PART 1
LEVITICUS:
GOD’S LOVE STORY
THE GOSPEL
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
I am a huge proponent of always reading and
understanding Scripture in context. Read each word in the context of the verse,
read each verse in the context of the whole chapter, read the chapter in the
context of the whole book and read each book in context of the entire
Bible. Failure to do so inevitably leads to a corrupt understanding
of who God is, His love, His holiness, His Law and the life-lessons He wants us
to learn and act upon, and our devotion towards Him. Heeding my own
advice, I started my study at Leviticus 1:1 and found myself reading a love
story. The very same love story I had found in the gospels.
I am not a biblical scholar, nor have I attended a
theological seminary - but I can read. With my tax-funded high school
education I did learn a little comprehension. Regrettably,
some choose to dwell in blissful and/or wilful ignorance of what God is
actually trying to teach them in the Scriptures. Believe it or not,
the Book of Leviticus is all about God drawing people back
into a covenant relationship, a precursor to that which He would fulfill with
His incarnation in Jesus Christ.
King David wrote in Psalm 1:1-3
“Blessed
is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that
sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law
of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a
tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose
leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.”
How often have you personally regarded the Book
of Leviticus as a litany of ritual offerings and sacrifices? An
endless inventory of do’s and don’ts? Bloody and painful stonings or burnings
for those who fail to follow God’s laws? What do you mean, I
can’t wear a denim shirt with leather elbow patches?
As I started reading, looking beyond the do’s and
don’ts, I found phrases like, ”…it will be accepted on your behalf to
make atonement for you”, “fellowship offering”, “he will be forgiven”, “they
will be forgiven”, “the priest will make atonement for them for any of these
sins they have committed, and they will be forgiven”, “an expression of
thankfulness”, “freewill offering”, “Season all your grain offerings with salt.
Do not leave the salt of the covenant of
your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings,” ”They shouted for joy…” ”Be
assured that I will send my blessing for you…” And on and on it goes.
Throughout Leviticus, as in the Gospels and the
rest of Scripture, God is calling His people back into a right relationship
with Himself, calling them to be holy, reminding them that He is holy, and
their sin needs to be confessed and atoned for in order for an intimate
relationship to be possible. In His divine wisdom and perfect sense of
justice, God established that a blood sacrifice was the only way for sin to be
dealt with; ultimately shedding His own blood so that the sin of anyone who
acknowledges the lordship of Jesus Christ may be forgiven.
God is not petty. He doesn’t make rules just to keep you in
check, to ‘yank your chain’ whenever He feels you’ve strayed too far. We
must always remember God is love. This must be the foundation of our
understanding of how we expect Him to act. Equally imperative is the fact
that God is perfectly holy and perfectly just. We cannot isolate one
aspect of who we understand God to be from any of the others, as soon as we do
that our understanding of what God is teaching us in Leviticus will fall
apart. We cannot isolate God’s
love and mercy from His justice and holiness.
There are four realities that God would have us
understand in interpreting and understanding His ‘lessons’ or statutes:
1. God is
love. This means that His motivation in establishing ‘rules’ for us to
live by is ultimately for our benefit and our mutual (God and us) subsequent
joy. As any loving parent will caution a child, “Don’t touch that, it’s
hot. If you do, you’ll get burned.” God’s love for us is the
ultimate form and expression of love. It is selfless love.
2. God is
Holy. This means no sin can come into His presence. Every sin must
be atoned for (dealt with).
3. God is
just. Every decision God makes is perfectly just - the punishment must fit
the crime and can only be fully understood in the context of God’s absolute
holiness.
4. God, out of His
grace, chose Abraham’s descendants, the Jewish people, to be set apart.
In this setting apart, this choseness, God wanted the Jewish
peoples to be a living example to the rest of the world; being visibly distinct
in living lives that reflected God’s covenant relationship with them, to keep
themselves unpolluted by the world and free from sin.
