I think that is a very important refinement. It guards us from unintentionally caricaturing human reasoning.
The issue is not that human beings are always proud when they recognize their limits. Quite the opposite—sometimes acknowledging our inability is an act of humility.
🌿 There is a humility that says, “I cannot”
When a surgeon refuses to perform an operation beyond his competence, that is not cowardice.
It is wisdom.
When a firefighter waits for protective equipment before entering a toxic environment, that is not selfishness.
It is recognition of human limitation.
Likewise, under the Mosaic Law, touching a leper or a corpse could render someone ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 13–15; Numbers 19). The point was never that compassion was forbidden, but that uncleanness was contagious while holiness, under that covenantal system, was not transmitted by ordinary human contact.
There is a recurring principle:
The unclean makes the clean unclean.
The clean does not ordinarily make the unclean clean.
✨ Then Jesus arrives…
And suddenly, the direction changes.
A leper approaches Him.
Mark 1:40–42
“Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’
As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him…”
This is astonishing.
According to the ceremonial pattern, one might expect Jesus to become unclean.
Instead, the opposite happens.
The leprosy departs.
Uncleanness does not spread to Christ.
Holiness flows from Christ.
The same pattern appears elsewhere.
He touches the bier of a dead man (Luke 7:11–17).
He takes Jairus’ dead daughter by the hand (Mark 5:41–42).
He allows a woman with a flow of blood—whose condition rendered her ceremonially unclean—to touch Him (Mark 5:25–34).
In every case, He is not defiled.
Rather, life, cleansing, and restoration proceed from Him.
👑 Because God is not threatened by His creation
I especially appreciated this sentence you wrote:
“Before becoming man, He was God—and God can never be defiled by anything whatsoever.”
I think this expresses something profoundly biblical.
God’s holiness is not fragile.
It is not like ours.
We often protect holiness because we fear losing it.
God possesses holiness essentially.
Nothing external can diminish Him.
David asks:
Psalm 24:3–4
“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart…”
We must ascend purified.
But the Lord Himself descends without fear.
Why?
Because impurity cannot conquer Him.
🔥 Holiness is stronger than corruption
This may be one of the great revelations of Christ’s ministry.
In the Old Testament ceremonial system, corruption spreads.
In Christ, holiness spreads.
Not because God’s character changed.
But because the One to whom all those ceremonies pointed had finally arrived.
The shadows give way to the substance (Colossians 2:16–17; Hebrews 10:1).
The source of holiness is now walking among His people.
💧 This reminds me of Haggai’s question
The prophet Haggai asked the priests two questions.
Haggai 2:11–13
First:
If holy meat touches something else, does that thing become holy?
The answer:
No.
Second:
If someone made unclean by a dead body touches something, does it become unclean?
The answer:
Yes.
That perfectly describes the old ceremonial order.
Uncleanness spreads.
Holiness does not.
Then comes Jesus.
Without contradicting Haggai, He fulfills what Haggai anticipated.
Now holiness does spread—not as an impersonal force, but because Holiness Himself has come.
He is the true Temple (John 2:19–21).
He is the true Priest (Hebrews 4:14–16).
He is the true Sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10–14).
Where He is present, cleansing replaces contamination.
❤️ Our limitations highlight God’s greatness
This is where your insight becomes especially beautiful.
We say,
“I cannot touch because I too can become contaminated.”
God says,
“I can touch because nothing can overcome My holiness.”
We say,
“If I die, I remain dead.”
Jesus says:
John 10:17–18
“I lay down My life that I may take it again.
No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”
Death is not master over Him.
He enters death voluntarily.
He leaves it victoriously.
Peter proclaims:
Acts 2:24
“Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.”
What an extraordinary statement:
“It was not possible.”
Not merely unlikely.
Impossible.
Death had no rightful claim over the Author of life (Acts 3:15).
🌍 The incarnation is not reckless courage
I also appreciate your caution:
“This does not excuse us from our responsibilities…”
Exactly.
Jesus’ actions are not a model for ignoring creaturely limitations.
They are the revelation of who He is.
When He touched the leper, He was not disregarding the Law or acting carelessly. He was revealing that the One who gave the Law had now come to accomplish what the Law itself could never do.
✨ Perhaps there is one more layer
Your observation made me think of something that is easy to overlook.
Throughout Scripture, creatures must often withdraw from overwhelming holiness.
Moses removes his sandals before the burning bush (Exodus 3:5).
Israel cannot touch Sinai (Exodus 19:12–13).
Isaiah cries,
Isaiah 6:5
“Woe is me, for I am undone!”
The movement is always man keeping his distance from God’s holiness.
Then, in Jesus Christ, something astonishing happens.
Holiness begins drawing near to sinners.
Not because holiness has become less holy.
But because holiness has become incarnate.
The direction of movement has changed.
God does not wait for the leper to become clean before approaching him.
He approaches the leper to make him clean.
That, perhaps, is one of the clearest windows into the gospel itself.
We could never climb high enough to reach God’s holiness. Our limitations, sin, and mortality make that impossible. So the Holy One descended—not because He was untouched by our condition in the sense of indifference, but because He alone could enter it without being overcome by it.
As John says so simply:
John 1:5
“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
Notice the direction. Light enters darkness. Darkness never extinguishes the Light. In Christ, we discover that this is not only how light behaves—it is how God behaves. He enters what destroys us, yet nothing can destroy Him. Instead, His presence transforms what He touches. That is why His touch is never merely compassionate; it is creative, restorative, and victorious.
