When the disease has covered his whole body

 Kor. text      a Korean meditation, translated

Today's text is about the Jesus' curing of a man with leprosy.

On the Lev. 13:13~14 says;

the priest is to examine him, and if the disease has covered his whole body,

he shall pronounce that person clean.

Since it has all turned white, he is clean.

But whenever raw flesh appears on him, he will be unclean.

Above verses are very interesting.

It is reverse to our common understanding.

When the disease (leprosy) has covered his whole body,

Is he clean?   (But Bible says "clean" ↑)

As we know, when the leprosy has covered a whole body,

it is a very critical state and he has no hope to be cured.

But the priest (at that time, the priest was a kind of 'medicine man')

pronounces he is clean!

I don't know details on the disease like a leprosy.

But above Lev. 13:13~14 teach us a very important component of the gospel.

▲Calvinist says 'total depravity' 

It means natural human being is 100% polluted by sin.

He was born in sin and there is nothing clean in his human nature.

Even his conscience is fallen, too.

For example, when a man helps a poor neighbor,

the foundation of his motivation is not helping poor people,

but it is showing his righteousness to the others.

So that when we want to be clean,

or when we are to be saved from our total depravity,

we have to admit that

I am 100% polluted man by sin, like a leprosy on the Bible.

I must know that

I don't have anything good within me,

from the top of my head to the bottom of my foot,

I am injured, diseased, and rotten.

Otherwise when I think myself somewhat clean,

and deny of my total depravity,

or if I think myself I am a quite good man,

or if I think myself that I am different from such a sinner,

according to Lev. 13:14, I am unclean.

'But whenever raw flesh appears on him, he will be unclean.'

▲In conclusion,

Everyone of us have to admit that I am a leprosy.

Then I have a hope to be saved.

If I think myself 'a quite good man'

I am departed from the gospel of Jesus.

Jeremiah 17:9 says;

'The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?'

Anyone who admit himself as a leprosy,

or identify himself to a total depraved man,

like a tax collector or a sinful woman on the Bible,

he has a hope to be saved. - It is the gospel of Jesus.

However, as long as we think and admit ourselves

as a quite nice people,

we need the illumination of the Holy Spirit

and understand the real human's state.

Jesus cured the man with leprosy.

It means, the gospel of Jesus cures such a greatest sinner.

Because the leprosy is the dirtiest disease of human.

So that we praise the Lord, he saves such a great sinner. (like me)