A story that I love in the Bible!

The account of the salvation of the woman with an issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48).

The story of her salvation is similar to mine. Like the woman, I got so drained and exhausted trying to get clean/escape the curse by keeping the Law as we were told to do in church but no matter how hard I tried, I could not. One day, I told God that I couldn't do it anymore and that He should do whatever He wanted with me. I gave up on my efforts at making myself clean and acceptable and basically threw myself at His mercy. I had no idea that the purpose of the Law was being fulfilled in my life: Romans 3:19-20-

"Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. 20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

Also Romans 5:20- "The law was given so that sin would increase. But where sin increased, God’s grace increased even more."

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The woman with the issue of blood was unclean. She had done her best to be clean with no success. For all her efforts, she became broke and her sickness only got worse! But her encounter with Christ changed her life forever. She went to Him in her unclean state and empty of works that should make her deserving of being cleansed: no fasting, no dependence on the rewards of tithes paid, no seed sown, no Ten Commandments kept. She even broke the law by mingling with the crowd in her unclean state. She went with nothing but her believing what she heard about Jesus:

"The Man heals and makes clean FREELY with no terms and conditions attached.”

This account is not written just to make us see Jesus' power to heal the sick. It is a picture of our salvation in Christ.

Recall that the woman was a Jew. Everything she did in order to be clean was strictly according to the Law of Moses. The Law prohibited her from touching anybody in her unclean state, much less mingling with people in a crowd. If she had kept on doing what the Law commanded in order to be clean, she would never have ventured to touch Christ and thus, never have been made clean and whole of her uncleanness. See this reflected in Galatians 5:4:

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace."

There is a reason why Christ told the woman in Luke 8:48 — “And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

The Law is not of faith. The woman's faith made her well. Trying to keep the law in order to be clean/righteous is being faithless. I believe that Christ said the words in Luke 8:48 to the woman so that she wouldn't get the idea that her law-keeping and the works of the Law that she did before her encounter with Him contributed an atom to her being made well — they only made her situation worse. Some churchgoers believe that God helps them because they did their best to be clean by doing what the law commands. Not so. Galatians 3 is very clear on this:

“10 But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under His curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” 11 So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” 12 This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.””

Believer, this is what trying to keep the law in order to be clean does: it makes one unable to touch or remain in Christ in whom is salvation and through Whom we are saved from the very things that made us unclean before we were joined with Him. See Titus 2:14-

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

Come to Christ as you are- with all your uncleanness and no longer trying to be clean by keeping the Law like the woman- and He will make you clean, and through no effort of yours. This is Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour.

But many preachers have this in reverse. Many behind pulpits are agents of Satan. Such preachers of false doctrines say:

"Do your best to keep the Law in order to be clean and then God will save/bless you."

See the forbidden fruit as a picture of the Law that many churchgoers are striving to obey in order to be godly (be like God) in Romans 7:8-12 (MSG.) Satan and his agents know that law-keeping in order to be clean is how to keep churchgoers bleeding (unclean) forever and so are actively pushing keeping the law which gives the knowledge of good and evil as the means of becoming clean/godly (be like God)- the same false doctrine that Eve believed. Their false teaching is why many churchgoers are haemorrhaging sins- "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Romans 6:14.

No way the woman with the issue of blood could have gotten pregnant or given birth to a child in her bleeding (unclean) condition. In order to stop bleeding so that she could bear fruit, she had to abandon her works of the Law. Likewise, there is no way for the church to bear fruit when churchgoers' "period" is a constant and all because many keep on trying to save themselves from what makes them unclean by doing what the law commands. Romans 7:5 is clear on the outcome of doing this-

"For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and all we did ended in death."

See the NKJV: "For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death."

The law arouses sinful desires and death is the result. It is impossible to give birth to live fruit here. The one with the old/corrupt/human nature is not a new creation in Christ. He tries to keep the law in order to be clean and rejects the cleansing (gift of righteousness) that Christ died that we might have- this is what it means to be "in the flesh"- to depend on the arm of flesh aka human effort that will fail to make one clean. Such reject what Romans 5:9 says of how God sees we who are in Christ-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Like the Pharisees who would have lost their cool had they seen the woman going to touch Christ, the focus of such "men of God" is on what YOU must do by your own effort in order to be clean and not what CHRIST has done. This is an effort in futility (Romans 3:20) and as useless as the woman with the issue of blood trying to stop her uncleanness by her human effort at doing things in accordance with the Law.

If an eagle-eyed Pharisee had spotted the unclean woman mingling with the crowd, she would have been stoned to death. Many church leaders today are doing the same thing: preaching that you have to make yourself clean before Jesus can cleanse you and calling for punishment for the unclean (sinner) instead of pointing sinners to Christ who saves and cleanses us of ALL of our uncleanness. Believers, let's take our blessed brains to church! Matthew 1:21 says of Christ —

"She will have a Son, and you will name Him Jesus—because He will save His people from their sins.”

— how can our Saviour who came to save us from our uncleanness/sins use those very same things that He came to save us from as an excuse for not saving us? This is akin to an oncologist dad refusing to treat his own beloved child who has cancer and even punishing his child for exhibiting symptoms of the disease. No friend. God's eyes burn at and destroys the cancer of sin but radiates perfect love for the sinner who believes.

