Leviticus: the necessity of holiness

It seems to me that Leviticus is one of the most neglected books of the Bible. It's easy to understand why: it starts with seven chapters about different types of offerings, then talks about the priesthood of Aaron, then gives loads of laws which seem fairly obscure. A lot of them aren't applicable for Christians today; they have been fulfilled in Jesus' death and resurrection. We don't have a levitical priesthood anymore, nor do we offer sacrifices, because Jesus is our great High Priest and His sacrifice was offered once for all (see Hebrews 10). But it does bug me that Leviticus gets written off, especially the moral laws, because so many of the principles in those laws still stand today. Where did Jesus get 'you shall love your neighbour as yourself' from (see Matt 22:39)? Leviticus 19:18.

The key thing to remember when reading Leviticus is that at the heart of the book is the holiness of God and how God's people are to reflect that holiness. This principal is very relevant for Christians today; after all, God doesn't change. He is still holy. He still requires holiness from His people. That's one of the main ways Leviticus is used in the New Testament. Peter quotes it in his letter:

'As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”' (1 Pet 1:14-16)

Peter is quoting from Leviticus 11:44 and Leviticus 19:2.

In some ways, the ways in which people demonstrate holiness have changed. In Leviticus there were laws which gave a symbolic representation of holiness and by following them, God's people would be separate from other nations. We don't have these symbolic ritual laws anymore, like purification rites (Lev 12), not eating certain animals (Lev 11, see also Acts 10) and circumcision (Lev 12:8). It's the moral perspective of Leviticus which strikes me the most: be holy in your sexuality or die (Lev 20:10-16), be holy in your words about God or die (Lev 24:10-23), be holy in your worship or die (Lev 10:1-20). Why did God judge people so harshly for breaking laws in the Old Testament? Because in their disobedience, they revealed that they really cared little for Him. Holiness is a key test of our devotion to the LORD, and the New Testament continues this same perspective:

'Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practise homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.' 1 Cor 6:9-11.

From a New Testament perspective then, being born again is the beginning of a journey to holiness. Before we came to Christ, there was no way we could be holy. We were lost in sin. But once He saved us, He gave us His Spirit and, through His Spirit, the power to say 'no' to our flesh.

'His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 2 Peter 1:3-8

There's this amazing harmony in these verses of God's power in us and our own effort working together to make us holy. It's not salvation by works; it's spiritual growth, and this doesn't happen if we just sit around and fail to exercise our faith in action, or spiritual disciplines like prayer, reading the Word, helping the needy. The New Testament doesn't promise us perfection in this life; it tells us this will be a battle and a struggle which we need spiritual weapons to fight (Eph 6). But there is a sense that we will increase in practical holiness as we grow in spiritual maturity and as our passion for God takes over more and more of our hearts, souls and minds.

Our fight against sin will be most effective when we are fixing our eyes on Jesus, and exposing our sin to others with confession and prayer so that it loses its power and grip on our lives. The devil wants you to wallow in secret sin and doubt your salvation and the efficacy of Christ's redemption; the Spirit wants to convict you of sin so that you see it for what it really is, and see victory over it through Jesus' blood shed for you on the cross.

'Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.' 2 Cor 7:1

'Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.' 1 John 3:2-3

Lies we believe about sin

It's easy to listen to that voice in your head instead of the truth of Scripture. Here's three lies we may get trapped into believing, instead of the reality of being in Christ.

1. "I'm a good person". OK most Christians admit that they are a sinner, but how often is that just a technicality? Really, we see ourselves as basically upright citizens who actually do a lot of good things... Essentially we believe that we are good people just like any non-Christian who gives to charity and does his neighbour a favour every now and then. The problem with this lie is that at its heart, it's comparative. What do we base the fact that we are 'good' on, except for being able to find someone who seems 'worse'? But labelling ourselves as 'good', we are thinking about the people who are easy to label as 'bad' - the prostitutes, the swindlers. But oh wait, those guys, those 'bad' people, those real 'sinners', are the ones Jesus was always hanging out with! (see Luke 15:1-2) It's the elder brother vs the prodigal (read the rest of Luke 15). If you're not the humbled sinner coming home, you're susceptible to be the wrongly aggrieved one standing in the background with arms folded. You'll miss out on the joy of grace and the party. And this standpoint has just as much sin in it as the colourful history of the prodigal; it just looks different. As JI Packer writes in 'Respectable Sins': 'every sin that we commit, even the subtle sin we don't even think about, was laid upon Christ as He bore the curse of God in our place.' We can't start 'grading' sins. The truth is that even our 'righteousness' is as filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6).

