GUILT AND DEFILEMENT
"...this is what the Lord GOD says: 'A city shedding blood in her midst, so that her time is coming; and a city that makes idols, contrary to her own good, for defilement! You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and you have become defiled by your idols which you have made.'" Ezekiel 22:3-4.
GUILT and DEFILEMENT! Two strong words that carry a message of judgment. God puts His finger on both of them. Ezekiel gives a picture of sin and its consequences. Sin when practiced has two outcomes: GUILT and DEFILEMENT. So, we must look in depth to understand what God means and how what He says pertains to you and me!
First, we shall probe to see what shedding of blood means in God's eyes. Is it the slaughter of animals? Or, going through the rituals of religious sacrifices? God instituted animal sacrifice for Israel as His desired means of dealing with sin's guilt. Surely, He is not revoking what Jews had practiced for centuries.
Verses 6-7 of the same chapter clarify what God means by shedding of blood:
"Behold, the rulers of Israel...have been among you for the purpose of shedding blood. They have treated father and mother with contempt among you. They have oppressed the stranger in your midst; they have oppressed the orphan and the widow among you."
GUILT and SHEDDING BLOOD
So we see that guilt was incurred by shedding blood, and shedding blood meant treating others unfairly. It points to unjust and harmful taking advantage of others, especially those of lesser status or ability. Shedding blood has to do with human relationships and the way we treat people. It is not limited to actual murder, but to the ways we do not do to others the way we would be treated in their place. It is not loving our neighbor as ourself.
Most people never shed the blood of another individual, but they do underpay or steal belongings, destroy a person's reputation through gossip or alienate a spouse by adultery; or they neglect elderly parents in need, sexualize school children, create gender confusion, abort babies and even caue suicide---and those are but a few examples of shedding blood. Shedding blood is a serious matter. And, remember, God says shedding blood brings the curse of guilt on the party who commits it!
Guilt is a legal term used in a court of law when trying a criminal. It incurs a penalty. Our guilt because of our sins says we must die. We are already spiritually dead, but sin also condemns us to hell forever---eternal separation from God. At conversion, the transformation of being born again, God forgives the guilt of our sin because of Jesus' death in our place. He removes guilt from our account and says He remembers our sins no more. Every past sin is forgiven and God wipes our slate clean. The Holy Spirit births a new nature in our spirit and we become a new creation. That is initial salvation.
Our new nature makes possible the casting off of the defilement and pollution of our old nature, the "old man", by the renewing of our mind through the washing of water by the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. We must have the new birth and the forgivensss of our sins in order to walk in newness of life. Only then can we put to death the polluted, defiled old nature--our defilement--by dying to self and surrendering all territory of our person to the Holy Spirit for Him to possess.
DEFILEMENT of OUR NATURE
Defilement addresses what is within a person: his heart. An individual pollutes one's own heart and nature by the worship of idols.
"You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths."
Defilement begins by intentionally disobeying God's commandments and His holiness. Such willful disregard demonstrates the fact that a person does not fear God...that is a frightening place to live...and why we need initial salvation. Proverbs chapter nine says that " the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom."
Soon after God delivered Israel from Egypt (a picture of our being saved from sin), He gave Moses the Ten Commandments for Israel to follow. The first four commandments define our relationship with God. God declares He is the LORD our God, who freed Israel. He says:
"You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them nor serve them.."
Israel had just left a country where for 400 years she had observed Egyptians' dark idolatry. God forbad Israel from following those idols. He had brought them to freedom to worship Him and Him alone. No idolatry. The same commandment holds true for those of us professing salvation through the blood of Jesus today.
However, there's a wrinkle. Many in today's Church claim idolatary does not exist in our society and that they have no part in such a practice. The Laodicean church said the same thing about herself:
"Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have no need of anything,' and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you many become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and eye salve to apply to your eyes so that you may see." Revelation 3:17-18.
Laodicea was enamored and satisfied with the things she had: she idolized herself and what she had accumulated. Jesus contradicted her self-satisfaction with a warning. Either turn around and become red hot again, or He would spue her out of His mouth! That is a warning not to be taken lightly.
God told Howard Pittman that he was a Laodicean minister and that we are in the Laodicean Church age. That declaration ought to set us back on our heels! That is how God sees us.
Nonetheless, many in today's Church claim idolatry does not exist in our society and that they have no part in such a practice. They think that only pagans make figurines as idols to worship. Yet, the definition of idolatry changes that perspective.
Idolatry is anything that takes first place in our heart.
Anything has the potential of becoming an idol. Possessions, People, Power, Privilege in society, Pursuit of wealth, or Personal aggrandizement are broad examples.
In the course of serving idols, the most sinister and prevalent idol for any individual to embrace is one's self. God calls that pride. It is that defilement that leads us to commit sins even Paul decried in Romans: "O wretched man that I am...!"
Pride puts one's self first, before God and other people, the exact opposite of humility We cannot come to God without humbling ourself before Him. Humility hurts, because it means we give up control of everything to submit to God's control. Only when we ask Jesus to ascend to the throne of our heart can we begin to live and walk in humility, calling our idols exactly what they are, gods that have dominated our lives for years.
