In the Old Testament's Book of Joshua, Chapter 5 verse 9, the Lord tells Joshua:
Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.
The Old Testament is rife with foreshadowing, because life and human history are rife with foreshadowing. I think foreshadowing is one of God's favorite literary devices. This particular verse is foreshadowing of the highest order. It is God telling Joshua, Moses' successor as the Hebrew leader, that He has "removed the reproach" of the Egyptian empire that used the Hebrews for slave labor.
But by doing so, God also foreshadows the ultimate removal of the stain of sin, not just from the Hebrews but from humanity as a whole, through the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Hebrews were slaves. In all the earth, God's children are slaves to sin. In Egypt, some of the Hebrews were afraid to leave Egypt because their slavemasters, though spiteful and abusive, at least provided the Hebrews with a kind of secuity. In all the earth, some of God's children, in fact all of us at one time or another, fear the idea of living a sinless life after God's own heart because a life of sin is at least familiar and predictable.
God removed the reproach of Egypt from the Hebrews. In other words, He freed them.
Notice the decisiveness of His action and language here. He does not merely give the Hebrews a feeling of warm-fuzziness so that they can feel happy even though they remained in slavery to ruthless taskmasters. He really freed the Hebrews. And He really removed the reproach of their slavery to Egypt.
Christ does the same. He does not just give us a feeling of warmth inside even though we continue to be in slavery to sin. He really gives us access to the grace needed to no longer be a slave to sin.
Over the centuries there have been some incorrect ideas about the nature of Christ's redemptive action. One prominent theory was that man is a dung heap, and God's love was like a white snow that covered up the heap and made the whole thing look pretty, even though the interior reality of filth and despicability remained the same.
I have no interest in that kind of love.
If I have cancers all over my arms and I go to the hospital, I do not want a doctor who will give me a sweater to put on over the tumors. I would still suffer and die. I want a doctor who will take the pain away, who will remove the source of my suffering.
Christ does not cover over the sinfulness of man. By His death and resurrection, He removes it and frees us collectively from it. For us, that means we really are free from sin, provided we invite Christ in and allow Him to heal us personally.
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