Let’s say that you and your neighbor are chatting one day. He knows that you are a Christian. You have shared your testimony with him on several occasions and invited him to church. But, as he has said that “he is satisfied with his religion.” You know that he was raised in one of the main-line denominations, but he hasn’t attended for years. Today, the subject of “same sex marriages” comes up, and surprisingly, he asks for your opinion. Without any fore-thought, your response is: “Same sex marriages are an abomination to God.” Your liberal-minded neighbor is shocked, and immediately demands an explanation. Not being well prepared, you simply say, “The Bible condemns homosexuality.” With that, your neighbor stomps off, leaving you wondering if he’s going to start throwing his garbage into your back yard.
Later in the day, still thinking about the conversation, you wonder if you could have handled the situation better. You get out your Bible and re-read the account of Sodom and Gomorrah. That reference Bible of yours suggests that you turn to Leviticus where God DOES condemn homosexuality and apparently same sex marriages. Please turn to Leviticus 18:1 – “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.” From there, verse after verse talks about “uncovering” other people’s nakedness. Your Bible has a note saying that God is forbidding incestuous marriages and some other forms of immorality. Then in verse 22 you find that word you used with your neighbor: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” And you also see that Leviticus 20:13 says, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination, they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”
Now, having armed yourself with some proof texts, you decide to visit your neighbor in the hopes of repairing your relationship, teaching him some of the Word of God at the same time. He will believe the Bible, won’t he? Knocking on the door with your big Bible in your hand, you are invited inside. After your apology for offending him, you say that you’d like to show him the reason behind your comment. He is not particularly happy – he is not quivering with joy – but you go in and you both sit down. Opening your Bible to Leviticus, he says he’d like to follow you in his Revised Standard Version. Then you begin to read to him the word of the Lord.
When you finish, you glance up and see his face growing red. Immediately he calls you “a hypocrite.” He points across the page to Leviticus 19:17 which says, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart,” and he accuses you hating homosexuals. Then he asks why you don’t stone those homosexuals as your God proscribes. Before you can answer he points to verse 27 and accuses you of sin for trimming your beard. And he asks why in your garden you plant both carrots and radishes side by side, contrary to verse 19. And then there is the wool/cotton blend of fabric in your shirt, which is condemned in the same verse. He says that the other day he could smell – and hear – sizzling bacon coming from your kitchen in disobedience to God’s commands in Leviticus 11. And did you really want to stone him for mowing his grass last Sunday afternoon? After a few more minutes of quoting and misquoting scripture, he concludes once again declaring that you are a hypocrite. He tells you that he has other Christian acquaintances just like you, who pick and choose which scriptures and which laws they want to believe and put into practice. He says he has no interest in your kind of God.
Am I a hypocrite for trimming my beard while believing that homosexuality is a sin? Are you a hypocrite for eating shrimp wrapped in bacon? DO we arbitrarily pick and choose what laws to use to guide our lives? The truth is: we do choose, but we aren’t hypocrites for doing so because our obedience is not arbitrary
Just as not every promise in the Bible belongs to us as Christians, not every law belongs to us either. There are promises which God has given to Israel which, we have no right apply to ourselves. To do so is theological and spiritual theft. We are not spiritual replacements for Israel. And in regard to His laws, God has laid down rules to follow involving God’s rules. For most Christians they are instinctive – we don’t think about the rules involving following God’s laws. But tonight, that is just what I’d like us to do. Let’s consider those rules and laws.
There are three different kinds of laws revealed in the Bible.
Maybe I should say that the laws we find in the Bible come in three divisions and each has a different purpose. We can describe them as “moral” laws, “ceremonial” laws and “judicial” laws. Someone might think that I am making up these distinctions. Not so. And this differentiation is not new. In 1689, 330 years ago, the Baptists of London, published a statement declaring and defending what it was they believed. Unlike their earlier confession of 1644 and unlike and the Philadelphia Confession of Faith in this country, it had a distinct and thorough section on the Law of God. I’d like to read it to you.