While it won't be copied in full, Ezekiel 22:8-12 lists ways men and women defile themselves:
"'Slanderous men have been among you for the purpose of shedding blood, and among you they have eaten at the mountain shrines. In your midst they have committed outrageous sin. Among you they have uncovered their fathers' nakedness; among you they have abused her who was unclean in her menstruation. And one has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife, another has outrageously defiled his daughter-in-law, and another among you has sexually abused his sister, his father's daughter. Among you they have taken interest, you have injured your neighbors by oppression, and YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN ME, declares the Lord GOD.'""
Defilement is something other than guilt, though guilt is involved in defiling a person. Pollution of one's heart and character makes the individual unclean or impure. God pairs defilement with idolatry. Defilement is found within the heart of an idolator and works outwardly in blood shedding mistreatment of others. Defilement is the hiding of sins in the heart, as well: gossip, slander, hatred, anger. lust, filthy thinking, greed---and on goes the list. Jesus even said "for out of the heart come thoughts, murders, acts of adultery, false testimonies, and slanderous statements. These are the things that defile the person." Matthew 15:19-20.
While initial salvation and conversion of a soul removes the guilt of sin from his record in God's eyes, there still remains the defilement of the convrert's nature. That pollution cannot be removed legally. Instead, it must be removed by the death route Jesus outlined for us when He said, "If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, this is the one who will save it." Luke 9:23-24. There is the crux of the matter.
CRUCIFIXION OF THE DEFILED NATURE
A cross signifies crucifixion. When writing to the believers in Galatia, the apostle Paul said this about himself and crucifixion:
"I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20-21.
"I have been crucified" is a past passive verb. Paul experienced a real death done to himself at a specific time in his past. It was a completed act. Lest anyone would say, "I crucify myself every day for Jesus' sake," let's make a point clear. It is impossible for someone to crucify himself or herself. Another person(s) has to drive the nails into the hands and feet and let death come come on that cross. Crucifixion for Paul was a past occurrence, a final event already behind him, and the only One who could have driven those nails was God Himself! He it is Who drives the nails into the flesh of our heart, so the defiled nature dies.
It is the Holy Spirit Who brings death to self by a crucifixion we humbly agree to. It is then that He takes the throne of our heart. From that time forward we must apply that death to life situations that we encounter the rest of our life. Life lessons are learned by practicing them over and over until they become such a part of us that it is our natural and normal way to respond to life itself. We remember our crucifixion and behave according to its finished work of death to our own nature. That is what Jesus meant by "daily."
Perhaps it can be illustrated this way: When I was a nursing student, we had a laboratory where we practiced and demonstrated to our instructors that we knew many and various nursing procedures and principles. A simple example is that of correctly putting linens on a hospital bed. The laboratory was a perfect environment---no interruptions, no patient...just am empty bed, some sheets, a pillowcase and pillow, and a blanket. I passed the test!
TESTING TOWARD MATURITY
Then it was time for the rubber to hit the road. I had a 260 pound patient who could not get out of bed and I had to change his sheets with him still abed. I had to apply the basic principles of bed-making to a situation much different from being in the classroom. So I did it. Over and over again I made my patients' beds, every patient a unique individual that altered how I went about making his or her bed. My whole nursing career consisted of applying the principles of patient care learned in a lab to situations that might change by the moment. The principles became a part of me until they becae second nature to me. They made me a nurse.
The same practice applies to being crucified. A death to ourself happens at complete surrender to the Holy Spirit, but that reality must be applied over and over again in our daily walk as we encounter different people and situations. It is a process the Bible calls maturing, going from "when I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things." I Corinthians 13:11.
Jesus said in His declaration about taking up our cross, that we 'follow Him." The Gospels let us see what Jesus did as He met all sorts of people in different stations of life. As we learn the Scriptures and let His words soak into our spirit, we see better how to apply Jesus' own crucifixion to ours. We see His compassion on those who suffered. We hear His tenderness when mothers brought their childrein to the Savior. We watch Him ascend the mountain in the evening to spend the night in prayer with His Father. We feel Him wrestle with the devil after being without food or drink for 40 days and nights in the wilderness. We see Him silent before Pilate when falsely accused of being a blasphemer.
We need to be acquainted with Jesus in the Gospels to know how He walked and talked. In Philippians, Paul gives us a picture of what Jesus forsook im himility to become incarnate as a human man to redeem fallen, sinful mankind. And, we see today how over and over without end Jesus suffers the rejection of people across the globe. Notice His longsuffering with blind human beings who take God for granted and persecute those who try to point them to worship Jesus.
What an example Jesus is for us to follow! And to make that following more steadfast and possible, Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. It is He who transforms our spirit and soul to conform to His likeness more and more according to our obedience to Him.
Reader, we cannot begin to be free of guilt for sin and from defilement from sin without the blood of Jesus shed for us! We must revoke idolatry in all its forms and return to Jesus for forgiveness and cleansing. He must have residence in our spirit where self once ruled with the idols that occupied our time and attention. Jesus alone is worthy of our hearts and love. Let Him crucify you. Take up your cross, then, and follow Him!