If forced to decide, many Christians today would probably say that the book of Leviticus is the least important of all the books of the Bible. It is full of laws, and these laws are mostly ceremonial, about sacrifices, consecration of priests, clean and unclean animals, leprosy and so on. When I was a child we always read through the Bible together at family meals, one chapter per meal. It would take us a year or so to get through everything. But I also remember that every other time we read through, my father would have us skip Leviticus and, I think, Deuteronomy. But the book has a very important message which may be summed up in the words of chapter 19:2, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
That is an essential part of the message of the Scriptures and of the gospel. We are justified by faith, not by the works of the law. But that does not mean that we can dump the law. God still calls us to holiness, and we keep the commandments to love him and our neighbor by obeying the first and second tables of the law.
We obey because of our gratitude to him for the great benefits he has freely bestowed on us in Christ. Children in a good home do not obey their parents to earn their love—they have it already—but they do it because they love their parents. Just so with us. We do not earn the love of God by our obedience, but obey because we love him who first loved us and gave his Son for us.
We should also remember that the law defines the sphere of life. That’s why its fundamental message is, Do this and you will live (Luke 10:28). Walking within the boundaries defined by the law is life. Stepping outside those boundaries is death. The law of the fish is that it must live in the water. When it leaves the water it dies. So also the law of our spiritual life is that we must stay within the boundaries defined by God’s commandments. When we step outside them, we do not extend our freedom and pleasure to new spheres. We die (Jam. 1:14–15). When we sinned in Adam, we died. To live again we must be brought back to the sphere of life, to obedience to the commandments.
However, the law itself cannot bring us back. Nor can we get back by any effort of our own. The law cannot give life (Rom. 8:3). We cannot obey, and we cannot pay the debt our sins have already incurred. We are dead, incapable of good, and eternity in hell is the debt we already owe. Only Christ can give us life. Only he can restore us to obedience to the law. He does it by the work of sanctification.
The key to understanding the Mosaic law is this, that at Mt. Sinai God fulfilled in a shadowy way, his promises to Abraham, and especially this promise, that he would be the God of Abraham’s children. He fulfilled that promise by coming to dwell among them in the house that they had built for him (Lev. 26:11–13). God gave the laws of Leviticus because of that great fact. By it he told the people how to worship him, how to live with him in his house and land, and how to conduct themselves as his people before the nations.
We can break the big picture of Leviticus down into four important truths.
The first is that the Lord our God is holy and his name is holy. The book of Leviticus reiterates this again and again (11:44–45, 19:2, 20:26, 21:8, 20:3, 22:2, 32). Especially chapter 19 revolves around it. The chapter begins with the statement we have already quoted (v. 2) but repeats it in shortened form at least a dozen more times (vv. 3 4, 10, 12,14, 16, 18, 25, 28, 30, 31, 34, 36, 37). Each time it appears it is attached to a specific commandment, and each time we find at least the words I am the LORD, but frequently also I am the LORD your God. The reason for obedience to the commandments is, I am the LORD your God. You must be holy because he is holy.
The second truth is that the Lord’s house and everything associated with it is holy. There were degrees of holiness in it: the courtyard was less holy than the Holy Place, and the Holy Place less holy than the Most Holy Place. The Lord permitted the people into the courtyard, but only the priests into the Holy Place, and only the high priest into the Most Holy Place. Bronze, silver and gold represented the same degrees of holiness. The altar of burnt offering and the laver were bronze. The sockets that held the boards of the tabernacle were silver. The altar of incense, the lampstand, the table and the ark with the cherubim were gold. Not just the altars but all the furnishings of the tabernacle and the utensils used in it were holy (Lev. 8:10–11). The offerings were holy, and anything dedicated (or consecrated) to the Lord was also holy, whether animals, houses, lands or tithes (Lev. 27). The Holy One of Israel had come to live among his people, and his presence made everything around him holy.
The third truth follows from the first two: everyone who entered the house also had to be holy. The priests, because they were themselves sinners (Heb. 7:27), went through an elaborate ceremony of consecration which included sacrifices, washings, anointings with blood and oil and clothing with holy garments. The high priest, the holiest of all the priests, wore a plate on his turban that said, Holiness to the LORD. All the priests had to be ceremonially clean when they entered, and there were various regulations for preserving and restoring cleanness. Leviticus 21:17f gives a list of members of the house of Aaron who were considered ceremonially unclean and therefore unable to participate in the work or benefits of the priests. Anyone who approached the holy things while unclean was to be cut off from his people (Lev. 22:3). They had to be holy (21:7–8).
There were less stringent rules of cleanness and uncleanness for the people. This was the point of the clean and unclean animals (Lev. 11), cleansing after childbirth (ch. 12), the rules regarding leprosy (ch. 13) and bodily discharges ( ch. 15), the laws about sexual immorality (ch. 18) and many other laws (ch. 19). Those who had sinned or were ceremonially unclean were not to enter the house of God. The Lord said, Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God (20:7).
Much of this has to do with ceremonies and signs, but the truth underlying them is the great truth that those who draw near to God must be holy. LORD, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart (Ps. 15:1–2). 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, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully (Ps. 24:3–4).
Nowhere did the Lord demonstrate this necessity of holiness more forcefully than in his dealings with Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron. They brought strange fire to the altar of incense, and fire went out from the Lord and devoured them (Lev. 10:1–7).
Our God is holy and a consuming fire (Heb. 12:28–29). He must be feared (Lev. 19:14, 32, 25: 17, 36, 43). Those who draw near to him must be holy as he is holy (1 Pet. 1:15).
The problem for Israel was that no one was holy. No one might draw near to God. But the grace of the Mosaic covenant was this, that God nevertheless allowed them to come near. He ordained the priests to serve as mediators to reconcile the people to himself and to make them fit to come into his presence. He provided atonement for sins already committed (that’s the point of the sacrifices described in chapters 1–7), and he sanctified them from uncleanness by the various ceremonial washings and anointings. I am the LORD who sanctifies you (20:8). And he gave them the Sabbath as a sign that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you (Ex. 31:13). Essentially, their right to live in God’s house with him derived from the blood of the covenant (Ex. 24:4, Zech. 9:11, Heb. 9:18–20)
The sum of what we have been saying is found in Leviticus 22:31–33. Therefore you shall keep My commandments, and perform them: I am the LORD. You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am the LORD who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD.
These four truths, so powerfully explained in Leviticus, are as applicable today as they were then. God is holy. His house (his church) is holy. Those who enter his house must be holy and must fear the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ has provided atonement for our sins and sanctification by his Spirit so that we may come. He has shed the atoning and cleansing blood of the new covenant for us (Matt. 26:28, Luke 22:20). This is the reason he came into the world and shed his blood (Eph. 5:25–27).He does not need daily… to offer up sarifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself Heb. 7:27).
In the new heavens and earth this sanctifying work will be complete. Then the tabernacle of God will be with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God Himself will be with them and be their God (Rev. 21:3). All sinners will be cast into the lake of fire (v. 8). Nothing defiled will enter (v. 27). There will be no more curse there (22:3). Those who are unjust will be unjust still, and those who are righteous will be righteous still (v. 11). There those who do his commandments will be blessed, will eat of the tree of life and enter through the gates of the city, but outside will be all dogs, sorcerers, sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters and liars (vv. 14–15).
The book of Leviticus is an important part of the gospel message. It teaches us more than any other book the necessity of holiness for life with God.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thes. 5:23, Luke 1:68–75).