Christ in All of Scripture – Leviticus 5:14-16

Leviticus 5:14-16
"The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the Lord, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering. He shall also make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing and shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.'"

A guilt offering was brought when Israelites sinned by defiling something belonging to the Lord. Such possessions included holy food items (Lev. 5:14–16; cf. Lev. 22:10–16; Num. 18:8–13) or even the Lord’s own holy name (Lev. 6:1–7; v. 3 assumes a false oath in the Lord’s name). This offering was to be brought even when people suspected they might have committed such an offense (Lev. 5:17–19). In either case (of actual or suspected sin), to sin against what belonged to the holy King was to show disrespect to the King himself, while to show respect to what was his was to respect him.

Paul applies this principle to believers when he exhorts us to be sexually pure, in this way acknowledging that we belong to the Lord and have been bought at a great price: Jesus’ lifeblood (1 Cor. 6:18–20; cf. Eph. 1:7). When we revere God’s holiness and the greatness of the redemption he has accomplished for us, we are spurred to live holy lives as an act of reverential worship before our holy and redeeming King.

This series of posts pairs a brief passage of Scripture with associated study notes drawn from the Gospel Transformation Bible.

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