The Picture of Clean

Acts 15:9 (KJV) And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

(Proverbs 20 also read)

I started my journey today in Psalm 24 where David is talking about lifting up clean hands and a pure heart.  I got to thinking about how people keep telling us that we are dirty rotten sinners, and that we are unworthy and so forth.  And yet I keep reading references like this, that say it is possible for us to come into His presence, with clean hands, and pure hearts. I looked up the word “pure” in the Hebrew and then went to the Greek.  When I went to the Greek and the New Testament, my mind went to this verse.

As I looked up the word purify in the King James, which is “cleans” in the New American Standard, I saw that its usage in the gospels was repeatedly used in being cleansed from leprosy.  Paul, Hebrews and James get into deeper applications, but I thought it was interesting that the idea of cleansing from leprosy is how Jesus use the word.

I think sometimes leprosy is used as a type for sin.  We don’t see much of it anymore although the disease is still around.  It’s a condition that deadens your nerves, and make your flesh susceptible to damage.  In effect your body starts to rot away because of this disease.

So?  Is this verse talking about the work of the Holy Spirit?  The point is that the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit is capable of changing a heart, and making it possible to come into the presence of God with clean hands in a pure heart.  That is reason to rejoice.