The miracles of our Lord served
three functions. First, they identified Him as
the one sent from God in fulfillment of the scriptures. In Luke chapter
4, verses 14 through 21, the Lord was in His hometown of Nazareth
on the Sabbath. They handed Him the scroll of
Isaiah, and after reading what we would call Isaiah chapter
61, verses 1 and 2, He said, Today this scripture is fulfilled
in your hearing. Secondly, our Lord's miracles
serve to authenticate His message. From our perspective, we would
never think of questioning our Lord's word. We would say, it
is the Lord. Of course it's true. But there
was nothing about our Lord's physical appearance in that day
that would lead anyone to consider Him to be any more than another
rabbi, except that He had a unique message. As Isaiah said, there
is no beauty or majesty that we should desire Him. So God
empowered him to do miraculous works which a person could not
do apart from God's approval. He himself said in John chapter
10 verses 37 and 38, If I am not doing the works of my Father,
then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though
you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know
and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.
This confirmation of his message was even extended to the disciples.
For on the night of his betrayal, he said to them, believe me that
I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or else believe on
account of the works themselves. But there is a third reason for
the miracles our Lord did. And that is that each of these
miracles serves as a pattern to illustrate the gospel. How
he healed people shows us how he saves people. His ability
to calm the seas, heal diseases and deformities, cast out demons,
and even raise the dead, all give us windows in the natural
world through which we can peer into the spiritual world. Here
in Luke chapter five, verses 12 through 14, we have a good
example of this in the Lord's healing of a leper. While Jesus
was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with
leprosy. When he saw Jesus, He fell with
his face to the ground and begged him, Lord, if you are willing,
you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and
touched the man. I am willing, he said, be clean. And immediately the leprosy left
him. Then Jesus ordered him, don't
tell anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices
that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them.
There are three important gospel principles illustrated in this
man's healing, and each begins with the letter C. This leper
was covered, cleansed, and cleared. The first point that is illustrated
is that the Lord saves none other than those who perceive themselves
as nothing other than sin. As this leper was covered with
leprosy, so the one who comes to Christ is covered with sin. In order to understand the Bible's
use of the word leprosy, we must understand that it refers to
many skin diseases and quite possibly did not include what
we call leprosy today. So we cannot be certain just
what sort of disease this man had. But we do know what the
law said about such diseases and why Luke makes a point of
saying that the man was covered with a disease. We find the reason
for it in Leviticus chapter 13, verses 12 and 13. If the disease breaks out all
over the skin, and so far as the priest can see, it covers
all the skin of the affected person from head to foot, the
priest is to examine them. And if the disease has covered
their entire body, he shall pronounce them clean. Since it has all
turned white, they are clean. The only way for a person to
be declared clean under the law was to be healed of the disease
or to be covered with it. There was nothing to be done
for the person whose skin was only partially covered with disease.
He was unclean and could not be made clean by anything anyone
could do. This may sound strange, but it
teaches us an important point of gospel truth. The only ones
who can be declared clean in the sight of God are those who
have no sin and those who are covered with sin. Nearly everyone
in this world sees themselves as a mixture of good and bad.
That is true, if we are using man's standard for good and bad.
