Pop quiz Bible students: “People could not live by the Old
Testament law because they were sinners and could not obey perfectly.” True or
false?
To clarify, let’s say a person is living in the land of
Israel during the time of Joshua. He
lies to his neighbor about taking a donkey or whatever. Does his transgression of the ninth commandment
mean that he cannot live according to the law?
Before you answer, look at Leviticus 6:2-7.
The answer is (drum roll please) “FALSE.” Successfully living under the Mosaic
law did not require a person to be sinless.
God knew that the people would sin and so he made a way of forgiveness, even in the law.
But doesn’t the New Testament talk about the inadequacy of
the law? Lots and lots. The Old
Testament law could never establish righteousness (i.e. Gal. 2:21), in the justification sense. Under that topic, the law's only purpose was to
convict of sin (i.e. Rom. 3:20) and teach us that we need Christ (i.e. Gal.
3:24).
But the Mosaic law was intended to be a code for Israelites
to live by. If they adhered to it –
striving to keep its commands and performing the various sacrifices when sin
was committed – then God promised them a successful life in the land (Lev.
18:5).
God told Joshua he had to “observe
to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not
turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may go to heaven when you die?” No no no.
The promised blessing was “that you may prosper wherever you go” (Josh.
1:7) and “you will have good success” (Josh. 1:8). A successful, prosperous life in the promised
land is different that justification. The
former required obedience. The latter
has always only been by faith (i.e. Gen. 15:6).
So God actually “expected” Israelites to do this stuff. The word Leviticus automatically reminds us
of the Levites” which is fitting since most of the book deals with priestly
matters and all the priests were Levites.
I am not a Levitical priest.
Neither are you. [In my blog on
Exodus (read here), I talked about the church’s relationship to Old Testament
law.] But there’s still a lot to learn
from this book, especially as we consider the first chapters which talk about
sacrifices.
