And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Matthew 10:7-8 NKJV
Jesus gave us a commandment to go out and preach the good news of the kingdom of God. He also gave us authority in His name to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons. Many of God’s people today have seen how the sick get healed in the name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells every born-again believer in Jesus. Many people have cast out demons and some people have even physically raised the dead in the name of our Lord Jesus. But what about cleansing the lepers? Is this still relevant for today? If we understand that many things in the bible have a hidden spiritual meaning, then the answer is yes, this is absolutely relevant for today. The hidden meaning of a ‘leper’ is based upon a spiritual condition of being spiritually unclean due to sin.
For we all have become like one who is (ceremonially) unclean (like a leper), and all our deeds of righteousness are like filthy rags.
Isaiah 64:6 AMPC
Before we were born again, we were all spiritually unclean due to sin, and were in need of healing and cleansing. We praise and thank our great God, because when we come to Him in repentance, He heals us and cleanses us from all spiritual uncleanness. Having said this, we also see an important message in Scripture from the Lord concerning water baptism, which must follow after repentance. Even after Jesus cleansed the leper in Luke chapter 5, He still instructed him to go to the priest and make an offering for his cleansing.
And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored (begged) Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.”
Luke 5:12-14 NKJV
The offering that Jesus was referring to can be found in Leviticus chapter 14. As I would like to keep this message as simple as possible, I am not going to go into a detailed description of all the types and shadows contained within Leviticus 14, but rather give an overview of them. This offering points to the finished work of Jesus on the cross, as well as His blood that was shed for us as an atoning sacrifice for sin. It also points to the exchanges of the cross (example: He was made sin for us, so that we could receive His righteousness – 2 Corinthians 5:21), as well as baptism in water and baptism in the Holy Spirit for every believer in Jesus.
We also see an example in the Old Testament of how the prophet Elijah instructed Naaman (a leper) to go and wash in the Jordan River for his cleansing. This once again points to water baptism.
And Elisha sent a messenger to him (Naaman), saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’
Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:10-14 NKJV
A person may wonder why we cannot just approach the Lord, ask Him to cleanse us and leave it there? Why do we have to follow through with baptism? Remember that when the leper approached Jesus, the Lord had not yet been crucified, buried and risen from the dead. Having said that, the Lord still showed us that His perfect will is for us to follow the pattern He has given us in Scripture, which is: repentance, faith toward God, and baptism in water and in the Holy Spirit.
The bible tells us that baptism is a washing away of sin (Acts 22:16 / Acts 2:38). We also know that when we repent of our sins, the blood of Jesus washes us clean from all sin and unrighteousness (1 John 1:7-9). But, there is another very important reason why we get baptized. After we have changed our minds about sin, and completely turned away from it, we still carry around with us the body of sin. We still have a sinful nature which needs to be buried with Christ through water baptism.
Just as Jesus died on the cross, was buried and rose again, we follow this exact same pattern when we get baptized under water. The bible tells us that we have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20), and that we are buried with Him through baptism, and when we come up out of the water God raises us from spiritual death to spiritual life. The sinful nature which kept us as slaves to sin was buried with Christ. That’s really good news for us. When we were raised with Christ, we received newness of life, and we have been made into a new creation in Christ. Thank You Jesus!
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:3-7 NKJV
We thank God and praise Him for His goodness!
Until next time – blessings in Jesus’ precious name.