As God’s people, Israel was given the law and required to keep it in order to reflect the holiness of God.
Christ is the culmination of the law, and all who believe in Him are made right with God.
We may no longer observe much of the Mosaic law, but as God’s people, we are still called to reflect our new life in Christ in how we go about our daily lives.
This week, we’ll explore the issues surrounding the law of Moses.
Why are some of these laws so strange?
Do we have to follow these laws today?
The theme of God’s holiness forms the backdrop to all of these answers.
Leviticus 19:1–8
Leviticus 19:5–8 focus on the peace offerings.
The previous verses have obvious connections to the Ten Commandments.
When you feel stuck, when you feel like you are continually rehearsing the same struggles, remember this: sanctification is not an endless, repetitive circle.
It is a growing spiral in which each round goes more deeply into our identity as fallen, but redeemed, children of God.
Spiritual growth can be a long, slow process, with one step backward for every two steps forward, but as you trust in Christ, God will complete the work He has begun in you (Phil. 1:6).
Sanctification is not a ladder that keeps going up no matter what.
We may struggle and fall, but the Holy Spirit will continue to work in us to make us more like Christ.
Romans 10:4
Paul does not intend to declare the law’s abrogation in favor of a different system, but rather to announce that the Messiah is himself the climax of the long story of God and Israel, the story Torah tells and in which it plays a vital though puzzling part.
Leviticus 19 is intended to teach its readers that holiness makes an ethical demand on our lives.
God’s call to holiness embodied in the law was all about God’s righteousness.
How can the sinner become righteous without impairing the righteousness of God?
The answer is that God justifies Himself by appearing as His own advocate in defense of His own righteousness. And it is in the Cross of Christ that this supreme miracle happens.