ONLY THE BLOOD OF JESUS

“Again, Jesus called the crowd and said, ‘Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean’.’”  Mark 7: 14-15 (NIV).

These words of Jesus cut right across the practices of man-made religion. Why did God give the Jews dietary laws in the first place? The nation of Israel was formed and brought up of Egypt – a pagan nation which did not understand ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ foods, i.e., foods which were good for the body, or health risks because they were unhealthy or not prepared properly.

God built His health laws into His religious system to ensure that the people would obey them for their own sake. But, as in all religious systems, they began to interpret the forbidding of eating certain foods as religious taboos, and they built an entire religious system on these taboos. This became part of the heavy religious yoke they were wearing that weighed them down.

Jesus exposed their foolish thinking and lifted the yoke in one sentence. “It’s not what goes in that pollutes but what comes out of the “belly” – the inner being.” How does this work? What one eats has no effect upon one’s spirit unless it is the expression of the “yetzer harah” (the greedy person who does not care about other people) as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The evil and corruption of sin is already in the heart, and the mouth becomes the instrument which reveals what is already inside.

Surely this makes a whole lot more sense than believing that what a person puts in his mouth defiles him. It is only the foolishness of men’s hearts and the blindness caused by sin that distorts the understanding, producing a senseless belief that something as ordinary as food can somehow pollute a person’s soul. 

By declaring all food clean, Jesus pulled the rug from under the Pharisees’ feet. Much of their ammunition against Him and His disciples was based on their food taboos and their scrupulous washing of hands and cooking utensils. Jesus made it clear that human need was more important than food and Sabbath rules, and the Pharisees hated Him for exposing their hypocrisy.

There are many religions today that do things to the body which they think will make their souls clean, like washing, and eating or not eating certain foods. Nothing can wash our hearts clean, but the forgiveness Jesus bought by His own blood. God demanded our lives as the payment for our debt of sin. Because we are already polluted, giving our lives will only pay for our sin.

Because Jesus lived a pure and unpolluted life of perfect obedience to His Father. His death as though He were a sinner, is enough to atone for the sin of the whole world. Only the blood He shed on the cross can cleanse our hearts and make us acceptable to God.