Not a single one of these characteristics of God
can be detached or isolated from the other. God’s sense of justice is in
no way diluted by His love and his love is not diluted by His justice.
Ultimately, justice for mankind’s sin has [had] to be meted out and it cost God
the death of His Son.
As we read through Leviticus you will discover
different kinds of statutes:
1. Instructions
for restoring our relationship with God; acknowledgement/confession of our sin
to Him and offering a blood sacrifice (in Christ, God provided the ultimate
blood sacrifice, negating the need for animal sacrifice).
2. Instructions on
how to bring gifts of thanksgiving to God for His love and benevolence.
3. Instructions
for those who were set apart to lead and teach His people (the Levites).
4.
Instructions
for daily living (how to best take care of ourselves).
5.
Actions that
are sinful; detestable or abominable to God.
[Wilful] ignorance of God’s Word is nothing
new. Jesus told the Pharisees ”You nullify the Word of God for the sake of your
traditions [opinions and ideas]” Matthew 15:6. In addressing a
number of Sadducees (who were posing a hypothetical question) Jesus replied, “You
are in error because you do not
know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Matthew
22:29 How often do we put God in a box, assuming
our reading of what God has said is in error (or that the text or translation
is in error) because it does not match our paradigm; our preconceived notions
or beliefs? Heaven forbid! Who are we to instruct God on what is right or
wrong?
PART 2
LEVITICUS
18:22
“If God is not sovereign over the land and its
people, then the land and its people become cut off from the Creator. A
God-centred worldview is replaced by a man-centred and self-centred
worldview. So the people of Israel drove God out of their lives to become
their own gods, masters of the land, their world, and their destiny. They
could now rewrite the law and redefine what was right and wrong, moral and
immoral.”
From the Mystery of the Shemitah by
Jonathan Cahn.
Following
the many conversations that have arisen since the US Supreme Court’s decision
concerning same-sex marriage in June 2015, I notice a consistency in the way
individuals, including what seems a very large number of professing Christians,
twist the words of God, of Christ, to somehow place God’s love above God’s
justice. This is pure heresy! In Psalm 89:13 we read, ”Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;
mercy and truth go before Your face.” As soon as we start messing
around with the nature and attributes of God, He ceases to be God.”
It
is this light that Leviticus
18:22 becomes an immovable object in any discussion
concerning same-sex relationships. Leviticus 18:22 is as unambiguous as it is possible to be.
Unlike some other Scriptures Leviticus 18:22 is not susceptible to
misinterpretation; you don’t need to compare it to other Scriptures, you don’t
have to interpret it the context of other Scriptures or historic times, it’s
meaning is not diluted in differing translations. It is not contradictory
to any other Law or Scripture. There is no subtlety of ambiguity in what
God says. God simply says that sex between two men is an abomination [dictionary
definition: detestation, loathing, hatred, aversion, antipathy, revulsion,
repugnance, abhorrence, odium, execration, disgust, horror, hostility].
“You shall not lie with a male
as with a woman. It is an
abomination.”
Leviticus 18:22 NKJV
One
might ask, “Perhaps things are different in this regard now that we live in an ‘age
of grace’?” No. In Numbers 23:19 God speaks through Balek, “God
is not human, that he should lie, not
a human being, that he
should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he
promise and not fulfill?” Jesus went on to say,” Do not think that I have come to abolish the
Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to
fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the
smallest letter, not the least
stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until
everything is accomplished” Matthew
5:18. In Luke
16:17 He says, ”… that doesn’t mean that the law has lost its force.
It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of
God’s law to be overturned.” and Jesus went on to say,” If you love me, keep my commands.” John
14:15.
Humans
distort God’s Word at their peril and offend God when they do so.
Some
have asked why do those who stand in opposition to same-sex marriage place such
a strong emphasis on Leviticus 18:22?
I
believe the answer is simple – because it is so clear and explicit. This
is the opposite tack those who support same-sex marriage take – quoting verses
and passages of Scripture out of context in efforts to make their case,
appealing exclusively to the love attribute of God.