Point 1 – God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart, and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; (in that original internal law God) bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience; promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it. (Genesis 1:27; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:10, 12).
Point 2 – The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after he fell, and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables, the four first containing our duty towards God, and the other six, our duty to man. (Romans 2:14, 15; Deuteronomy 10:4).
Point 3 – Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of reformation, are, by Jesus Christ the true Messiah and only law-giver, who was furnished with power from the Father for that end abrogated and taken away. (Hebrews 10:1; Colossians 2:17; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Colossians 2:14, 16, 17; Ephesians 2:14, 16).
Point 4 – To them also he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution; their general equity only being of moral use. (1 Cor 9:8-10).
Point 5 – The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it; neither doth Christ in the Gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation. (Romans 13:8-10; James 2:8, 10-12; James 2:10, 11; Matthew 5:17-19; Romans 3:31).
Summarizing all this: there is a moral law, written in every heart. It is also recorded in the Ten Commandments. It is eternal and to be obeyed by everyone – children of God and children of the world. Then to Israel there were laws in regard to their worship and religion; which laws generally point to Christ, the Lamb of God. They are ceremonial, dealing with sacrifices, feast days, clothing for the priests and so on. They were fulfilled and completed in Christ Jesus, and so they have no application to Christians today. Then finally there were laws to govern Israel as a nation of people, which, although giving guidance to other nations are not obligatory to them.
What does this three-fold aspect of God’s law mean in a practical sense?
It means you and I are obligated to pick and choose between laws, applying only those which God intended for us. To show you what I mean, please turn to Deuteronomy 6:4. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Even though this command to love God was directed to Israel, it is our obligation as well. We know that this command is incumbent upon us for three reasons. First, it is a reflection of the first principles of the Ten Commandments. Second, the New Testament tells us, without any confusion, that it applies to us today. Furthermore, it isn’t a command for believers only; it is incumbent for everyone – saved or lost. To love the Lord our God is a moral law – an eternal law. It will probably be the first point raised at the Great White Throne Judgment.
But let’s read on: Deuteronomy 6:6 – “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” The little box worn by the Orthodox Jewish man on his forehead or left arm is called a “phylactery.” If some professing Christian tries to tell you that you must wear a phylactery because Deuteronomy so… or if says that he is going to obey Deuteronomy 6:8, proving that he is more spiritual than you… you might remind him you CHOOSE NOT to wear a “phylactery” because it is not a part of the moral law – it was not given to Christians. We don’t find any of the Apostles telling us to wear them. Furthermore, Christ condemned the misuse of phylacteries in Matthew 23:5. You might tell that person him that such a practice makes him pharisaical, and in that 23rd chapter of Matthew Christ Jesus said, “Woe unto you Pharisees, hypocrites,” for your misuse of phylacteries. It is NOT hypocritical to pick and choose between God’s laws because some were never meant for us. In fact, it IS hypocritical and pharisaical to demand microscopic obedience to every Old Testament law.
Now, let’s go back to that subject of same-sex marriages and homosexuality. Why do we Christians apply God’s prohibition to those things, but not to trimming our beards? Because the seventh of the ten commandments says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Someone immediately says, “Wait a minute, Exodus 20 doesn’t say anything about homosexuality.” I will admit that it does not use that word, but the homosexuality application grows out of the seventh commandment. The condemnation of adultery may be applied to all forms of sexual immorality from premarital fornication to having sex with animals. Those applications are found in other scriptures. And in a similar way, the sixth commandment doesn’t condemn abortion, but it does murder. Since abortion is one variety of murder, then it can be justly said that abortion is condemned in the Ten Commandments. Similarly, the Bible doesn’t mention euthanasia, but without using the word it still forbids mercy-killing.
