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Why Same-Sex Acts Got the Death Penalty in OT, but Not Today

Posted by Tim Keller  September 18, 2015

I find it frustrating when I read or hear columnists, pundits or journalists dismiss Christians as inconsistent because “they pick and choose which of the rules in the Bible to obey.”

What I hear most often is, “Christians ignore lots of Old Testament texts – about not eating raw meat or pork or shellfish, not executing people for breaking the Sabbath, not wearing garments woven with two kinds of material and so on. Then they condemn homosexuality. Aren’t they just picking and choosing what they want to believe from the Bible?”

It is not that I expect everyone to have the capability of understanding that the whole Bible is about Jesus and God’s plan to redeem his people, but I vainly hope that one day someone will access their common sense (or at least talk to an informed theological advisor) before leveling the charge of inconsistency.

First of all, let’s be clear that it’s not only the Old Testament that has proscriptions about homosexuality.

The New Testament has plenty to say about it as well. Even Jesus says, in his discussion of divorce in Matthew 19:3-12, that the original design of God was for one man and one woman to be united as one flesh, and failing that (v. 12), persons should abstain from marriage and from sex.

However, let’s get back to considering the larger issue of inconsistency regarding things mentioned in the OT that are no longer practiced by the New Testament people of God. Most Christians don’t know what to say when confronted about this.

Here’s a short course on the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament:

The Old Testament devotes a good amount of space to describing the various sacrifices that were to be offered in the tabernacle (and later temple) to atone for sin so that worshippers could approach a holy God.

As part of that sacrificial system, there was also a complex set of rules for ceremonial purity and cleanness. You could only approach God in worship if you ate certain foods and not others, wore certain forms of dress, refrained from touching a variety of objects, and so on. This vividly conveyed, over and over, that human beings are spiritually unclean and can’t go into God’s presence without purification.

But even in the Old Testament, many writers hinted that the sacrifices and the temple worship regulations pointed forward to something beyond them (cf. 1 Samuel 15:21-22; Psalm 50:12-15; 51:17; Hosea 6:6). When Christ appeared, he declared all foods ‘clean’ (Mark 7:19) and he ignored the Old Testament clean laws in other ways, touching lepers and dead bodies.

But the reason is made clear.

When he died on the cross, the veil in the temple was ripped through, showing that the need for the entire sacrificial system with all its clean laws had been done away with. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and now Jesus makes us “clean.”

The entire book of Hebrews explains that the Old Testament ceremonial laws were not so much abolished as fulfilled by Christ. Whenever we pray ‘in Jesus’ name,’ we ‘have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus’ (Hebrews 10:19).

It would, therefore, be deeply inconsistent with the teaching of the Bible as a whole if we were to continue to follow the ceremonial laws.

The New Testament gives us further guidance about how to read the Old Testament.

Paul makes it clear in places like Romans 13:8ff that the apostles understood the Old Testament moral law to still be binding on us. In short, the coming of Christ changed how we worship but not how we live.

The moral law is an outline of God’s own character—his integrity, love and faithfulness. And so all the Old Testament says about loving our neighbor, caring for the poor, generosity with our possessions, social relationships and commitment to our family is still in force. The New Testament continues to forbid killing or committing adultery, and all the sex ethics of the Old Testament are restated throughout the New Testament (Matthew 5:27-30; 1 Corinthians 6:9-20; 1 Timothy 1:8-11).

If the New Testament has reaffirmed a commandment, then it is still in force for us today.

Further, the New Testament explains another change between the Testaments.

Sins continue to be sins—but the penalties change. In the Old Testament, things like adultery or incest were punishable with civil sanctions like execution. This is because at that time God’s people existed in the form of a nation-state and so all sins had civil penalties.

But in the New Testament, the people of God are an assembly of churches all over the world, living under many different governments.

The church is not a civil government, and so sins are dealt with by exhortation and, at worst, exclusion from membership. This is how a case of incest in the Corinthian church is dealt with by Paul (1 Corinthians 5:1ff and 2 Corinthians 2:7-11).

Why this change?

