Are you agreeing with these commandments of God?
- Deuteronomy 22:22: “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel”;
- Leviticus 20:10: “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife— with the wife of his neighbour—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.”
Oz
People seem to confuse the obligation to keep the commandments with the penalty for transgressing the commandments. The penalty is what Paul refers to as the 'curse'. Removing the penalty doesn't remove the obligation. The sacrificial system is part of that curse, but what people don't know is that sacrifice only covers unintentional sin. Intentional sin is covered by repentance and restitution. However, you can't make restitution for adultery so the penalty is death. Again, one needs to see that the penalty is what is removed by Christ's work.
The other thing that I think is so important to note with these commandments is that they spotlight how serious the violations of these sins really are to God, and how serious they should be to us as well. People tend to think the death penalty is a bit extreme for just committing adultery, but adultery is a kind of murder in itself. The death penalty is there to show us that to sin is to die. Sin is so corrosive that sinning is essentially no different than pouring acid on yourself; sin is death itself.
The other thing that jumps out here is that these laws were given to a cult that had God Himself leading them. There really is no room to fool around when you've got the creator of the universe living with you. They're going into this knowing what the penalty is for each and every transgression so they shouldn't be surprised if they get caught in a community with an omniscient deity calling the shots. Not only does this show the power of God, but it simultaneously shows the power of sin as well.
When we intentionally sin, we aren't aware of the overwhelming presence of God in our lives anymore. We don't see the gravity of sin working In our lives, nor what it's doing. We might feel bad, we might even see that what we're doing is wrong, but that's just sentimental nonsense if we do it anyways. When that happens we're just violating a law that we don't really understand in the first place. When we become aware of the true gravity of sin, this is when we run from it. When that happens we are no longer under the law, but under grace for we can actually see sin for what it is, instead of just some ordinance or law that we really don't understand.