No,
no, no!
Culture in and of itself is not necessarily bad, it is when we give culture pre-eminence over Scripture that we have a problem. We are very good at manipulating Scripture to fit our culture. This culture can pull us away from the truth. According to 1 Corinthians 2:14 those that manipulate Scripture live in cultural delusion,
“The
person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit
of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they
are discerned only through the Spirit.”
PART 3
WHAT DID JESUS SAY ABOUT LEVITICUS 18:22?
In
an online exchange, a professor at a Christian college asked me, “How
much do we cherry pick when it’s convenient and on what basis do we make those
decisions?” He then went on to argue what Jesus did
not say, that Jesus did not regurgitate all the commandments found in
Leviticus, as if Jesus had somehow
invalidated the Book of Leviticus by not doing so. How often
have you heard people randomly quote other verses from Leviticus, ‘Do not
wear clothing woven of two kinds of material’ 19:22 as being a
meaningless commandment we do not follow today, as if a random verse used out
of context somehow invalidates the command in 18:22.
The
professor misses the point entirely. God introduces the section that includes
19:22, saying, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Not
wearing clothing made from more than one fabric was just one of many examples
God provided to the children of Israel, to be a constant visual reminder that
they were to keep themselves unpolluted by not following the practices of the
nations around them, to keep themselves holy. Today, born-again-Christians
(there is no other kind according to Jesus), have the constant indwelling of
the Holy Spirit to be their reminder to live holy lives.
Throughout
the gospels Jesus repeats again and again that the essence of God’s Law will
not be repealed until the end of time. Jesus becomes visibly angry at
those who disparage and discount God’s Law, especially those who would consider
themselves scholars of God’s Word – ‘Teachers of the Law’.
In Matthew
15:19 Jesus directly refers to sexual immorality,
“For from the heart come evil
thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual
immorality, theft, lying, and slander.”
Seeing
as the pre-incarnate Jesus (the
Word) wrote and instituted Levitical Laws in the first
place, including what we now identify as Chapter
18, is it not irrational to suppose He somehow forgot what He
wrote and is now invalidating these laws by not regurgitating each one
word-for-word? To the contrary, not only is He validating these laws,
Jesus identifies the source of our desire to break these laws. Our
corruption of God’s law originates in the heart.
Some
Pharisees and teachers of religious law… asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples
disobey our age-old tradition? ….” Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your
traditions [your own concepts, ideas and beliefs],
violate the direct commandments of God? …you cancel the word of God for the
sake of your own tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied
about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce, for they
teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’” Then Jesus called to
the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not
what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that
come out of your mouth.”
Then
the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the
Pharisees [those who might be pro-gay
marriage?] by what you just said?”
PART 4
JUDGING OTHERS
OR SIMPLY POINTING THEM IN THE RIGHT
DIRECTION?
Jesus
said, “For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in
judging is the standard by which you will be judged.” Matthew
7:2
Jesus
also said, “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his
Father and will judge all people according to their deeds.” Matthew
16:27
How
often have people wagged a boney finger in your direction
and chastised you for simply having an opinion, especially one that is
biblically contrary to their opinion? “Who are you to judge me for my
beliefs or actions? Who gave you the right?”
Thankfully,
I don’t have to judge anyone – that is Jesus’ exclusive prerogative. And I hope
that I treat others as I would want to be treated, with respect and in a Christ-like
way, by people who will point me in the right direction when I go off
course. I have been blessed by many godly individuals in my life who have
done just that. But please note, Jesus
was not prone to using mushy platitudes. I hope nothing I have written
here is construed as judgmental. Factual, yes. Judgemental, no.
PART
5
IT’S NOT THAT KIND OF LOVE
UNDERSTANDING agápe, éros, philía,
and storgē
Some
have inferred there was some kind of homosexual relationship between David and
Jonathan and used this as the basis for arguing God’s condoning of such
relationships. This, as with many other ‘proofs’, is pure manipulation of
the text.