Under Christ, the gospel is not confined to a single nation—it has been released to go into all cultures and peoples.

Once you grant the main premise of the Bible—about the surpassing significance of Christ and his salvation—then all the various parts of the Bible make sense.

Because of Christ, the ceremonial law is repealed.

Because of Christ, the church is no longer a nation-state imposing civil penalties.

It all falls into place. However, if you reject the idea of Christ as Son of God and Savior, then, of course, the Bible is at best a mish-mash containing some inspiration and wisdom, but most of it would have to be rejected as foolish or erroneous.

So where does this leave us? There are only two possibilities.

If Christ is God, then this way of reading the Bible makes sense and is perfectly consistent with its premise. The other possibility is that you reject Christianity’s basic thesis—you don’t believe Jesus was the resurrected Son of God—and then the Bible is no sure guide for you about much of anything.

But the one thing you can’t really say in fairness is that Christians are being inconsistent with their beliefs to accept the moral statements in the Old Testament while not practicing other ones.

One way to respond to the charge of inconsistency may be to ask a counter-question: “Are you asking me to deny the very heart of my Christian beliefs?” If you are asked, “Why do you say that?” you could respond, “If I believe Jesus is the resurrected Son of God, I can’t follow all the ‘clean laws’ of diet and practice, and I can’t offer animal sacrifices. All that would be to deny the power of Christ’s death on the cross. And so those who really believe in Christ must follow some Old Testament texts and not others.”

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Effective Prayer: 5 Perspectives For Disciples Of Christ

Isn’t prayer just something done to look good in front of grandma at the supper table, or something just before the message on a Sunday morning because that is just what we do? Have we ever really thought about the vital importance of prayer in the life of a believer?

I love reading the story of Nehemiah because it’s in his story where we have a great example of how crucial prayer is to the life of the believer.

“The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” – Nehemiah 1:1-3

In 455 BC, the people of Judah and the city of Jerusalem were in a terrible condition. Over 140 years earlier, Nebuchadnezzar and the armies of Babylon had invaded Israel and had carried many of the people away as slaves. The walls had been destroyed and the gates had been burned.

Meanwhile, Nehemiah is serving as a high official, the cup-bearer to the King of Persia, at the capital city of Susa 800 miles away from Jerusalem. His role as cup-bearer is to sample the wine and the food of the king to make sure it’s not poisoned, among other roles. He is in a palace living in luxury, drinking the best wine on earth, not that little box of blush that you have in your refrigerator. He’s eating incredible food, wearing the best clothes and completely safe, no real threat to the Persian Empire at this point. I mean, this guy is living the life!

Yet, with no television to update him, no Twitter feed for him to watch pictures of his people suffering 800 hundred miles away, he’s knocked to his knees when he hears of the news back in Jerusalem. His guts turn, and he weeps before the Lord and begins to fast and pray.

By its very nature, fasting suggests that something is wrong. Eating is a normal part of human existence, so abstaining from eating implies a disruption in the very rhythm of life. When Nehemiah’s world crashed his first response was to get rid of all the distractions, food being a big one so that he could focus on the one place he would receive strength… God. He recognized that his strength and hope could only come from God and not from another piece of pie.

So, here’s a question for all of us. When our world crashes around us, when life becomes hard where do we turn? God or the refrigerator? God or sex? God or shopping? Or sports or more wine, or more of anything else but God? Nehemiah is an example of the pattern we should follow.

When the world shakes us up we should get down on our knees.

1) Prayer gives us a right perspective of others

Nehemiah was radically compassionate because he had a God sized compassion for the hurting even though he didn’t know them personally. Here’s a question for all of us to consider. Is God just telling us this is what Nehemiah felt, or is he setting before us what he wants out hearts to look like? If you look at the Bible’s expectation on us as believers in Christ, we are to feel and be bothered like our man Nehemiah was even for people we don’t even know.

What God has called you and me to, as the people of God, is to live out a type of radical compassion and empathy. As the community of faith, we are to model to the world outside of us what it looks like to be the people of God. It is being mindful of the hurts and hang-ups of others and entering into that in some very simple ways and some very complex ways and being the picture of Christ’s love and compassion for his church in our presence and in our interaction with those around us.

