"When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them."
This quote continues the lessons on the fruits of faith and how, through faith in Jesus Christ, anything can be accomplished.
It might serve us well to note that Jesus instructed the leper to follow through with his obligations under the law, "go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." Jesus instructed the leper to do this because the Law would not be fulfilled until He had finished His sacrificial ordeal, and had ascended to the Father. The leper, spoken of in this passage, expressed his total faith in Jesus when he said, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou CANST make me clean." He didn't ask Jesus to try and see if he could heal the leprosy, he clearly said "thous canst" (you can) heal it. The action of the leper is a definite expression of that man's faith in Jesus.
This same example can be applied to Jesus' ability to remit the sins of anyone who has faith in Him that He is able.
Jesus' actions in this passage were not recorded only to demonstrate that He had the power to heal leprosy. The lesson has a twofold intent. The first is, of course, that Jesus can heal any illness and that He did indeed heal the leper. The second, and most important, is that if, as the leper demonstrated, we have FAITH in Jesus Christ, He will not only cleanse our bodies of disease, He will, because of that FAITH, also cleanse our souls of sin.
As we progress through these lessons, it will become vividly clear that all one need do to receive eternal life and to live forever in the presence of God, is to have faith in the actions of His Son that He took the sins of all those who will only believe in Him.~
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