Christ Died for the Local Church

Continuing the laws about dealing with leprosy in a house, God talked next about what to do if the leprosy spread. If you remove the leprous stones, but the leprosy comes back, the whole house is to be torn down. When we think of this as a picture of God dealing with sin in churches, this is very different than most people think. They think God wants to keep bad churches alive. If the light in the church is darkness, it should be torn down. God is not desperate to have more churches. He only desires more faithful churches. Christ came to destroy sin, so it is important that the church doesn't spread it. Then He told Moses and Aaron, if the church remains clean after being cleansed, then the picture of substitutionary atonement is required to atone for the church. We should remember that Christ did not just come to atone for individuals. He came to atone for His bride and even for individual churches. Lastly, He reminded them what all the laws of leprosy are about. They are not about how to deal with sickness and mold. They are about being able to divide the clean from the unclean.