The
Hebrew word ahab is
used of the love of Isaac for his wife Rebekah (see Genesis
24:67), of parents for children, for example Abraham for his son
Isaac (see Genesis
22:2), and of Jonathon for David, his closest friend (see 1
Samuel 18:1). Jonathon’s totally unselfish treatment of David is a
human example of the type of love God has for us, agápe love as
it is used in the gospels. Jonathon put David’s interests before his own.
The Hebrew word dôd is
the erotic form of the word love as found in the Song of Solomon –
not the kind of love shared between David and Jonathon. As the text
describes, it was the highest form of love, “…better than that of a love
between a man and a woman.” Agápe love is a choice, not a feeling.
The
Greek language distinguishes at least four different ways as to how the
word love is used. Ancient Greek has four distinct words for
love: agápe, éros, philía, and storgē. However, as with other languages, it has
been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words when used
outside of their respective contexts. Nonetheless, the senses in which these
words were generally used are as follows:
Agápe (ἀγάπη
agápē) means “love: esp. brotherly love, charity; the love of God for man and
of man for God.” Agape is used in ancient texts to denote feelings for one’s
children and the feelings for a spouse, and it was also used to refer to a love
feast. Agape is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for
his children. This type of love was further explained by Thomas Aquinas as “to
will the good of another.”
Agápe
does not have the primary meaning of affection nor of coming from one’s
feelings. Jesus displayed this Agápe kind of love by going to the
cross and dying even though He didn’t feel like dying. He prayed, “O my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I
will, but as thou wilt.” Matthew 26:39. Jesus sought the betterment of
mankind, regardless of His feelings.
We,
too, can agape (love) our enemies, even though we don’t have any warm feelings
of affection for them. If they are hungry, we can feed them. If they thirst, we
can give them a drink. We can choose to seek the betterment and welfare of
others regardless of how we feel. The Apostle John said, “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue;
but in deed and in truth” 1John 3:18. Jesus referred to His love for others
(John 13:34; 15:9, and 12), but He never directly told anyone, “I love you.”
Eros (ἔρως
érōs) means “love, mostly of the sexual passion.” The Modern Greek word “erotas”
means “intimate love.”
Philia (φιλία
philía) means “affectionate regard, friendship,” usually “between equals.” It
is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle. In his
best-known work on ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, philia is expressed
variously as loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue,
equality, and familiarity. Furthermore, in the same text philos denotes a
general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire
or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers.
Although
phileo-love is encouraged in Scripture, unlike agápe-love, it is never a direct
command. God never commands us to phileo (love) anyone, since this type of love
is based on feelings. Even God did not phileo the world, He operated in agápe love
toward us.
Storge (στοργή
storgē) means “love, affection” and “especially of parents and children” It’s
the common or natural empathy, like that felt by parents for offspring.
Nowhere
in all of Scripture do the words dôd or eros denote
erotic love between two people of the same sex. Nowhere!
I
would like to conclude this section by quoting a few excerpts from a
totally unrelated topic, The Delight of Giving, an
article by John G. Stackhouse Jr., printed in Faith Today:
Many
of us have been told that agape love is the highest and best because it is unselfish.
Erotic or friendly love provide enjoyment, but agape is utterly self-forgetful
and entirely concerned with the welfare of the other. God loves this way
and so should we.
The
problem is, God does not love this way. God does not love
without regard for His own pleasure or purpose. What sense would
that even make? I want to help these people because –
well why? Whether God loves us because He enjoys our delight, or
because He wants to bring glory to Himself, or because it’s just the right
thing to do, God is still getting something out of the bargain.
And
there is nothing wrong with that.
Hebrews
12 directs us to consider, “Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…
[who] for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning
its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.”
Love
is not a zero-sum game, despite Darwinist or agapist reductionists. Love
is a circle of reinforcing delight, a spiral of ever-increasing joy in mutual concern
for everyone’s welfare. It’s a win-win-win situation.”
