The law God delivered to Israel at Mount Sinai included different types of commands. Efforts to sort them into categories aren’t usually all that helpful, but there are some general observations we can make. It’s clear from reading the Torah that not every command carries the same “weight,” if I can use that imperfect term. For example, some of these laws clearly categorize certain behavior as “sin.” These require repentance and animal sacrifice to cleanse (for example, refusing to act as a witness or swearing a rash oath [Lev. 5:1, 4-6] ). Some sins are serious enough they couldn’t be cleansed that way, and resulted in the perpetrator being cut off from the covenant congregation or even executed unless they were directly forgiven by God (murder, for example, Num. 35:15-34; 2 Sam. 12:7-14). (Note: all sins ultimately result in death without God’s intervention, and in that sense there aren’t “worse” or “better” sins [Rom. 3:23; 6:23; Jam. 2:8-11]).

There are other commands in the law that don’t necessarily involve sin. These regard things that result in a person being “unclean” until a certain time, at which point they might wash or offer a small sacrifice. This “uncleanness” is related to being common or unsanctified–the opposite of being holy and set apart for sacred use. It’s not something we talk about much anymore, but it was very important to God in the Old Testament. So what happened?

When we do talk about this concept, we often refer to it as “ritual uncleanness” to differentiate it from “sinful uncleanness.” I’ve been pondering this concept for years, and I finally want to share a formal Bible study post on the subject. Please just keep in mind as you read that this is a big topic, and the depth of God’s truth is something we could study our whole human lives without learning everything. I might get some things wrong or not explain things the best way (which is why I’ve been reluctant to write on the topic), but I think there’s value in sharing things we’re still learning about so that we can grow and learn together.

What Makes Someone “Unclean”?

First, I do need to point out that there isn’t always a clear-cut division between sin and uncleanness. For example, in Leviticus 5:1-6 it talks about four things that can make a person guilty: refusing to testify as a witness, touching an unclean animal, touching “the uncleanness of man,” and swearing a rash oath. All those things required confession of sin and a trespass offering. This indicates a connection between certain types of uncleanness and sin.

However, there are other things that make someone unclean which have a different outcome. For example, in Leviticus 11 God shares a list of clean and unclean animals. Only the clean animals may be eaten or offered to Him as a sacrifice. For the unclean animals, He says, “By these you will become unclean: whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the evening” (Lev. 11:25, WEB). There’s no mention of a sin offering, simply an uncleanness that expires at the end of the day. That sort of uncleanness doesn’t get you into trouble unless you then do something that God tells you not to do while unclean (such as eat of a holy offering [Lev. 7:19-21]).

If you were ritually unclean, you could not enter the holy places (tabernacle or temple) or touch any holy thing until you became clean again (Lev. 12:4; 22:1-6; 2 Chr. 23:18-19). That cleansing might happen at a certain time, or after washing in water, or after offering a sacrifice. Sometimes cleansing involved a combination of those things, as for lepers (Lev. 14) and those with a “discharge” (Lev. 15). The reason for this hyper-focus on ritual cleanliness was God’s holiness and presence among the people.

You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps. You shall not make yourselves unclean with them, that you should be defiled by them. For I am Yahweh your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth. For I am Yahweh who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

Leviticus 11:43-45, WEB

 You shall have a trowel among your weapons. It shall be, when you relieve yourself, you shall dig with it, and shall turn back and cover your excrement; for Yahweh your God walks in the middle of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you. Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.

Deuteronomy 23:13-15, WEB

There is “a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean” (Lev. 10:10, WEB). God is holy and clean, and there are things that are part of being human in a post-fall world that are unholy or unclean. Remember, holiness involves “set-apartness” for sacred use (H6944 qodesh, BDB definition). People and things aren’t holy unless God makes them that way, separating them to Himself.

Does God Care About Cleanness in the New Testament?

We’re not told exactly why touching certain animals, a woman being on her period, or a man having leprosy make someone “unclean” in the ceremonial sense. But we do know that up to the time of Jesus, these ritual cleanliness laws were enforced. In one case, “ten men who were lepers met” Jesus, but “stood at a distance” as they cried out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:12, WEB). Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest, as the Law instructed so they could be declared ceremonially clean after being cured of leprosy.

But there was something different about Jesus. He didn’t seem concerned with the fact that they were ritually unclean. He even touched some of the lepers He healed (Matt. 8:3) and He let a bleeding woman touch Him (Luke 8:43-48). He could cleanse someone in an instant, from sin or from ritual impurity.

Today, we don’t tell a woman on her period that she can’t come before God’s presence in prayer or go to church, or tell her husband that if he touches any surface she does that he’s similarly restricted. And we’re right to do so, but why is that? What changed from the Old to New Testament that the things making people ritually unclean no longer seem to matter to God when they mattered so much before?

The interesting thing is, cleanliness does still matter to God. In the Greek, we often see the word “holy” used to translate the word hagios, where the “fundamental idea is separation, consecration, devotion to the service of Deity, sharing in God’s purity” (G40, Zodhiates). The word is also sometimes translated “saint,” on the assumption that all of God’s people are holy (Rom. 1:7; 15:25-26; 1 Cor. 1:2; 3:17; Heb. 3:1). In 1 Corinthians 7:14, hagios is contrasted with the word koinos, common, defiled, or “Levitically unclean” (G2839, Thayer).