If our hearts are filled with compassion for the hurting, causing us to be more committed to the Lord’s commission than we are our own personal agenda, the potential is limitless of what God can & will do through us. But it won’t happen with any depth, longevity or visionary focus if we don’t learn to pray, because it’s when we fall to our knees that we are then able to have a right view of those in greatest need.

2) Prayer gives us a right perspective of God

The prophet Zephaniah describes God in a fantastic way. “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” – Zephaniah 3:17

The ‘mighty’ warrior who ‘delights’ in us… My dad was involved in prison ministry. I recall as a boy of 13 going into a maximum security prison on a family day once or twice with him as he took me along to see the other side of life.

During those visits, I recall the huge prisoners with muscles bulging, tattoos everywhere, shaved heads, chewing on rusty nails – sitting out in the communal area waiting to visit with their kids. And those were the women.

What fascinated me was that no matter how big and scary these prisoners were – their own kids would run up to them and fully embrace them. To me they were scary, but to these kids they were mom & dad.

To everyone else namely the enemy the devil, our father is a big, powerful warrior to be feared, but to me he is my dad and he absolutely delights in me. In fact, Jeremiah states, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” – Jeremiah 33:3

God wants us to call on him so that he can share with us incredible blessings that we might otherwise have missed had we not reached out to him through prayer. And it’s through communion with God in prayer where he begins to change our hearts to reflect his heart of compassion.

3) Prayer gives us a right perspective of circumstances

Nehemiah knew that life’s circumstances change on a daily basis. In fact, things can go from good too bad to worse in a very short time. Even still he knew that God remained in control. At the start of Nehemiah’s story there was no tangible evidence in that moment that God was being faithful and God was keeping his promises.

The Jewish nation is scattered like the wind all over the ancient world. They have lost the land flowing with milk and honey. But Nehemiah’s prayer in verse 5 was saying, “You are faithful. You are good. You are a covenant-keeping God. You have not abandoned us. You are here even in our hurt. You love us. You will keep your promise.”

As disciples of Christ, we know who is really in control. In our humbling of self, we are admitting that we are but mere humans that don’t have the ability to save the world, who do not have the strength to keep going, who do not have the staying power to keep on keeping on. We are saying to God, that while we do not have these abilities, we know that he does. God has the ability to change us and use us for his ultimate glory. Nothing happens without God knowing about it. God can’t help being sovereign over everything – every time… it’s who he is.

4) Prayer gives us a right perspective of self

Nehemiah begins to confess the sins of Israel. “We have not been faithful. We have not kept your commands. We have not lined ourselves up with how you’ve designed the universe to work.” – Nehemiah 1:6-7

Nehemiah recognizes the importance of being honest about who he is. The truth is that the more you have an elevated view of yourself, the more it will be impossible for you to show compassion for others.

If your kids are godly because you’re awesome and not because God is gracious, then you’ll be hard pressed to show compassion for anybody who has a wayward child, because if they would have just done what you did in all your awesomeness, then they could have had a godly kid too.

If you’re financially set and not (in your mind) because God has been gracious to you but because you’ve worked and you’ve earned and you’ve set yourself up nicely and not, instead, feeling indebted to God for his mercy and grace, how impossible will it be for you to show empathy toward someone who is impoverished?

The more you are the author and perfecter of all things, the more all the blessing on your life is because of you and not because of God that has put you, in turn, into his debt, the more it will be impossible to show empathy to others who are struggling. Why? Because you’re so freakin’ awesome!

That attitude will rot out the soul’s ability to be compassionate and merciful. It will breed in us an indifference that is unacceptable before God. It will also rot out the ability to walk in unity, love, and compassion with one another and instead create a judgemental harshness among us that God will have nothing to do with.

And it isn’t until you know who you are and have a compassionate view of others and begin to have an inkling of the amazing awesomeness of God that you or I can think to know what our place is in God’s plan.

