Everyone loves cake. Whether it is chocolate, cherry, or laced with chestnuts, cook one and listen to the compliments come. Or, pull an ice cream cake from the freezer. Slice it with a warm blade and watch the smiles spread from face to face.
Then there is the torte cake, split into thin layers and filled with the most delicate of delicious cream confections. It takes more work, but then the result is so much more compelling. Pull out a slice from that pile of perfection, and our mouths water before we can put it on our plate.
When we work harder to realize our final result, we understand the beauty of what we’ve wrought. It is not just a cake. It is a magnificent delight, a wonder to behold, and a culinary triumph that cannot be equaled by any effort less extreme.
It is worth the work we put into it. When someone takes a bite, and their eyes glisten with pleasure, we know the cost, and it makes the enjoyment that much sweeter.
That is what our salvation is to the Lord. It is a taste of the most delicious delicacy, sweet in flavor, and desired beyond any other treat. What brings about its perfection? The fifth layer on the cake.
Leviticus 15:13-15 describes the building of salvation’s layers. While the person of Jesus had not yet come to die on the cross, and the New Covenant had not yet fulfilled the old, this archetypal passage exemplifies the process we must go through to make ourselves sweet unto the Lord.
The First Layer: Be Cleansed.
When we cook a cake, our first step is to gather our supplies. We lay out our pans, set the eggs to the side, and make sure all our ingredients are of the freshest quality. We have to prepare for our upcoming creation.
In this passage, the Bible speaks of a man degraded with sin. He has to prepare to make a change. Salvation is the same. Our first step is to ensure that we are ready. Our heart must be prepared by the Spirit. However, this is not salvation, just as the eggs and flour are not a cake. Yet, without this first step, there can be no cake.
The Second Layer: Number Seven Days.
A change takes place in our ingredients as we begin to mix them. The cake starts to come together even as we stir the batter. We cannot simply dump the separate ingredients into a pan and slip them into the oven. They are not ready yet.
The sinful man in Leviticus is not ready yet, either. God says to wait seven days. Why? Emotions can run high in times of desperation. However, only if the change is truly from the heart will it be sincere. God needs us to deal with our motivations rather than leapfrog along on our emotions.
The Third Layer: Wash Our Clothes.
This is analogous to scraping the bowl. We shift the batter’s location, moving it from the bowl to the pan. It’s still not cake yet, but we intend for it to be. The ingredients have already begun to work together, starting the chemical reactions that will rise into that beautiful culinary confection that we already anticipate.
The washing of the clothes signifies making a clear change from the old man’s decision to wallow in sin. When we determine to come to the Lord, we cannot remain in the same old bowl. We have to move to a new pan. We must cast off our old habits, so that Christ can make us new.
The Fourth Layer: Bathe in Running Water.
Our oven is heated, our cake is cooking, but the kitchen is a mess. The remnants of all we’ve done are spread out before the world to see. It’s time to slip the utensils and bowls into the dishwasher, wipe the counters, and prepare to finish our tasty treat.
Here, the sinful man, already having cast aside his old habits and ways, looks a little closer. He looks at his heart and intentions. To bathe in running water means to let those things that have defiled us be carried from us, so that none are left clinging to our skin when we rise and walk away.
The Fifth Layer: Offer Ourselves Before God.
The cake comes out, we slather it with icing, and it is finished. Yet, if it remains uneaten, it is only decoration. It is when we set it on the table as the culmination to a fabulous dining experience that all our work becomes worth it. The end goal is the enjoyment of our efforts by those who partake of the perfection.
When the sinful man has done all he can do, and he is as clean as he can make himself, he is only an iced cake, and his efforts are mere decoration. Leviticus tells us he must, in this final step, go to the temple and offer himself before the Lord. It is this fifth layer on the cake that makes his atonement complete.
Leviticus is the Book of Rules. Do this. Do that. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Yet, in this conglomeration of strictures, binding man’s freedom and creativity, we can find the truth that will be borne out in the life and death of Jesus. Salvation is through the cross, and it is by his resurrection that we can come to God for our redemption.
When we take that first step toward God, he will take an even greater step toward us.
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