And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is happy to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified because of the wife, and the unbelieving wife because of her husband. Otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. 

1 Corinthians 7:13-14, NET

Notice that things here work differently than they did in the Old Testament. Then, if one of the holy people interacted with an unclean thing they became temporarily unclean. Now, if one of the holy people is married to an unbeliever, “the believer is not defiled by the unbeliever” (G37, Zodhiates). Rather, the unbeliever is sanctified by their association with the believer so that the children might be holy to God. Something changed between the Old and New Testament/Covenant so people set apart as holy to God aren’t defiled by “common” things. In at least some cases, they can even sanctify someone who isn’t one of God’s holy people.

What Changed With Jesus’s Sacrifice?

Of course, the big change between Old and New Covenant happened with Jesus’s sacrifice. That sacrifice provided a different type of cleansing than the one provided by the washings, sacrifices, and rituals of the Old Covenant.

For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have no further consciousness of sin? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. …

 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 

Hebrews 10:1-4, 19-22, NET

Sacrifices couldn’t perfect or purify people. But Jesus can, and because of Him we can confidently enter the holy sanctuary. Remember, unclean things can’t come into God’s presence. But God’s not interested in leaving barriers between Him and His people anymore. Jesus’s death tore the veil in the physical temple separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple, and now the whole body of believers is the holy temple of God. Also, we can now enter God’s presence directly through Jesus in prayer. When we’re living in Him, we don’t have to worry about being ritually unclean and if we become sinfully unclean, we can still come straight to God and seek forgiveness (Heb. 4:14-16; 1 John 2:1-6).

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He did this by predestining us to adoption as his legal heirs through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will— to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.

Ephesians 1:3-8, NET

And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds, but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him— if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, without shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. 

Colossians 1:21-23, NET

Jesus’s sacrifice is what washes us clean from all impurity, including ritual uncleanness and sinful unholiness. In both Ephesians and Colossians, Paul points out that the Father chose to make us holy–part of the saints–and did that through Jesus Christ. We are holy, blameless, blemish-free, and washed clean, and we’ll stay that way “if indeed we remain in the faith.”

Do We Have A Role In Keeping Clean?

Because of Jesus’s sacrifice, we don’t have to worry about the things related to ritual uncleanness anymore. Jesus makes us pure, holy, and washed clean. But as mentioned previously, some uncleanness comes from sin rather than simply from association with common things. Sin is a serious thing; it separates people from God (Is. 59:1-2). God does not want separation between us, so He’s working to make us holy but we also still need to honor God’s laws, avoid the type of uncleanness that comes from sin, and repent as soon as we become aware that we’ve missed the mark (1 John 1:5-10; 2:1-6).

 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts. They, having become callous, gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you didn’t learn Christ that way, if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus: that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. …

Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance. But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks. Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

Ephesians 4:17-24; 5:1-5, WEB

Here, “uncleanness” is translated from akathartos (G169). It means “not cleansed, unclean” in a ceremonial or moral sense (Thayer). It is an antonym of katharizo (G2511), “to make clean” physically, morally, or “in a levitical sense” (Thayer). Just a little later in the letter to the Ephesians, Paul says that Christ sanctified (hagiazo [G37], to make holy) and cleansed (katharizo) the church “with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious—not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:25-27, NET).

In the past, ritual uncleanness meant someone following God could not enter the holy places or touch any holy thing. The Father and Jesus erased that distance between Them and Their people by making us holy things that aren’t defiled by the commonness of the world. They also washed away the sins that distance us from God. The sins They’ve already washed can’t come back, but that doesn’t mean that we should go wallow in the filthiness of sin because Jesus cleaned us up. We don’t need to worry about ritual uncleanness, but we do need to make sure if we participate in sin that we repent and come back to Him for spiritual renewal and assistance to grow and change.

People often criticize Christians who still value God’s law by saying things like, “You pick and choose which ones to follow” or “The law was done away with!” I’ve addressed the latter argument in other posts, and I think this study on ritual uncleanness vs. sinful uncleanness helps answer the first criticism. There are some rules in the Old Covenant that don’t apply anymore because they were legal codes for ancient Israel. There are others that we don’t need to follow anymore because we don’t need to worry about ritual uncleanness. Then there are others that are part of God’s Law (which is connected to, but not exactly the same as the Old Covenant) and which both pre-date the Old Covenant (for example, Noah new about clean and unclean meat animals [Gen. 7:2; 8:20]) and which continue into the New Covenant (for example, the two greatest commandments and all the others that depend on them [Mark 12:28-34; Rom. 13:8-10]). Basically, we know we’re not under the Old Covenant; we’re under the New Covenant and in that covenant God makes us holy and writes His law inside our hearts (Heb. 8:6-13; 10:8-18). We still study God’s law to understand what He’s written inside us and we follow His law to honor Him and because it helps teach us how to be like Him.

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