What Leviticus 7:20-21 really means: Holy to Approach God

Sacred Meals and Ritual Purity

These verses come from the heart of Israel’s holiness code, given at Mount Sinai after the Exodus, when God was forming a people to live in His presence.

The peace offering was a special sacrifice of fellowship, where part of the animal was burned for God, part given to the priests, and part eaten by the worshipper in a sacred meal with God. But this meal wasn’t casual - it required ritual purity, because touching anything unclean, like a dead body, a forbidden animal, or a 'detestable creature' such as a lizard or pig, made a person unfit to take part. God was teaching His people that closeness with Him required separation from impurity, not because He feared dirt, but because holiness reflects His very nature.

So if someone touched anything unclean - whether from human impurity, an unclean beast, or any detestable creature - and then ate from the peace offering, they were to be 'cut off from his people,' meaning removed from the covenant community, showing how seriously God takes reverence in worship. This wasn’t about hygiene alone, but about living in a way that honors a holy God who dwells among His people.

Cut Off: The Seriousness of Holiness

At the heart of this command is the Hebrew word *karet* - meaning 'cut off' - a divine punishment indicating removal from both the community and God’s covenant blessings.

Karet wasn’t carried out by human courts but was understood as God’s direct intervention, a serious consequence for treating holy things carelessly. This law protected the sacred space between God and His people, where His presence dwelled among them. The purity system - found in Leviticus 5:2-3 and chapters 11 - 15 - taught Israel that moral and spiritual holiness mattered in daily life, not merely ritual rules. Touching something unclean made a person unfit for worship, not because they were morally guilty, but because God’s presence required a state of ceremonial readiness.

Unlike other ancient nations, where priests alone handled sacred meals, Israelites themselves ate peace offerings in God’s presence - making personal purity essential. This wasn’t about social status or magic, but about relationship: God invited His people to dine with Him, but on His terms. The holiness code, including Leviticus 11 - 15, created a daily rhythm of awareness - every touch, action, or offering reminded them they lived before a holy God.

The main heart lesson? Reverence matters. God is not casual about holiness because closeness to Him changes how we live. This points forward to the New Testament reality where Jesus cleanses our hearts, yet still calls us to live in purity before Him.

Holiness Then and Now: From Ritual to Heart Purity

This ancient call to holiness pointed beyond external rules to the deeper inward purity God desired.

Jesus fulfilled this law by living a perfectly holy life and offering himself as the final sacrifice, so we could be made clean inside and out. As Hebrews 10:10 says, 'And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.'

Now, under the new covenant, we’re called to pursue holiness not through ritual rules, but by walking in the Spirit and keeping our hearts ready to meet God.

From Ritual Purity to Heart Cleansing: The New Testament Shift

The Old Testament laws about ritual purity find their fulfillment and transformation in the New Testament through Jesus’ radical redefinition of cleanliness and access to God.

Jesus made it clear that true defilement doesn’t come from external things like unclean animals or ritual impurity, but from the heart - what comes out of a person: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, and deceit. In Mark 7:15-23, he said, 'There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him... For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.' This shifted the focus from external rituals to internal purity.

Later, in Acts 10, God gave Peter a vision of unclean animals and told him to kill and eat, saying, 'What God has made clean, do not call common.' It was about people, not merely food. God was preparing Peter to welcome Gentiles into the faith, showing that no person is inherently unclean or excluded from God’s presence. At the same time, Hebrews 9:13-14 contrasts the old sacrifices with Christ’s ultimate sacrifice: 'For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.' Christ’s sacrifice cleanses the heart, not merely the outside.

So the timeless heart principle is this: God has always cared more about moral and spiritual purity than ritual observance, and now through Jesus, we’re invited to live from the inside out. A modern example is a person who attends church and follows routines but harbors bitterness or dishonesty; God calls for genuine heart alignment, not merely outward performance. The takeaway? True worship begins with a cleansed heart, not a clean record. This leads naturally into how the early church lived out this new reality of inclusive, Spirit-led holiness.

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