I
would like to add that the only thing that can corrupt and collapse this ‘ever
increasing spiral of joy’ is our disobedience and rejection of God’s commands.
PART
6
ORIGINS
There
is no convincing evidence1 on why some people consider themselves to
have same-sex attraction. I have scoured the internet and found nothing
conclusive. However, the following observations can be found:
·
Homosexuality is exclusive to the human
race.
·
Homosexuality runs counter to evolutionary
theory and is an evolutionary dead end.
·
There has been nothing discovered in human
DNA thus far to indicate anything hereditary.
·
Many people who identify themselves as gay
were sexually
abused as children (some studies have shown that
self-professed homosexual men and women may be four-times more likely to have
been abused in childhood than the heterosexual population), or have endured significant
emotional trauma in their youth, and these are probable contributing
factors. In Canada approximately 1 in 100
identify themselves as homosexual.
·
God says that homosexual acts are an
abomination (His words).
If
we are to believe God’s opinion of two men lying together as denoted in
Leviticus 18:22, then it seems to be a reasonable assumption that its origins
were in The Fall, one of the many consequences of original sin.
Therefore,
the only ‘origin’ I can reasonably offer is what I discovered while composing
Section 3:
In Matthew
15:19 Jesus directly refers to sexual immorality, ”For from the heart come evil
thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual
immorality, theft, lying, and slander.” Seeing as the
pre-incarnate Jesus wrote and instituted Levitical Laws in the first place,
including what we now identify as Chapter
18, it is irrational to suppose that He has now somehow forgotten
what He wrote and is now invalidating these laws by not regurgitating each one
word-for-word. To the contrary, not only is He validating these laws,
Jesus identifies the source of our desire to break these laws. Our corruption
of God’s law originates in the heart.
Regardless
of origin, fundamentally, homosexual acts are a rebellion against God, see Romans
1:26-32.
1
All
of the online medical articles appear to be in agreement as to the causes of
homosexuality and gender identity – they simply don’t
know. They use terms such as
‘may’ to qualify their observations.
This is different from medically known and observed conditions such as congenital
adrenal hyperplasia.
PART
7
CONSEQUENCES
As
we move through the Book of Leviticus, towards its conclusion, we
find in Chapter 26 two sections of text described in my NLT Bible as Blessings for Obedience and Punishments for Disobedience.
Before
I get into the issues surrounding the blessings and punishments, I want to
again address those who would say that the texts I am going to refer to were
for another era, for another people. I believe this has proven to be a
perilous error. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, were to be a living
testimony of God’s goodness and faithfulness to the nations around them, to
draw others towards them. Foreigners who wished to follow Jehovah God
were welcomed into this family. In becoming part of His family, they
understood that all the laws,
regulations and blessings were now theirs. Today we
are invited to become part of God’s family by accepting the atoning death and
Lordship of Jesus Christ. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that we will
no longer receive God’s blessings for obedience and God’s discipline for
disobedience. My own life experiences have born this out.
Blessings for Obedience.
“If
you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you the
seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops… You will eat your
fill and live securely in your own land. I will give you peace in the
land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear… I will look
favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And I
will fulfill my covenant with you. You will have such a surplus of crops
you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest!” Leviticus 26:1-13.
And
on He goes naming one blessing after another…
If
you visit the Mennonite areas of Philadelphia, where they still farm the land
according to Levitical law, you will find the most fertile land in all of North
America! In the Book of Malachi God teaches about the principle of
tithing, giving back a portion to God as an expression of gratitude. My
own experience in this regard is that it is simply impossible to out-give God.
As the Hymn goes, “Blessings all mine with
ten-thousand besides…” Quite simply, the blessings for obedience to
God are unlimited. We choose to obey God because we love God.
And
then there is the flip-side which
we seem all too quick to ignore and all too quick to complain when it comes
about.
Punishments for Disobedience.
“However,
if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, and if you break my
covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and
refusing to obey my commands, I will punish you...”
