Peairtach
Puritan Board Doctor
In one of the classical passages on "do this and you shall live" from the OT - Leviticus 18:5 - notice that here the Lord is really saying that "If a man does these things he will experience physical life in the Land", which of course, for the Old Covenant people was also a type of spiritual and eternal life.
In Romans 10:5 the Apostle Paul picks up on this passage and goes straight to the antitype, as he had every right to do, and under the inspiration of the Spirit.
The reason that I think that Leviticus 18:5 may be speaking of natural/physical life primarily, is because of the context, which may not be "coincidental"
It introduces a passage that deals with incestuous relations and other sexual relations, which, sinful practices, can:-
(a) Spread infectious diseases e.g. What kind of diseases could be spread by relations with animals? Are animals likely to take kindly to such behaviour or turn on the offender and rend him?
(b) Spread and promote genetic diseases, weaknesses and abnormalities.
(c) Cause major problems in families and family structure leading not productive of healthy and happy lives and leading sometimes to early death.
(d) On top of that, under Moses, if you were caught doing any of these things by two or three witnesses and they were willing to be involved in your execution, you would be deprived of a sacrifice for these sin-crimes and excommunicated by execution, probably by stoning, by the witnesses and the congregation, under the authority of the elders, as typological of eternal death. This was also true for the grossest violations of 9 of the 10C, apart from covetousness (Commandment number 10).
I don't know if other ways in which these laws are particularly promotional of life in this world can be seen. Not all sinful practices, certainly, are as directly detrimental to physical life and the healthy and happy reproduction of human life - and the well-being of that life as it is nurtured in the family - as these practices in Leviticus 18 are.
The fact that this isn't pointing to a Republication of the Covenant of Works in the Mosaic Covenant (or Sinaitic Covenant as RoCoW advocates like to call it) is also shown in that this is a very tributary passage in the Mosaic Covenant and not at the headwaters of the Mosaic Covenant.
In Romans 10:5 the Apostle Paul picks up on this passage and goes straight to the antitype, as he had every right to do, and under the inspiration of the Spirit.
The reason that I think that Leviticus 18:5 may be speaking of natural/physical life primarily, is because of the context, which may not be "coincidental"
It introduces a passage that deals with incestuous relations and other sexual relations, which, sinful practices, can:-
(a) Spread infectious diseases e.g. What kind of diseases could be spread by relations with animals? Are animals likely to take kindly to such behaviour or turn on the offender and rend him?
(b) Spread and promote genetic diseases, weaknesses and abnormalities.
(c) Cause major problems in families and family structure leading not productive of healthy and happy lives and leading sometimes to early death.
(d) On top of that, under Moses, if you were caught doing any of these things by two or three witnesses and they were willing to be involved in your execution, you would be deprived of a sacrifice for these sin-crimes and excommunicated by execution, probably by stoning, by the witnesses and the congregation, under the authority of the elders, as typological of eternal death. This was also true for the grossest violations of 9 of the 10C, apart from covetousness (Commandment number 10).
I don't know if other ways in which these laws are particularly promotional of life in this world can be seen. Not all sinful practices, certainly, are as directly detrimental to physical life and the healthy and happy reproduction of human life - and the well-being of that life as it is nurtured in the family - as these practices in Leviticus 18 are.
The fact that this isn't pointing to a Republication of the Covenant of Works in the Mosaic Covenant (or Sinaitic Covenant as RoCoW advocates like to call it) is also shown in that this is a very tributary passage in the Mosaic Covenant and not at the headwaters of the Mosaic Covenant.
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