Morning, September 29
Go To Evening Reading
“Behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce
him clean that hath the plague.”
Leviticus 13:13
Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it,
for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was
sound. This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching
of so singular a rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of
the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be
altogether lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of
sin, and no part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness
of his own, and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through
the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed
iniquity is the true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt it has
received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon
the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness,
or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are “nothing else but sin,” for no confession short of this will be the whole truth, and if the
Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there will be
no difficulty about making such an acknowledgment—it will spring spontaneously from our lips. What comfort does the
text afford to those under a deep sense of sin! Sin mourned and confessed,
however black and foul, shall never shut a man out from the Lord Jesus.
Whosoever cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out. Though dishonest
as the thief, though unchaste as the woman who was a sinner, though
fierce as Saul of Tarsus, though cruel as Manasseh, though rebellious
as the prodigal, the great heart of love will look upon the man who
feels himself to have no soundness in him, and will pronounce him
clean, when he trusts in Jesus crucified. Come to him, then, poor
heavy-laden sinner,
Come needy, come guilty, come loathsome and bare;
You can't come too filthy—come just as you are.