God gave to his people the holiness code (Lev. 17-27) to teach them what it means to be holy as he is holy. The chapter addressed is this sermon teaches that holiness consists in keeping our lawful vows. After defining vows, we summarize God's regulations concerning vows and we also look at what these regulations teach us about God and ourselves. We finish by being pointed to Christ, especially in light of how often we break our vows.

Paul stated that we are not under law, but under grace because we have died to the law. This sermon answers three questions, "What does it mean to die to the law, how do we die to the law, and for what reasons have we died to the law?" Being still obligated to keep the moral law, we have died to the old covenant form of this law and we have died to its arousing of sin power. We have died because the Spirit has powerfully applied to us the death and resurrection of Christ. We have died so that we will be betrothed to Christ, bear fruit for God, and that we will serve in the newness of the Spirit.

The Lord in this passage puts before the Israelites promised blessings for obedience and promised curses for disobedience. When the people received the promised curses, the Lord also gives them a hope of redemption through promises he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To understand and apply a passage like this, we need to read it through the lenses of covenant, the law being a guardian, the fact that the law is filled with elementary principles, and that the purpose of the law to imprison everything under sin. Once we understand these things, we truly understand how Christ has fulfilled our needs for salvation.