"And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the bird loose into the open field." The more deeply we ponder over the contents of chapter xiii, the more clearly we shall see how utterly impossible it was for the leper to do aught towards his own cleansing. All he could do was to "put a covering upon his upper lip;" and all he could say was, "Unclean, unclean." It belonged to God, and to Him alone, to devise and accomplish a work whereby the leprosy could be perfectly cleansed; and further, it belonged to God, and to Him alone, to pronounce the leper "clean." Hence it is written, "The priest shall sprinkle," and "he shall pronounce him clean." It is not said, The leper shall sprinkle and pronounce or imagine himself clean. This would never do. God was the Judge--God was the Healer--God was the Cleanser. He alone knew what leprosy was, how it could be put away, and when to pronounce the leper clean. The leper might have gone on all his days covered with leprosy, and yet be wholly ignorant of what was wrong with him. It was the Word of God--the Scriptures of truth--the divine Record that declared the full truth as to leprosy; and nothing short of the self-same authority could pronounce the leper clean, and that, moreover, only on the solid and indisputable ground of death and resurrection. There is the most precious connection between the three things in verse 7: the blood is sprinkled, the leper pronounced clean, and the living bird let loose. There is not so much as a single syllable about what the leper was to do, to say, to think, or to feel. It was enough that he was a leper--a fully revealed, a thoroughly judged leper, covered from head to foot. This sufficed for him; all the rest pertained to God.
It is of all importance for the anxious inquirer after peace to enter into the truth unfolded in this branch of our subject. So many are tried by the question of _feeling_, _realizing_, and _appropriating_, instead of seeing, as in the leper's case, that the sprinkling of the blood was as independent and as divine as the shedding of it. It is not said, The leper shall apply, appropriate, or realize, and then he shall be clean. By no means. The plan of deliverance was divine; the provision of the sacrifice was divine; the shedding of the blood was divine; the sprinkling of the blood was divine; the record as to the result was divine: in short, it was all divine.
It is not that we should undervalue realization, or, to speak more correctly, communion, through the Holy Ghost, with all the precious results of Christ's work for us. Far from it: we shall see presently the place assigned thereto in the divine economy. But then we are no more saved by realization than the leper was cleansed by it. Theνυκτα και ημεραν gospel, by which we are saved, is that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." There is nothing about realization here. No doubt it is happy to realize. It is a very happy thing for one who was just on the point of being drowned to realize himself in a life-boat; but clearly he is saved by the boat and not by his realization. So it is with the sinner that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is saved by death and resurrection. Is it because he realizes it? No; but because God says it. It is "_according to the Scriptures_." Christ died and rose again, and on that ground God pronounces him clean.
"No condemnation, O my soul! _'Tis God that speaks the word._"
This gives immense peace to the soul. I have to do with God's plain record, which nothing can ever shake. That record has reference to God's own work. It is He Himself who has wrought all that was needful in order to my being pronounced clean in His sight. My pardon no more depends upon my realization than upon any "works of righteousness that I have done;" and it no more depends upon my works of righteousness than it does upon my crimes. In a word, it depends exclusively upon the death and resurrection of Christ. How do I know it? God tells me. It is "according to the Scriptures."