God's Miraculous Work

"I will; be thou clean." Mark 1:41

Primeval darkness heard the Almighty fiat, "light be," and straightway light was, and the word of the Lord Jesus is equal in majesty to that ancient word of power. Redemption like Creation has its word of might. Jesus speaks and it is done. Leprosy yielded to no human remedies, but it fled at once at the Lord's "I will." The disease exhibited no hopeful signs or tokens of recovery, nature contributed nothing to its own healing, but the unaided word effected the entire work on the spot and forever.

The sinner is in a plight more miserable than the leper; let him imitate his example and go to Jesus, "beseeching Him and kneeling down to Him." Let him exercise what little faith he has, even though it should go no further than "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean;" and there need be no doubt as to the result of the application. Jesus heals all who come, and casts out none. In reading the narrative in which our morning's text occurs, it is worthy of devout notice that Jesus touched the leper.

This unclean person had broken through the regulations of the ceremonial law and pressed into the house, but Jesus so far from chiding him broke through the law himself in order to meet him.

He made an interchange with the leper, for while he cleansed him, he contracted by that touch a Levitical defilement. Even so Jesus Christ was made sin for us, although in Himself He knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

O that poor sinners would go to Jesus, believing in the power of His blessed substitutionary work, and they would soon learn the power of his gracious touch. That hand which multiplied the loaves, which saved sinking Peter, which upholds afflicted saints, which crowns believers, that same hand will touch every seeking sinner, and in a moment make him clean.

The love of Jesus is the source of salvation.

He loves, He looks, He touches us, WE LIVE.

Morning and Evening Devotions
Charles Spurgeon. September 4th.
The Old Time Gospel Hour. Lynchburg, Virginia.

Spurgeon has a gift for emphasizing the inner things that often go unnoticed. In this case, the inner plight of the sinner and his meager faith that God can cleanse him of his sins.

Spurgeon certainly holds to his Calvinist creeds, but his devotionals are rarely to the effect of pushing dogma. Instead it gives his writings a sense that, 'Judgment is approaching! Where are you with Jesus?'

Although he can be very indirect about it, he keeps his laser focus on coming to Jesus with our wrong-doings.

Another aspect of Spurgeon's writings that I like is the way he contends vigorously that we only need to believe on Christ and we will be forgiven. If he were a dogmatist, he would only say it once and leave it at that, but he places emphasis on it, though, because he knows that there is the part of the human soul which is not easily convinced that he or she can be forgiven.

Spurgeon responds to the ethical consideration that the justice of God is perfect and inescapable. Although he agrees, he also maintains that we may escape God's wrath because of Christ's finished work -even though we are sinners. Spurgeon gives our ethical reservations their due, but goes in a completely different direction.

Of interest in this passage is Spurgeon's epistemology -his view of what we humans can observe and know. The leprosy shows no empirical signs of hope. By making this emphasis, Spurgeon directs us to the domain of faith, which the five senses have no power over.

The posts here usually ask the question, "How does a life of mere devotion differ from a life of worldliness?", but sometimes the best way to examine the question is to actually sit in the counsel of writers like Spurgeon as they were lead. I recommend getting a copy of his devotions and reflecting on them.

May God touch us, and may we each receive His divine touch, as we see the Day approaching.