God Has Cleansed All Things

Have you heard about the five second rule?

What does the five second rule say?

Some say that if you drop a cookie on the ground but pick it up within five seconds, then you can still eat the cookie.

All of us at some point have dropped food on the ground…and we would hate for it to go to waste, specially if it is our favorite food.

However, the five second rule is a really bad way of thinking about things.

There is so much bacteria and invisible microorganisms, that we would be better off not eating anything that has come in contact with the ground…where who knows what has stepped on that spot.

We can be 100% sure that any food we drop on the ground has in one way or another been contaminated with something.

Now…the hebrews were very particular about what foods went into their mouth.

God gave the people of Israel certain dietary laws that forbade eating certain foods.

Foods that could be eaten were called clean foods or clean animals.

Cows

Carrots

Corn

Foods that could not be eaten were called unclean foods or unclean animals.

Pigs

Bats

Flies

If an Israelite were to eat pork, they would become unclean and would not be able to participate in the worship of God until they cleansed themselves to be pure once again.

Over time, the people of Israel saw themselves as being pure, not because they did not sin, but because they did not eat any unclean foods.

They thought that by observing all these food laws (e.g., not eating pork) that they would be pure before God.

Some continued to lie, to steal, to cheat, but as long as they obeyed these food laws they thought of themselves as being very clean people.

On the other hand, they saw all other people - non Israelites - as being impure because they ate all sorts of unclean foods.

So, Israelites saw themselves as clean/pure, but would have seen us non-Jews/non-Israelites as unclean gentiles.

In the Bible, God shows Peter in a vision a large sheet filled with all sorts of “four-footed animals, including reptiles and birds”.

Hechos de los Apóstoles 10:12 NIV

12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds.

But God tells Peter something that shocks him.

Hechos de los Apóstoles 10:13–14 NIV

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.”

Peter says, I have never eaten an unclean animal.

There is no way that I am going to eat that iguana, rattlesnake, etc.

I will by no means become impure.

Why would God do this to Peter?

God was not simply trying to change Peter’s diet…or to tell Peter that now that he was a Christian he could enjoy some bacon or shrimp.

God was teaching Peter a lesson…because he was about to send him into the home of an impure gentile - Cornelius.

Cornelius was a non-Jew.

He was a gentile.

He ate all sorts of impure animals.

Peter would have done everything possible to avoid contact with Cornelius because after all - Cornelius was an impure gentile.

But God was now sending Peter to Cornelius home…and Peter would no longer be able to see Cornelius as an impure/unclean gentile.

God was reaching even non-Jews with the message of Jesus Christ.

…and the lesson was that you do not become impure by eating certain foods…and you do not become pure by avoiding certain foods.

Ultimately, the only way we can be clean, pure, spotless before the presence of God - is by believing in Jesus Christ such that our sins are washed in his precious blood.

…only by believing in Jesus can we truly be purified of our sin and guilt.

1 Juan 1:9 NIV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.