5) Prayer gives us a right perspective of our place in God’s plan

The final statement of Nehemiah in verse 11 “I was the cup-bearer…” indicates that he knew that who he was and that where he was at that moment was no accident and in many ways, he was declaring his place in God’s plan. He was the cup-bearer for a reason. Think about that for a moment, he wasn’t a prophet, he wasn’t a priest, he wasn’t a king, he wasn’t anybody particularly special… he was the waiter.

God uses who he wants to use no matter the position in life once we submit to him. He uses common fishermen, tax collectors, kings as well as shepherds, rebels and murderers like Paul and yes, he uses waiters. Regardless of your position in life, whether at church, at work, at school, at home, etc., you need to know that it is no accident! God has placed you where he has for a purpose. He has placed you where you are for his purpose! There are no accidents or coincidences with God! God has never been caught off guard… he has never once said “oops, I didn’t see that one coming.”

If our hearts are right, and we are more committed to the Lord’s commission than we are our own personal agenda, the potential is absolutely limitless. But it won’t happen with any depth, longevity or visionary focus if we don’t learn to pray, because it’s when we fall to our knees that we are then able to have a right view of self, others, our position and most importantly of God.

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10 Images of Hope & Comfort Found In The 23rd Psalm

Often when attending a funeral, we hear comments and words that are meant to bring comfort. Even before someone passes away, we will look to offer the right words to share with the one about to leave us. Too often however we stumble over the right thing to say, making us feel like a fish out of water in an already uncomfortable situation. The question is, just what word does one say (or not)?

In my Pastoral experience over the years, I have found that coming back to the word of God is always the best way to share hope and comfort. More specifically I have found Psalm 23 to be the most comforting as it parallels God’s relationship with us. These inspired words speak to the journey each one of us makes through our life’s experience, and explains how God wants to walk with us through the stages of life as our Shepherd.

Psalm 23 was written by David who was a great leader in the history of the nation of Israel. He was a general in the army and later on in his life became the King of Israel. But prior to any of this David was a shepherd who, as a boy, took care of his father’s flocks. As a result, David knew first-hand about the relationship between the sheep and the Shepherd. In this wonderful Psalm, David shares with us 10 images of hope & comfort that he learned through his experiences with his sheep, but even more importantly with his shepherd.

1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” – Verse 1

The shepherd is the one who takes care of the flock. He knows his flock; he knows the sheep; he understands the needs of the flock – but also of each of the sheep individually. He knows the sheep who have gotten into the brambles and need grooming or who has been injured and need special care to grow strong, or which ones like to run away from the flock and go exploring; which sometimes gets that sheep in trouble because there are wolves out there. The shepherd knows the sheep and he cares for each and every one according to their needs because the Shepherd loves the sheep (you & me).

2 “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” – Verse 2a

Sheep will not lie down if they’re hungry, or if there is a threat of danger, or if they are irritated. Sheep will not rest if it is not at peace. Sheep will not drink from a fast-moving stream. They get spooked and so then regardless of how thirsty they are they will wander up and down the bank bleating and crying, knowing they need water to live but too jittery to take a drink. But the shepherd calms the sheep simply by being there and finds that quiet pool, that calm spot where the sheep can relax and get the refreshment they need. Do the cares of life make you jittery at times? Do you long for a place of calmness and refreshment? Trusting the Shepherd brings peace and calmness to our lives, and so the question needs to be asked, ‘Do you know the Shepherd’?

3 “He leads me beside still waters.” – Verse 2b

Sheep will not drink from a fast-moving stream. So the shepherd goes out of his way to find his sheep a quiet pool. God can help us find calm in our lives, too, so we can drink deeply from streams of living waters.

4 “He restores my soul.” – Verse 3a

This refers to what a shepherd calls a “cast down sheep”. Somehow, he has gotten upside down (onto his back) and can’t get back up. The shepherd comes along and sets him on his feet again. Sometimes this happens to us, too. Sometimes we as people find ourselves in the same place as a cast down sheep. Much like that commercial on TV… “Help I’ve fallen & I can’t get up!”