Furthermore the New Testament endorses the seventh commandment condemning immorality. Romans 1:21 – “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
One of the problems in studying and applying the laws of God is that the Holy Spirit sometimes puts all three varieties in the same chapter, tying them together verse to verse. It is the Bible student’s responsibility to learn to recognize which is which. God’s moral laws are eternal – always on His books, and they apply equally to saint and condemned sinner. The others – the ceremonial and judicial laws – apply only to Israel. We can recognize God’s moral law when we see their roots in the Ten Commandments and when we read in the New Testament that they apply to the Christian.
But why did the Lord give those ceremonial and judicial laws to Israel if they don’t have universal application? First, because many of them, like the various sacrifices, were types, pictures and prophesies of the coming Saviour – the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. In the feasts which Israel was to maintain throughout their history, once again there were pictures of Christ. And another reason for those laws was to draw a line of distinction between God’s nation and the nations of the world.
Turn to Deuteronomy 4 and follow along as I read: “ Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you. But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?”
Someone might ask, but aren’t Christians also to be different from the rest of the world? Since, like Israel, we are to be, appear and behave differently from the unbelieving world shouldn’t we obey those same Old Testament laws to mark out our differences? To answer, I’ll point out that not only are Christians to be different from the world, we are also to be different from unbelieving Judaism. Should we have characteristics and practices which set us apart from the unbelieving? Absolutely. But they are different from those which God gave to Israel. We draw ours from the New Testament.
But do we actually take our direction from the moral law and those things which Christ and the Apostles taught us? Let’s find out if you really love me, as you say you do. Let’s take a little test just for fun. Let me emphasize: this is just for fun. If you disagree with me on these things, I’ll forgive you, and I will ask you to forgive me. And besides, you might be right while my position may be wrong. So let’s start with an easy question: Why don’t we make circumcision a Christian regulation? It is a law for Israel, but Paul spent several chapters denying that it should be applied to Gentile Christians. Why don’t we forbid eating bacon and BBQ pork ribs? Are dietary laws a part of the moral law; do we find them in the Ten Commandments? Wasn’t Peter told by the Lord not call animals unclean if God began to call them clean? I saw an article in a Christian paper the other day which said that Christian men should wear beards. Is that to be found in the moral law? Do I have any authority to tell you men to let the hair on your temples grow into long curls like the Hasidic Jews?
Here is a fun one: Do you condemn tattoos? On what grounds do you condemn tattoos? Please understand that I don’t particularly like all the “body art.” It is a personal preference of mine. But I am just wondering about the arguments I sometimes hear. Are tattoos mentioned in the Ten Commandments or in Paul’s epistles? What about people gluing horns to the top of their heads? Is that forbidden by the law? And what about body piercings? You aren’t going to try to use Leviticus 19:28 are you? “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.” Why weren’t the Israelites to cut their flesh or print tattoos on their bodies? It was to show a difference between themselves and the world. And by the way, you say that you don’t like the modern piercings today. But you or the women in your family pierced their ears ago and they continue to wear jewelry in them. Is there a difference between pierced ears and a pierced belly button? (Do you still love me?) There are many Christians who condemn the practice of cremation, citing the religious practices of the idolaters. Can you also point to the command of Paul or Christ that Christians must be buried? “Burial is the common Biblical practice.” Yes, that is true. But if you want to say that Jesus was buried as an example to us all, you might have to get rid of your Carhartts and start wearing a robe because that is what Jesus wore.
I know that I’m bordering on the silly, but I’m trying to make a point. We have no business taking laws which apply only to Israel, trying to make our fellow Christians obey them. Yes, there are commands which are obligatory to both Christians and Jews. They are called “moral laws,” and we can find them in both testaments, usually in Exodus 20 but then also throughout the New Testament.
And going back to your angry neighbor, do we pick and choose the laws we are going to obey and enforce? Yes, we do. But there are Biblical reasons for the choices we make. And we need to be sure that whatever we or do not do, we do it all for the glory of our Saviour. And in those things, we need to do our best to base our obedience on what we know the Bible to teach.