2. "My sin doesn't matter, I'm saved by grace." Perhaps we get flippant sometimes because we know God will forgive us. Look at what Paul writes in Romans 6:

'Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.' (Rom 6:1-4)

To wilfully keep on sinning means we haven't really understood the gospel, and we have to realise that sin has a hardening effect on our hearts. Read Hebrews 6 for a sobering reminder of the result of apostasy: being cut off from God. A true fear of God will lead us to obedience. We can have no assurance of our salvation if we live lives that are unchanged by the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.

3. "I can't beat this sin." Going back to Romans 6, Paul says that we are 'set free from sin' (v7). This is not to say we attain sinless perfection this side of glory, but it does mean that we now have power NOT to sin, whereas before we were sinners, in darkness, and without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to sanctify us. It is possible for us to say no to sin, not in human strength but by being 'strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might' (Eph 6:10). Sometimes the reason we aren't seeing victory over sin is because we haven't confessed to others and asked for prayer and accountability.

So there you have it, three lies we get duped into believing about sin. It's only the truth of Jesus in His Word that sets us free, so learn some key Scriptures which will help you fight this battle.

Ruth: the beauty of kindness

Ruth the Moabite is a drastic contrast to the other Moabites mentioned in the Bible, who worshipped other gods (Num 21:29), feared Israel and sent a prophet to curse them (Num 22) and led the Israelites into sexual immorality (Num 25). Ruth chooses to worship the God of Israel, Yahweh, and turns her back on the gods of her own people. Instead of fearing Israel, she joins God's people (much like Rahab before her). Unlike Rahab, Ruth is an example of moral purity. She does not seduce Boaz- she appeals to his sense of justice and righteousness.

But what the book of Ruth really seems to extol her for is kindness. She shows the kindness of covenant love which reflects the great hesed of God towards His people.

Ruth doesn't just make a promise like Orpah; she follows through, and at great personal cost: 'where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.' (Ruth 1:16). Naomi has nothing to offer her; she is a poor widow returning to her homeland (which was a place of famine at the start of the book) empty-handed. Ruth was probably grieving the loss of her husband, and Naomi was not going to offer much solace as her words mention the bitterness she feels towards God (Ruth 1:13, 20). Yet Ruth doesn't just talk the talk to her mother-in-law; she lives it out too. Her love for Naomi is steadfast throughout the book. She loves her enough to put aside her own interests and move to another country in order to care for her and look after her. She voluntarily binds herself with an oath in Yahweh's name, showing the seriousness of her commitment: 'May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.' (Ruth 1:17)

Ruth's kindness leads to Boaz's kindness towards her: 'All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord' (Ruth 2:11-12). Boaz, as an instrument of the Lord, rewards Ruth's loyalty and kindness with special protection, provision, and ultimately possession as he marries her when the nearer kinsman-redeemer declines to act. He sees Ruth's willingness to marry him as a greater kindness (Ruth 3:10), because she has not chased after the younger men.

There is nothing grasping or presumptuous about Ruth. It is interesting that the people bless Boaz's union with Ruth by saying 'May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah' (Ruth 4:11). The implication is that Rachel and Leah were barren women (as Ruth appears to be from being married for ten years with no children) blessed with offspring by God, and this is what the people wish for Ruth with Boaz. However, whereas Rachel and Leah seem trapped in a cycle of grasping, demanding children and warring against each other in a lack of sisterly kindness and compassion, Ruth does not seem to think that it is her right to be married and have children. In fact, by travelling to Bethlehem with Naomi, Ruth was considerably lessening her chance of remarriage after being widowed. In Israel, Ruth would be a foreigner and without protection from her own family. So here we see a link between the kindness Ruth shows towards Naomi with Ruth's humility that makes her willing to be an outsider in a strange land, and go without the security of having a husband and family to provide for her.

As the 'underdog', the Moabite woman in Israel, Ruth recognises her dependence on others (such as Boaz), and ultimately her dependence on God. We can perhaps infer that it was her faith that Yahweh would look after her and Naomi, that He would provide for them, that gave her the ability to act in kindness and in faith, and leave the comfort and security of home behind her. Boaz recognises that it is "the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!" (Ruth 2:12) The story shows that her confidence was not misplaced. Ruth encourages us that God's kindness is available to those who depend on Him, and the more we cultivate humility, the more we will be able to show true kindness to others and put their needs before our own.