And,
as we continue to read,
“I
will bring sudden terrors upon you – wasting diseases and burning fevers that
will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away.” Leviticus 26:14-16.
Is
it fair to draw a parallel between Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 26:14? I’ll
leave you to draw your own conclusions. As for me I can only look at the
evidence, with millions of people dead (more
than 25-million by 2008) for failing to live their lives the way God
called them to. And yes, there are many innocent victims (tens of thousands) as a
consequence of other’s [selfish] actions. We still live in a fallen
world.
Many
will quote the oft used platitude, ‘Hate the sin and love the sinner.’ Jesus loved sinners by directing them away
from their sin. Having dealt with the bigoted hypocrites who
accused her, Jesus ended His conversation with the woman caught in adultery by saying, ”Go and sin no more.”
It is impossible to agape love those who find themselves in
sin by not doing likewise.
Jesus also provides a stern warning to those who condone, or even promote behaviour that is contrary to God’s teaching. Given that the context of his warning is towards those within the church/family of God (that is those who will be ‘in the Kingdom of Heaven’). Jesus is very explicit in his condemnation of those who belittle God’s laws by insinuating that when it comes to sex outside of a heterosexual marriage - anything goes - no harm done - show a little tolerance, etc. At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 5:19
There
are consequences.
PART
8
WHY THE FOCUS?
Why
do Christians expend so much energy and attention on the issue of homosexuality
and Leviticus 18:22? Why ignore all the other ‘sins’ listed in Leviticus
18? Why not jump on those?
I
would argue that it is the homosexual community that has made 18:22 an
issue. Many of these individuals who would try and persuade us that this
way of life is normal and acceptable. Not only do
they seek to have everyone accept/condone this lifestyle, they promote
and celebrate it, often belittling and attacking those who would
seek to honour God’s commands. Conversely, the other ‘sins’ listed are
for the most part still frowned upon – we do not promote and celebrate incest
or bestiality. But who knows, even adultery is being promoted on websites
and in the media as socially acceptable these days.
Once
again, seeking to examine the issue in context, we read God’s viewpoint:
“Give
the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the LORD your
God. So, do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or
like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life….”
And
then at the end of the chapter God says,
“So
obey my instructions, and do
not defile yourselves by committing any of these detestable practises that were
committed by the people who lived in the land before you. I am
the LORD your God.”
Yes,
these commandments are given specifically to the Israelites (God’s people), but
God also notes that these acts are detestable even when practiced by
others. In God’s eyes His principles hold true for all of humanity right
up to this present day.
As Kevin deYoung noted,
“It
cannot be overstated how seriously the Bible treats the sin of sexual
immorality. Sexual sin is never considered adiaphora,
a matter of indifference, an agree-to-disagree issue like food laws or holy
days (Rom. 14:1–15:7). To the contrary, sexual immorality is precisely the sort
of sin that characterizes those who will not enter the kingdom of heaven. There
are at least eight vice lists in the New Testament (Mark 7:21–22; Rom. 1:24–31;
13:13; 1 Cor. 6:9–10; Gal. 5:19–21; Col. 3:5–9; 1 Tim. 1:9–10; Rev. 21:8), and
sexual immorality is included in every one of these. In fact, in seven of the
eight lists there are multiple references to sexual immorality (e.g., impurity,
sensuality, orgies, men who practice homosexuality), and in most of the passages
some kind of sexual immorality heads the lists. You would be hard-pressed to
find a sin more frequently, more uniformly, and more seriously condemned in the
New Testament than sexual sin.”
PART
9
JUSTIFICATION AND RESISTANCE
We
read at the introduction to the parable of the Good Samaritan of the ‘teacher
of the Law’ questioning Jesus. After having acknowledged that he had at
least a head-knowledge of the Law we read, ”But he wanted to justify himself…” Luke
10:29. This is the attitude of those who know the Law but try
their hardest to wiggle their way around it, posing the same question as Satan, ”Did God
really say…?” Did God really say, “You shall not lie with a
male as with a woman. It is an abomination.”? Once again in the
parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus brings us back to the very
core of the situation, it is an issue [attitude] of the heart.
