15 Sins God Takes Serious

Many Christians think that the law has no meaning to the New Testament Church today, but that simply isn’t true. At its basic essence is its ability to reveal to us our need for a savior. Paul explains in Romans 7:7, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”  The law is very important to the Christian. Far too many Christians today walk around saying they are saved, but have no clue what from. The Book of Romans is a good place to take hold of the truth of the theology of our sinfulness.

But this morning as I read Leviticus chapters 17-20 I came to see another aspect of the law and its importance to not only the Christian, but to our entire culture. When God gave the law to Moses in the Old Testament, He was accomplishing several things that would be useful in both their public and personal lives. The obvious value of God’s law was that it set up a safe government for the people. But while it was a good and just legal system with practical value, it did something else even more important. Hear the Word of God.

Leviticus 20:7-8
Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.

Why was it so important for the Jewish people to be holy? The reason is that they were given the task of being God’s light to the world. Romans chapter 3 tell us in verse 2 that “they have been entrusted with the very words of God.” Though God chose Israel to be His people, He fully intended that they would carry the Gospel into the rest of the world. When they rejected Jesus that commission fell to the church.  And though the church is not Israel, the church is under the same command to be holy and set apart. The world is a dark place where sin runs rampant. God wants us to be different. He wants us to be light in the darkness that shows the world the joy that comes from a life dedicated to God as opposed to a life filled with self-satisfaction.

So, in the law we find moral standards of life. As Christians cloaked in the righteous blood of Christ our sin can no longer condemn us. Yet that is no license to sin and in all those who are born again is the power of the Holy Spirit residing in our hearts. This empowers us to live a different way than the rest of the world. Inherent in the law is God’s moral standards and though we are not bound by the specifics of many of the dietary and various other specific laws, we are expected to live by God’s moral standards. Those have not changed.

As I read through the law as given in Leviticus I learned today that there are fifteen specific offenses that are capital crimes. This means God’s penalty for each of these items was death. We can argue all we want about the law but how can we gloss over the fact that these fifteen offenses are considered so serious that God prescribed death for those who violated the prohibition of these things?

I want to pause here a moment and say something important. I don’t believe God intends for us to execute each of us who have violated these behaviors. I believe that we are currently living in an age of grace and that forgiveness and restoral is God’s current method for Christians to shine the light of Christ.

But that does not mean we toss out the moral law as God has given us. Just as God called the Jews in Leviticus 20 to be holy, He calls His church and each of us who are part of I,t to be holy as well. This means we must accept that what God calls sin is sin. And if God saw fit to make fifteen sins punishable by death, we must stop allowing the world to lessen the severity of this items.

So today take pause to think about the following list of capitol offenses as God set them down in His law. The is one most of us still believe is a crime deserving of death in its worst commission and that is murder. The other fourteen may catch you by surprise. Here is the list.

1.    Striking or cursing a parent

2.    Breaking the Sabbath

3.    Blaspheming God

4.    Engaging in the occult

5.    Prophesying falsely

6.    Adultery

7.    Rape

8.    Sex before marriage

9.    Incest

     10.  Homosexuality

     11.  Bestiality

     12.  Kidnapping

     13.  Idolatry

     14.  Giving false testimony in a capital crime case

     15.  Murder

Interesting list, isn’t it?

The most important thing we must understand is that God, not man, not me, but God has put these fifteen behaviors together and assigned the severest of penalties to them equally. And try as you may, there is no removal or lessening of these sins in the New Testament. They are equally serious sins in God’s eyes. What God calls sin must not be changed by us. To do so is put yourself above God. It is to say you know better than Him.

God’s law is still relevant. He has not revoked it. Jesus told us He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. He also said this in Matthew 5:18-20, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The good news of the Gospel is that our salvation is not based upon our ability to keep the law, otherwise no one will make it to heaven. But once we are saved we have an obligation to stand for the truth of God’s law. We must not call right and ok what God has called sin. The world does not like this. But we are not here to please the world. We are here to please and bring glory to God. As a culture, we are in trouble. We have turned from God’s moral compass and chosen to blaze our own path. Read the Old Testament and see how that went for Israel. It will go the same for a people who refuse to follow God’s moral compass. It already finds us in terrible mess.

So choose today whom you shall follow. But be careful which path you select.

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.