I’ve been reading Faith, obedience, and perseverance : aspects of Paul’s Letter to the Romans by Don Garlington. Even though I barely have time to think about it, I still am getting a lot out of it.

Consider the transition to the practical/ethical (I’m oversimplifying) in Romans 12.1, 2:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul goes on to write: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”Garlington points out that Romans 12.19 is a contains a quotation from Deuternomy 32.35, 36:

Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
for the time when their foot shall slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.’
For the Lord will vindicate his people
and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone
and there is none remaining, bond or free.

So far this is nothing new. But, Garlington associates the Deuteronomy passage with Leviticus 19.17, 18 in expounding Paul’s Christian ethic: “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.  You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

So a passage that begins with an exhortation for us to “offer” ourselves as “living sacrifice” (Romans 12.1) on the basis of the finished work of Christ (1-9) has an appeal to the book of Leviticus.

It makes me wonder if Romans 12 is all keyed into Leviticus as a book. It also makes me wonder how we should summarize the book of Levitidus. Why the central love passages here and not elsewhere? Why the ethical directives that are repeated or would fit in other sections of the Pentateuch. Is this an interpretive clue. Are the community instructions in the midst of sacrifice, priesthood, cleanliness, feast, etc an indication of what the sacrificial system represented. Maybe Leviticus is *about* how Israel is to offer herself to God as a fragrant aroma…..

Whatever the case,Leviticus 18.17, 18 is aimed at people who have suffered real wrong at the hands of God’s own people. The Good News of Justification (cf. “vindication” in Deut 32.36) means we cheerfully suffer wrong at the hands of our brothers and sisters. If God will vindicate us, how can we hold a grudge?