Posted by Searcher on 9/21/2009, 12:44 pm
99.197.64.56
In the law of Moses, there were ceremonial purification rites and washings. These are clearly detailed in Numbers 6 and Leviticus chapters 13-17.
Levitical purification was still being observed in the gospels and Acts:
John 11:55
And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves.
Paul advised to take part in the purification rite since he was being falsely accused by the Jews:
Acts 21:23,24
Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them: Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all will know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself walketh orderly, and keepest the law.
James 4:8, 1John 3:3, and 1Peter 1:22 speak of spiritual cleansing. It has nothing to do with the works of the flesh or Levitical rites of purification.
The "flesh" cannot be "preserved". To even attempt to do so is absurd. What do we know about the flesh? We know that the flesh is carnal, the flesh is full of sin, the flesh is corrupt, and the flesh is of the earth, earthy. The flesh is opposed to God. Sin works in the flesh. In the flesh, it is impossible to please God. Believers are admonished to consider the body of sin, i.e. the flesh, the old man as dead. We are to put it off and put on the new man which is Christ in us.
Once we understand that all purification rites and ceremonies and washings are done away with, we get a true sense of what holiness is. It is not a ceremonial washing of physical flesh that purifies, but a holiness of heart given to those who believe in Christ and in His finished work on the cross.
Eph 1:4 (To the saints and faithful)
According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
By works of the flesh is no man justified. It is not the outward man of the flesh, but the inner man with a believing heart that God selects.
Eph 3:17-19
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith: that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and the length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Searcher
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