As we survey chapters 18 and 20 of Leviticus, both of which mostly deal with the category of sexual ethics, it’s important to understand the structure of this section of Leviticus. Chapters 17 through 22 are often understood as the holiness code, with Leviticus 19 forming its climax, and verse 18’s “loving your neighbor” serving as the hinge of this larger section.
One reason for Moses presenting these same laws on both sides of Leviticus 19 is because breaking the sexual ethics of chapter 18 is a failure to love your neighbor as yourself, making chapter 20 not so much a list of consequences for particular sins as much as the consequences of not loving your neighbor as you ought. Rather than loving your neighbor, the refrain of chapter 18 is that sexual immorality uncovers your neighbor's nakedness, shaming your neighbor.
Deviation from holiness is NOT loving your neighbor well. Forget all of this nonsense about mutual consent. You’re supposed to be an image of God’s holiness to your neighbor. Mutually consenting to sin robs your neighbor of the very witness you are to display. In fact, you’ve become a stumbling block, leading others on a path to hell. And affirming others in their disregard for holiness does the same. And people will give an account for their causing their neighbor to stumble.
There’s a warning to Israel in this passage. Verse 28: If Israel makes themselves unclean by following the example of the peoples of the land, Israel too will be vomited out. Christian, get this! You are on a journey to the promised land. But the journey is not so much to a location as it is to a sanctification. Your sojourn here-your pilgrimage-is for the purpose of developing a holiness that befits the promised paradise to which God is bringing you, which will be this very earth made new, free from all the corruption of sin and wickedness. But if you’re not sanctified, then to put you in this new purified creation will only serve to pollute it, placing us right back in Genesis 3 and the Fall all over again.
In Christ, holiness is not optional. Yes, Jesus paid the full penalty of the law on our behalf. But he didn’t pay the penalty for sin so that you and I could continue to live contrary to the law. Rather, his paying our penalty frees us from the penalty of the law so that we might actually uphold the moral demands and character of the law.
Our society is seeking to do everything possible to convince you and me that sexual norms are parochial and oppressive. I was at a house Friday, and the neighbors had a rainbow yard sign with a list of their personal maxims. One line read, “Love is love.” Of course, it sounds good to the undiscerning. But it suggests that I have the right to love whoever I choose, which they infer to mean marry or live with or, to be frank, participate in sexual acts with.
But you and I don’t have the right to love whoever we choose. We have an obligation to love them! The issue is a distorted view of “love.”. The world tends to demote love to something like “feelings for someone.” That’s not even close to what love defined biblically is. If you truly love someone, you desire the best for them, and you behave in a way that demonstrates such by doing good to them. That’s loving your neighbor as yourself. And the best thing for everyone is a restored relationship with their Creator.
The sexual ethic of the Bible is not an end in itself. It goes back to creation, where God fashioned us in his likeness but as male and female for complimentary union, or we might say, for marriage.
This holiness code on sexual ethics is meant to portray something of our relationship, not just to one another, but our relationship with God. One of the most common ways God’s relationship with His people is described is that of a marriage-both in the Old Covenant and the New. Yahweh was like a husband to Israel. The Church is the Bride of Christ. The most common way the Bible refers to the breach of that relationship is sexual immorality.
Our sexuality is to be found in our identity as image-bearers of God, making this a relevant discussion for everyone. The world’s sexual ethic is broke because its relationship with God is broken. And its relationship with God is broken because its worship is broken.
Jesus came into the world to purchase a bride, to purchase her through the most costly means, his life. For thirty years, Jesus abstained from what is a good, natural, and godly desire, what some would call one of the greatest physical pleasures. But Jesus denied himself many of life’s physical pleasures, because what gave the Son the most pleasure was pleasing His Father. Jesus kept his body holy and pure, saving himself for his Bride, the Church-us in this room, that we might enjoy the most intimate union possible with the One who knows us inside and out.
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