Once
we’ve justified something to ourselves our hearts are hardened further, and our
attitudes become more entrenched. The next logical step is physical
rebellion and outright resistance to God’s laws. Society has reached the
point where, in many jurisdictions, it is even against the [man’s] law to
provide counselling to those who wish to abandon the gay lifestyle and seek
reparative and/or conversion therapy. In my research I have not been able to
find legal bans on any other kind of therapy for an
identifiable state of being or ailment.
German
theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote,
“For faith is only real when there is obedience,
never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.”
The
late Eugene Peterson wrote a modern-day adaption of the Bible. Here is what we read in the apostle Paul’s
letter to the early church in Rome, Romans
1:18-32
“But
God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and
lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic
reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a
long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able
to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the
mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was
this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God,
refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and
confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives.
They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded
the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you
can buy at any roadside stand.
So
God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t
long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and
out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and
worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless,
the God who blesses us.
Oh, yes!
Worse
followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human
either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men.
Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men
with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for
it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.
Since
they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run
loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping,
vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton
killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous,
fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep
inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in
the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know
better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t
care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!”
These
are harsh words, but they are God’s words.
PART
10
GRACE
I
first started writing this blog in July 2015.
It is now more than three years later and finally I have the inspiration/conviction
to write Part 10.
Grace
is my favourite word in the Bible, quite simply because I have received so much
of it. Grace is the one thing that keeps
me running back to God. Grace overwhelms me, amazes me and delights me. There is only one, single-word description
that comes anywhere close to describing God.
Grace. Omnipotence, omniscience,
eternal, etc. are words that are unfathomable to the human mind, but not
grace. Grace is experiential.
Grace
reminds me not to judge others. If it
were not for grace how could I stand before God. People who believe that ‘good works’ will get
them a ticket to Heaven understand little about grace.
I
recently heard a very simple message at church.
A missionary doctor shared his testimony of a conversation he had with
his 85-year old grandfather. He read his
grandfather Colossians 1:20 and asked him, “Is there a fight in Heaven? What’s going on that needs to be reconciled?”
“God reconciled everything to
himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of
Christ’s blood on the cross.”
His
grandfather responded, “You know, the fight was within God’s heart. Two important parts of God were in a fight;
justice and mercy. You cannot apply both
to a human being at the same time. If
you break God’s Law He needs to apply His justice at the same time He had the
great desire to apply His mercy. But He wasn’t allowed to (couldn’t) because He is so just.” This appears to be an irreconcilable conflict
for God. His grandfather went on to say,
“Can you imagine the powerful miracle that Jesus did on the cross, shedding His
blood to save us? Because in that moment God was able to reconcile in Himself
justice and mercy. This was because
Jesus was saying, ‘God apply all your justice (judgment and wrath) to me. I am
willing to take that on behalf of humankind.’
And God poured all His justice and wrath on His Son, so now He is free
to give all His mercy to you and me.”
Are
you still living under God’s perfect justice (judgement and wrath) for every
sin (wrongdoing) you ever committed, or have you been the recipient of His
mercy and grace? Have you acknowledged
all that Jesus has done for you and received His gift of mercy and salvation? Or have you rejected Him?
You
might ask, what does this have to do with Leviticus 18:22? Everything.
If
we have truly been the recipients of such amazing grace, how can we go on
wilfully, arrogantly and defiantly doing the very things that God calls an
abomination? Is the one ‘living in sin’
or having an adulterous relationship, or the one gossiping or perpetually lying
any less guilty? No!
At
this point, none of us are innocent.
There is not a Christian on the face of this earth who does not stumble
and fall at times, but the question we must all ask ourselves is, “Am I
constantly and deliberately trampling God’s grace in the muck and mire? Or, am I going to receive God’s mercy and ask
Him to help me have victory and overcome the sin and struggles in my life?”
My answer is...
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