Jesus Paid It All

For I am the LORD your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves with any of these small animals that scurry along the ground. [Leviticus 11.44]

How does this all fit together? For the first time in my life (I think) I realize that this phrase, "Be holy, because I am holy..." is found in the context of touching small animals that scurry along the ground.

I suppose it would not have such a significance except for Peter's dream / vision recorded in the book of Acts in the New Testament after Jesus' life, death, and ascension back to heaven. As the story goes, Peter was praying when God did something unusual. The gist of the story is that God told Peter to eat things that were previously deemed "unclean" (probably referring directly to passages like the one from Leviticus above).

But what is really interesting is what God said about those "unclean" things He presented to Peter to kill and eat:

But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” [Acts 10.15]

Here is the question: When did God make all the "unclean" creatures "clean"? It could only have been resultant to Jesus' obedience and work on the Cross! So powerful and far reaching was the work of Jesus at Calvary that even unclean creatures were transformed! Should we be surprised? No, I don't think so - remember the earthquake? 

Jesus' work on the Cross was THE EVENT of all history. Why should we be surprised that the atmosphere of the earth was altered during that time? Why should we be surprised that even unclean creatures were made clean?

If anything, we should eat pork and catfish and the likes in great REJOICING because the fact that we can eat them is a faith statement that Jesus PAID IT ALL!

Wow.

Father, thank You for Peter's experience relative to the Leviticus passage above. Jesus truly paid it all.