The problem is that we have all wondered away from the shepherd at times, and we’ve fallen upside down, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray.” – Isaiah 53:6

Perhaps a difficult event in our lives has caused us to fall away from God: That might be a death in our family; loss of a job; illness; overwhelming responsibilities; broken relationships. Events like this can cause us to become angry with God and even to distrust him. Perhaps we have simply chosen to serve ourselves instead of our God. Isaiah continues…”each of us has turned to his own way,” When we realize the need in our souls to be restored to our loving God, our Shepherd hears our cries of alarm, and helps us back onto our feet. He forgives us and restores us to a right relationship when we ask him.

5 “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” – Verse 3b

Verse one and two described the spring; when grass is plentiful and the sheep willingly following the Shepherd. Verse three is a description of mid-summer, when the grass is getting scarce. Sheep, when they are in their pasture, will ruin pasture quickly – eating from the same grassy area until it is so short that it dries up and dies. So the shepherd makes new paths for them so that they can find fresh grass. Some of us need a fresh start (healthy grass). Jesus, our Shepherd, wants to help us find it, but the pathway back to green pastures can be dangerous.

6 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” – Verse 4a

This part talks about the trip to the high-country meadows in springtime. This route is through some tough country with lots of rocks, deep ravines, and cliffs. Places where wolves and wild animals stalk their prey for an easy kill. This shepherd was constantly on the look-out and protected the sheep. This is what God does for us, too. There are many times when life is treacherous and scary. Jesus wants to be our Shepherd through these times, as well.

7 “Your rod and staff, they comfort me.” – Verse 4b

The rod is a weapon to kill a bear, while the staff was a stick with a crook in the end to bring in a sheep for inspection or to pull them by the leg from a cliff. The Shepherd is well prepared to keep us safe. He will not let anything take us from him if we decide to follow him.

8 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” – Verse 5a

Finally the Shepherd and the flock arrive at a fresh mountain meadow where the grass is unspoiled by the harsh summer sun. All around the meadows, there were snakes, wolves and predators waiting to snag stray sheep. In the middle of this tension and danger, the shepherd led the sheep to a banquet of fresh grass – to a place of peace in a scary world.

9 “You annoint my head with oil.” – Verse 5b 

In the summer time, the gnats and flies would get up the noses of the sheep and lay their eggs in there. It would drive the sheep mad. Here, the shepherd anoints their heads with oil (pours it over their noses). This kills the gnats and gets rid of them. What an amazing picture of our father who loves to provide tender, loving care.

10 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” – Verse 6

It’s now the part of the story where they have all come back to the farm for winter, back to the safety of the home pasture. The end of the life cycle (retirement, ageing, death). It’s a picture of an eternal life with our Shepherd who has helped us all the way through every stage of our life. No more perilous trips to the upper meadows; no more fast flowing rivers; no more wandering off; no more rocks and crevices; no more wolves. Rather there is safety in the Great Shepherd’s home and eternal peace in his love

Important Question

Do you know the shepherd? Do you experience his care; his protection; his guidance; his restoration when you wonder off? Here’s the key: It’s as we make Jesus our Shepherd now, in this life, and choose to live with him day to day, that we prepare for our eternal life with the Shepherd “back at the farm”.

Maybe life has become confusing. There may be some things you can’t understand or you wonder why they are happening to you (like the loss of a family member). Or, you are facing a situation that is frightening or has you worried. At a time of the death of a friend or loved one, you ask yourself questions such as: “Is there life after death? What am I really accomplishing in my life? How can I know how I should live now?” Perhaps you’ve been asking some of the big questions of life. Questions like these are often raised in times of loss or at times when we are confronted with death. I want you to know that the shepherd desires to lead and care for all those who would choose to follow him. He wants to comfort us and help us make sense of life, not only in times of loss and confusion but every day we live.

This Psalm is not only a comfort at a time of loss such as at a funeral, but it also shows God in a whole new light. Jesus is one who understands the turmoils of life and death and will help us in them. In the end Jesus is the only one who can give us purpose and hope in a world of hopelessness, sorrow, death and trouble. In the end Jesus is the shepherd and he is the Word that we need to share as we experience the toughest moments of life… and death.