Day 47 – Leviticus 14-15

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2014-15&version=NIV


Chapters 14 and 15 of Leviticus focus on cleansing from infectious skin diseases, cleansing from mildew, and bodily discharges causing uncleanness. In today’s study, we will focus on Leviticus chapter 15.

In Leviticus chapter 15, we read how bodily discharges – from normal sexual relations and abnormal bodily discharges, in both men and women cause uncleanness.

Per the ESV Study Bible, “It is clear that “unclean” is not the same as “sinful,” but rather has to do with what is permitted.”

So why is it that a person is declared unclean and caused to suffer for something for which he or she is not responsible? And to the unbelieving world, here is the Bible once again condemning sex. They must be saying, “Those Christians never have any fun.”

We all know that sex, when practiced under the governing laws of God, should be intimate, wonderful, and holy. Christians often get accused of not talking about sex, or being prudes. I would suggest that many Christians do not talk about sex, because the world has such a perverted view of it, and that even speaking about it in certain situations might unduly further their worldly view. There is nothing wrong of speaking about sex, provided that we speak of it in the way God speaks of it. He speaks of sex as being holy, and being reserved for the marriage bed. Does the world view sex like this? By and large, I would say no. The world looks at sex as a means of fleshly pleasure. So to the Christian, think about how you talk about sex with your friends and co-workers. Think about the jokes you may read that have sexual innuendo in them. God does not speak of sex in such crude and perverse ways as the world does, and neither should we.

But what about the instance in our specific text? A husband and wife could have sex lawfully under God but if one was touched by a bodily discharge, he or she would be declared unclean.

Bob Deffinbaugh from Bible.org, addresses this point accurately when he writes,

“The fall of man, as recorded in Genesis 3, has brought chaos and suffering to all creation, including mankind. The fall has rendered man inherently sinful from birth. Thus, man sins because he is a sinner. So, too, he will suffer in life because he lives in a fallen world where the consequences of sin cause chaos and suffering.”

Through Adam’s sin, we all inherited a sinful nature from birth. This is known as the doctrine of Original Sin. Sin has corrupted us so utterly that even acts that were an inconsequential offshoot from a God ordained act, in this instance a bodily discharge from lawful sex between a husband and wife, caused uncleanness.

Deffinbaugh again writes,

“It is at this point that the Israelite of Moses’ day came to a very sobering realization. While the Law could pronounce a person unclean, it made no provision to make him clean. The priest could declare an unclean person unclean, and he could pronounce a clean person clean, but there was no means to cure the condition which produced the uncleanness. It was only with the coming of Christ, who inaugurated the New Covenant, that the condition of uncleanness, and the curse of Adam, would be remedied.”

Deffinbaugh here is not talking about being ceremonial clean, but rather spiritually clean, i.e. having a clean and cleansed heart.

Praise be to God that Christ has remedied the situation of our condition of uncleanness.

1 John 1:7 says,

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

Some of you may be asking, what if I get married and if this occurs to me, will I and my future spouse be unclean? Jesus Christ came and fulfilled the law. We are no longer under the law. Now, a large part of the New Testament ethical principles are based on the Old Testament revelation to us. Additionally, 9 out of the Ten Commandments are affirmed in the New Testament.

Yet Scripture over and over says that Christ fulfilled the law for us. How great this is, because I know and I know that you know that we would never be able to fulfill the requirements of the law by our own power.

So, I would like to leave you with two great verses that illustrate this from the book of Romans:

“Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

Romans 10:4

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”

Romans 8:1-4

Soli Deo Gloria

Today’s post was submitted by Russ Shellhamer