Cleansed by Grace

"Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness when they defile My tabernacle that is among them."

 Leviticus 15:31

Because God is holy and people are not, through the Law of Moses God instructed the people so they could distinguish between clean and unclean.  The tabernacle where the presence of the LORD dwelt was a holy place and those deemed unclean needed to wash or offer the required sacrifices before they could appear before Him.  God was gracious to warn His people of the dire consequences of bringing uncleanness into the tabernacle because it would cost them their lives.  This "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle" (Colossians 2:21-23) mentality fostered by the Law had the appearance of wisdom, but could do nothing to render a man righteous before God or cull the insatiable desires of sinful flesh.

The apostle Peter was a man raised observing the Law of God and had been taught the difference between clean and unclean:  he knew how to wash after touching an unclean object, if he was unclean by a personal issue and what foods were to be eaten or avoided.  After the resurrection of Jesus, Peter stayed with a tanner named Simon and experienced a divine revelation.  He had gone up on the rooftop to pray and was hungry as he waited for food to be prepared.  Acts 10:11-16 says Peter "...saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. ¹² In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. ¹³ And a voice came to him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." ¹⁴ But Peter said, "Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." ¹⁵ And a voice spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not call common." ¹⁶ This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again."

Even as the Law of Moses was a revelation to children of Israel concerning the difference between clean and unclean, Peter and all others in the church needed to be instructed how Jesus fundamentally changed the definition of what is clean and unclean.  Jesus came to earth not to destroy the Law but to fulfill.  He lived perfectly according to the Law and His righteousness infinitely exceeded the scribes and Pharisees.  Jesus offered Himself as the Lamb of God without blemish to atone for the sins of the world.  The handwriting which once condemned believing sinners was nailed to the cross with Jesus, and the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile was broken down to comprise the Body of Christ, the church.  Through the Gospel both Jew and Gentile were cleansed of sin and accepted into the family of God, regenerated by the Holy Spirit who indwelt them.  The context of the revelation at Joppa makes it plain the point of the vision was not Peter's kosher diet but Gentiles he continued to view as unclean and separated himself from whom God had cleansed.

It was a shocking surprise after Peter went to the house of Cornelius when the Holy Spirit fell upon his Gentile hearers and they spoke in tongues as the Jewish believers had on the day of Pentecost.  Peter and his travelling companions marveled how God cleansed by faith in Jesus those they historically viewed as unclean:  they too had become the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwelt within them.  There is no sin so great God cannot cleanse, no uncleanness in body or soul God refuses to purify from a heart that trusts in Jesus.  Uncleanness in God's people who defiled the tabernacle were at risk of losing their lives because God is holy.  When the Holy Spirit takes up residence in a follower of Jesus Christ that person is cleansed and made holy as God is holy.  We are not clean because of the efforts of our flesh to avoid eating a kind of meat or avoid sitting on a chair an person deemed "unclean" under Law may have sat upon, but because of the cleansing presence and power of God who has redeemed us.

Paul wrote to believers in 2 Corinthians 3:2-6:  "You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; ³ clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. ⁴ And we have such trust through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, ⁶ who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."  Jesus established a new covenant which superseded the old covenant of Law.  We are not righteous because we appear in Jerusalem three times a year or tithe of our increase:  we are cleansed from sin, made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit fills us.  The letter of the Law demands our blood, and Jesus shed His blood so all who repent and trust in Him can have eternal life.

What God has cleansed we should not call unclean, and those whom God has cleansed should be viewed as clean too--even when their convictions differ from our own.  Why should we condemn what God has cleansed?  May the LORD provide the revelation personally each of us need to bring to light our legalism and liberalism which strays from the love of God and others in Christ Jesus.  Let us acknowledge because we are in Christ we have been wholly cleansed by Him:  we are cleaner than those who washes in water, offers thousands of bulls as sacrifices or keeps the Law best they can.  Praise the LORD what is impossible with men is possible for God who cleanses us by His grace.