Lord's Day Devotion - Highway of Holiness

"Unclean, unclean!" came the clarion call of the leper as he shuffled along.  He's shouting, but...

Wait...what is he doing!  Why is he coming here!!  He's supposed to go away.  Doesn't he know God said he's supposed to go away from everybody!!  (Leviticus 14).   The crowd shrank back gasping in fear and maybe even disgust, clutching their garments close, and letting the man pass by, hopefully, preferably, without making any contact with him.

Here he came, right up to Jesus. 

 "Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man" (Luke 5:12-15 ESV)!!!!

Anathema!

It was unthinkable to touch such a person.  Yet Jesus out of love and compassion and a willing heart, did so.  It must have felt like an electric shock coursing through the leper's body.

The leper knew Jesus could help but did not demand it.  He hoped.  He hoped from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.  

"Lord, if you are willing..." 

What faith the man had too...

"Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean."

Yes, Lord.  Yes, yes, Lord.  We plead from the bottom and depths of our souls for His compassion and mercy.  Would we deny it for others?

Jesus did not.  Don't you just love His response that came with that touch!

"I am willing...Be clean!"

The man was immediately made whole.

Not partial healing, but whole!!

Jesus is still touching mankind and making them whole.  Sin sick people receive His salvation.  That is what we remind ourselves of every Lord's Day.  Salvation has put each of us who have become a child of God by accepting the gift of salvation, on the Highway of Holiness.  

Jesus made us clean in God's sight,

"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7 ESV).

We are now entitled to walk on that highway, as Isaiah puts it in Isaiah 35:8 (NIV),

"And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.  The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in the Way..."

Let us continue on this highway, living to please our Heavenly Father, Lord and God,  and Savior, through Jesus Christ Who is the Way (John 14:6), by examining ourselves and obeying His Word and being in the way of progressive sanctification.  God made us fit to walk there and will never kick us off nor can we get ourselves kicked off because He has made us worthy.  Let us be worthy of that worthiness though.

Examine your hearts, keeping short accounts with God and remember Jesus in His death as He requested, passing the emblems of the bread and wine one to another, thanking and praising Him with all gratitude for touching us and making us completely clean.

                                                  ~ERC   December 2018~

Note:

Robert Lowry penned the words which we often sing, 

"For my cleansing this I see,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus..."