Cleansed and Made Pure

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

CLEANSED AND MADE PURE

Acts 10:9-16

9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. 13 Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."  14 "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." 15 The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."  16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

NIV

We first note that this exchange between the Lord and Peter happened three times. Was the sheet full of animals taken up and then brought back down and the Lord said that same thing to Peter or was the sheet always there and Peter was just having a good ole fashioned argument with the Lord, until after the third time the Lord took the sheet from Peter’s view. Because we are told only once that sheet was taken back to heaven once, it must have been Peter and the Lord conversing three times. It is interesting that Peter denied the Lord three times, and now he is denying his command three times. What is it with Peter, especially after he has had such an experience with the Lord, and his faith is so strong, that he just raised a young girl from the dead? Now he argues with the Lord about clean and unclean food. However, the Lord is not talking about food, but rather about men, gentile men, those who the Jews had not considered as worthy of the good news, after all, they were God’s chosen people. So, how does this all relate to us? We know that Peter will get the truth as the next verses reveal to us, but what about how do we deal with this clean and unclean thing? We know that our faith in Jesus Christ tells us that we have been cleansed by his blood. Over and over again in various ways, we are told that through the blood of Jesus all our sins have been forgiven, that we have been made clean. Of course, because we have not yet received our glorified bodies, and we still live in this corruptible form, we continue to make mistakes, and we continue to commit sin in one form or another. When we are made aware of our failure, it is usually the evil one who comes along and wants to put shame and guilt upon us. “How can you call yourselves a Christian, and say you love the Lord, and then do what you did?” Accusations like that only come from the evil one. God will never accuse us for he has already declared us holy and blameless in his sight, and that is even in our current state or form that is not sinless. We have been cleansed by God, therefore let us not call ourselves unclean. This was the message the Lord was giving to Peter. This is the message the Lord is giving to us. Of course, we should make every effort from sinning. Of course, we should strive to please God. However, we also know that the work of God is that we believe in the one he sent, Jesus. No matter how much we try to do all the right things and avoid all the wrong things, ultimately it comes down to believing in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the one who has cleansed us by his blood. How then if Jesus has cleansed us, can we, mere man, unclean ourselves? The answer is a resounding, we can’t! Once we have been cleansed, we cannot be uncleansed. Once we have been forgiven all our sins, we cannot be unforgiven, or course unless we completely turn our back on Jesus and return full-time to our wicked way of life. However, that still does not make null and void the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. So let us always look to Jesus, and when sin know that his forgiveness is always there.