A few years ago I was visiting a beautiful island in the Atlantic Ocean. One day, a man who lived on the island named Edmond and I began driving up a winding, narrow road on a tree-covered hill.
As we continued, the road became narrower and rougher. Soon it was only two tire tracks with little streams of water running across the road here and there.
“I think we had better park the car and walk the rest of the way now,” said Edmond finally.
Perhaps you are wondering who we were going to visit in such a remote area. Who would live so far away from other people?
The people we wanted to visit did not live so far from everyone else because they wanted to. They lived there because that was where the government told them they had to live. You see, the people we were going to visit had the disease of leprosy.
Leprosy is a disease which can spread from one person to another. The government of some countries tried to keep it from spreading to others by keeping the sick ones in a special hospital far away from other people. (In at least one country, leprosy colonies still exist.) In the Bible, leprosy is used as a picture of sin because it is such a dreadful disease.
We got out of the car and took some papers with us that tell of the love of God in the gift of His Son as well as some Christian song sheets. We continued up the hill until we reached a hospital. There at last we saw the people we had come to visit.
We greeted them and gave each one a hymn sheet. As one lady reached out to take it, I saw that she had no fingers. Leprosy had destroyed them. Some people were so sick they did not come out to see us. We saw people in all different stages of the disease.
Three of them made me think of three kinds of sinners. One man looked like he didn’t have anything wrong with him. I thought, What is he doing here? He must have leprosy or he wouldn’t be here. He is like a sinner who says, “I am not a sinner; I do a lot of good things.” But God says, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our [good works] are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)).
The next lady had a bandage on her arm, so you could see there was something wrong with her. A sinner like that might say, “I know I have sinned, but I am not as bad as others.” But God says, “There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22-2322Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23)). We can never be good enough to save ourselves, even though we may see others who do worse things than we do.
The last man in the row had dark skin, and over his whole body you could see white marks that looked like chalk. The marks were not made by chalk — they were made by leprosy. This is like a sinner who doesn’t try to cover up his sins, but confesses to God that he is a sinner and needs a Savior. God says of such a person, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)).
Which of these sinners are you like? I hope you will confess that you are a sinner to the Lord Jesus and let Him wash your sins away. “The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son [cleanses] us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). This is the perfect and only cure for sin.
Of course, a person with leprosy is not a worse sinner than other people. But God uses leprosy to show us that just as this sickness causes the body to die, sin will cause your soul to die, unless you take God’s remedy. We are all sinners in God’s sight. Many of the people with leprosy we visited had taken God’s remedy for the sickness of their souls and had been washed clean from their sins.
I hope you will accept God’s remedy too, and be ready to go to heaven one day.
Messages of God’s Love 11/3/2024