Spirit of God, He works in us both to will and to do of God’s good pleasure, and we bring forth fruit to God.

After this the sin-offering and the burnt-offering with its meat-offering were offered. The soul is in liberty, knowing that every question of sin has been settled to the satisfaction of God by the death of Christ—he cannot come into condemnation. And more than this, God has been perfectly glorified by the work of Christ, and consequently the believer is accepted in all the sweet savour of Christ’s work, and is in the same standing and relationship to God as Christ Himself. The soul that has reached this point, is not only at peace with God, but perfectly at home in His presence.

From Simple Testimony vol 6 (1889)