Leviticus 20:1-27

There are consequences to sin.  God’s desire to see that His people remain pure leads Him to establish very clear and just consequences for sins that would contaminate the people if left unpunished.  God’s grace and mercy are abundant, but He is also just and cannot leave sin unpunished.  We must take sin seriously and not try to minimize the consequences of the sin in the lives of those who sin as well as the impact that sin has on the entire community.  In order to prevent the rampant spread of sin throughout the people, there had to be clear and consistent consequences to sin.

SOME SIN WAS PUNISHED BY DEATH: There were certain sexual as well as spiritual sins that were to be punished by the death of those participated in them.  Killing those who practiced these acts served as a means of deterring these sins as well as demonstrating how serious God was about the purity of His people.  Those who commit these types of sins are likely to continue to do so.  In order to protect others from being victims of their sin and to discourage others from becoming involved; those who practiced these sins were killed by the people.  This practice promoted purity in the people, illustrated God’s hatred of sin and set an innocent spouse free from marriage in the case of adultery.  Later on, God’s grace is demonstrated in allowing some of these sins to have lesser consequences and be forgiven through Christ, but this does not make them any less despicable or God any less concerned for our purity.  We must have great zeal for the purity of God’s people.

SOME SIN WAS PUNISHED BY DIVISION: Other sins were not punished by death but they were punished by the guilty party being cut off from the people.  This person was cast out of the nation and not allowed to benefit from the protection that being a physical part of the nation provided.  Casting the person out of the nation was also a means of preventing this sin from spreading in the congregation.  I believe the church discipline is the means by which this ought to be practiced today.  We must not tolerate the practice of unrepentant sin in the midst of God’s people.  Christ allows for an opportunity to repent by abandoning sin, but those who refuse to repent and seek forgiveness ought to be cast out of the church so that they might feel the consequence of sin, repent and seek restoration.  This also serves as a means of alerting all believes to the consequence of sin.  We must never grow tolerant of sin.