And on that scale, it's wise to maximize your good and minimize
your evil. But it is spiritually deadly
to see yourself as a mixture of good and bad in the sight
of God. Yet this is what most people do. Many go so far as
to think that God's judgment will be some sort of weighing
of good and bad, to see if a person's good outweighs their bad, with
one's eternal destiny being determined by which is the heavier. But
when it comes to sin and righteousness, God recognizes only two conditions,
absolutely perfect or absolutely sinful. You might be asking,
is he saying that using God's standard of judgment, there is
no difference between the murderer and the heroic rescuer? There
is no difference between the abortionist and the abortion
protester? No difference between the homosexual
activist and the preacher that denounces his conduct? No difference
between a Hitler and the Jews he slaughtered? That is exactly
what I am saying. But it matters little what I
am saying. This is what the scriptures teach. Paul wrote, There is no
difference, for all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
In the day of judgment there shall be some who come before
the Lord as murderers, perverts, liars. We will see the likes
of empire builders who slaughtered by the millions. We will see
those Mideastern butchers of our day who kill in the name
of their God. We will see the abortionists
and we will see thieves, both the nasty burglar type and the
suit and tie financiers who robbed people of their money through
tricky financial laws. Yes, we shall see all manner
of the sorts of people that appal us with our conduct and whom
we are convinced are now headed to hell. And we shall hear the
Lord say to them, I never knew you. depart from me, you evildoers. And we will give our amen to
the Lord's judgment as they are dragged away to eternal punishment. And then shall be brought before
him many who are addressed as reverend or father in this world,
people who were known for their powerful sermons and miraculous
works. They will be those who were indeed
revered and highly esteemed among men. And they will come before
the Lord, and they will be surprised at the look of disgust and anger
in His face. And they shall lay before Him
their wonderful works. They shall cry out to Him, Lord,
Lord, and then list those things which they thought would curry
His favor. And the Lord shall say to them, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity. And many who watch that scene
will be stunned. But had they listened to the
Lord while on earth, they would have known that with Him it is
all good or all bad. But because they would not acknowledge
their all badness and sought His favor by what scraps of goodness
they thought they had, they appeared before Him claiming to be part
good and part bad. And there is neither grace nor
remedy for such people. Now this man in our story was
covered with a skin disease. And as such, he came before the
Lord and found him to be a willing savior. I cannot help but be
impressed with the way this man approached the Lord. He did not
come thinking the Lord owed him anything. He did not argue for
the power of his own will in the matter. He did not act as
though his coming to the Lord brought upon the Lord any obligation
to fulfill his request. He came as someone with nowhere
else to go, convinced of the power of Jesus to cure his leprosy. His faith extended as far as
what he had heard, that Jesus could heal. He had the power
to do it. But this leper had no promise
of healing from the Lord, so he laid no claim to a promise. He simply acknowledged Christ's
ability and Christ's right to reject him for healing. If you
are willing, he said, you can make me clean. Then our Lord
revealed his heart as it is toward everyone covered with the leprosy
of sin. I am willing, be clean. And immediately
the man was cleansed of his disease. The will and power of Christ
is all it took. And friend, the will and power
of Christ is all that it takes for you. And we have more to
go on than this leopard did, for we have this story to show
us that the Lord is not only able, but is also willing to
cleanse. He has power to cleanse anyone,
but He has a will to cleanse only those utterly covered with
their sin. After the Lord cleansed the He
commanded him to offer the required sacrifices of the law for his
cleansing. Why? Well, even though the will
and power of Christ are all that is necessary to make a person
clean, the sins from which a person is cleansed must still be atoned
for. That is what the sacrifices signified. This man was cleansed, cured,
but he still needed a legal cleansing. What he had experienced through
the sheer grace and mercy of Christ must be legally accounted
for at the temple. Here is a bit of a picture of
how God could justify Abraham back in antiquity, even before
Christ's blood was shed. At the appointed time, there
would be offered for him a sacrifice that would atone for those sins
from which Abraham had been justified. But we stand on the other side
of this atoning sacrifice, historically speaking. Christ has died, and
on that basis we may say that all for whom Christ made that
sacrifice are legally cleared from all their sins. But what
was done in the court of heaven must also be experienced on earth. That will done in heaven must
also be done here on earth. The cleansing on Calvary must
also be carried out in the heart of all of God's elect. According
to the law, a man covered in skin disease was clean already,
and he offered a sacrifice only to make it official, and was
thus free to live among his brethren up here at the temple. The problem
was, the man still had the disease. Well, God's salvation goes beyond
a mere declaration that one is clean. God actually makes us
clean. He clears our record of every
crime against His kingdom, and He clears our persons of the
disease which made us commit the crimes. He begins this with
the new birth, when, by the touch of God the Holy Spirit, our spirits
are made whole, utterly cleansed of their foul leprosy of unbelief. But do we not still feel those
foul, leprous inclinations of evil in our flesh? And do we
not long to be cleansed from them? Our Lord could have said
to this man, what do you need from me? You are covered with
leprosy. So under the law, you're already
clean. Go, offer the required sacrifices
and you will no longer be considered unclean. You will be restored
to the full rights of Jewish citizenship. But then hear the
leper say, oh, wretched leper that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of leprosy? and we hear our Lord say, I will
be clean. Those of us who have trusted
Christ have already experienced the beginning of this cleansing.
And in time to come when He returns for us or through death we go
to Him, His word to us will be, be clean. And so shall we be
utterly cleansed from the very presence of sin. There will be
no more prohibition from worshiping God at His true temple, and there
will be no more of that foul disease that hinders us from
doing as we would like to do. His word, be clean, shall be
completely fulfilled in us. Glory to God in the highest.