Many "men of God" are pushing that evil doctrine of: "Now that you are born-again, you have to do your best to stop committing sin and keep the law so that God will not punish you and you can make it to heaven." Such are yet to realise that human effort at doing right aka "the arm of flesh" will fail, either before or after salvation. Our salvation from sins is Christ's doing alone- a gift of grace. Depend on your ability to keep the law in order to be clean and sin (bleeding/uncleanness) will have dominion as it did with the unclean woman:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Romans 6:14.

Being under grace without living in triumph over sin and death is as impossible as jumping into the sea naked without getting wet. See Titus 2:14-

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

The letter of the law kills. I'm yet to hear proponents of keeping the Ten Commandments as a means of becoming or remaining clean explain Romans 5:20-

"The law came to make people have more sin. But when people had more sin, God gave them more of His grace."

The law will only cause those who try to keep it in order to be clean to sin more, just as doing its works made the woman with the issue of blood broke and more sick. It will drain you and you will still never be able to do enough. This is what the Law was designed to achieve — to show up our guilt. But Grace saves from sins and not so that we should go on sinning sprees. Grace transforms us as He transformed "Christ-denying Simon" to "Pillar of the Church Peter."

Law and Grace don't mix. Christ does it all. But there is something about the arm of flesh (dependence on human effort at obedience) that wants to be relevant in the story of our salvation. That something is Pride. God's word says human effort (the arm of flesh) cannot: Romans 7:18-

"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

But Pride in the arm of flesh that will fail says: "No, I can. God must be wrong. I have some good in me and enough will-power to keep the Law."

Reminds one of Peter believing that Jesus was wrong concerning the issue of his then upcoming denials. Peter's circumstances changed and he bore false witness about Christ…three times. The potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody. God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people think that some sins are beneath them and that they can keep the law in order to be godly.

Because we cannot and because He so loved us, God "..made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21. To such who still look to the Law to make them clean, God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ becomes a stumbling block that causes them to stumble.

The unclean woman had her encounter with Christ and was never the same. She touched Christ and was delivered from the very thing that made her a pariah; the very thing that made her unclean; the very thing that disqualified her from coming into His presence to receive from Him. The very thing that condemned her, as the sinner who believes too will be delivered from whatever makes him unclean when he forsakes all attempts at being clean and depends on Christ alone to make him clean. This is Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour.

The Pharisees and religious folk of the time would have constantly reminded the unclean woman of her uncleanness, cast her out of the temple, kept her focused on doing lawful things to get healed and would have forbidden her from mingling with the crowd in her bid to touch Christ. This is what law-keeping does. It cannot make anyone clean and it cuts one off from Christ (Galatians 5:4)

Satan's ministers that are pretending to be of Christ try to keep the flock separated from Christ by keeping the flock busy with doing what the law demands — the same thing that the woman with the issue of blood was doing before the purpose of the law (to bring us to the end of ourselves and make us see our desperate need for salvation in Christ) was manifested in her life.

Believer, what is your "issue" or “uncleanness" that you struggle with and Pharisee-type pastors are telling you to deal with by yourself by doing what the law commands? Is it "not loving God," road rage, porn addiction, fear, worry, adultery, sickness, inferiority/superiority complex, rudeness, fornication, lack, poverty, envy, discontentment, barrenness, a terrible temper, uncontrollable anger, disease, drug addiction, depression, stress, low IQ, your kids' poor grades at school or even double-mindedness about "what these grace people are saying?" By God's grace, stop trying to figure it out by yourself and like the woman, take everything to our Saviour Jesus right away; get out from under any teacher that says you are your own saviour. Why clean yourself with your "a menstrual rag" righteousnesses from law-keeping before or after Christ gives you His own blood-bought gift of righteousness? We can't ever be clean by ourselves - our own righteousnesses with which we clean ourselves are like "a menstrual rag" in God's sight according to Isaiah 64:6:

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

Imagine cleaning yourself with used sanitary pads in a bid to get clean. This is what many in the church are yet to understand — no matter what the woman with the issue of blood did in accordance with the law (righteous works) in order to be free of the thing that made her unclean, the best she could produce was her menstrual rags. Her haemorrhaging would never have stopped and thus, she would never have been able to bear fruit if she had not abandoned her law-keeping and (self)righteous works which prohibited her from touching anyone much less our Saviour Jesus Christ. In the same manner, no matter what righteous acts one does in accordance with the law in order to become or remain clean before God, the result is "a menstrual rag." The result is being cut of from Christ who brings Salvation from sin and death. This is why many churchgoers are “barren" and unable to produce fruits of the Spirit.

Like the woman with the issue of blood, come to Him as you are, with all of your uncleanness, and He will make you clean. He will give you His Shalom (Hebrew word meaning peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquility.) Keeping the law to get right with God will only cut one off from Christ, as it would have the unclean woman if she had continued in her futile effort to make herself clean as it is written in Galatians 5:4 -

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

Believer in Christ, you are God's beloved. Think what you wouldn't do for your own kids. How much more our Father in heaven who gave His Son to die for us! See the Father's love for you!

As it was with the woman with the issue of blood, when you come to Christ with your "issue" and nothing else but your believing in Him to make you clean - forsaking your own human striving (works of the law) at being clean which only amounts to or results in menstruation rags - He will deliver you from whatever it is that makes you unclean. You will not remain in that state of uncleanness aka sin. You will go and sin no more and have grace to bear the fruit of the Spirit.

Right believing always produces right living.