Making Us Clean - Audio
Something almost every human being shares in common is that people everywhere value being clean. If we run across a person who is not clean it is likely a sign of extreme poverty, or extreme laziness. Hebrews 1:3 speaks of Jesus work as our great HIgh Priest who makes purification for sins. It does not call Jesus a High Priest here, but the comparison is made later in the book. But, the language of making purification very much comes from the Old Testament and was something done by the priests. This OT language had to do with being ceremonially unclean which disqualified you from worship in the Temple. A person had to be clean in order to draw near to God’s presence. What is interesting, is that any number of things could make you unclean, or defiled (dirty). Touching any dead body, human or animal, made you unclean. Touching a leper (or being one) made you unclean. Of course, sin left a deep stain that made you unclean as well. The idea was that any contact with sin or its consequences (sickness and death), left a stain upon your life. This stain is not just on your clothing or skin, but goes much deeper into the very heart and soul of the person. Before you could come into God’s presence and worship Him, you had to be made pure. This involved very processes, depending on the cause of being made unclean. But, in every case, there was a sacrifice, the shedding of blood, and either the blood of the sacrifice, or the ashes of the animal mixed with water were sprinkled on the person to “wash” them and make them clean.