What is often missed in discussions of biblical law is that although the judicial code played a vital role in the civil polity of the Israelite nation, the law was given for reasons deeper and more relevant to redemptive history than the mere establishment of a theocratic state. The law in its moral, judicial, and ceremonial aspects doesn’t merely provide a general-equity blueprint for Christian cultural engagement; it also exists to point to a new and better covenant. Therefore, when we consult the Old Testament, we must seek not only to apply it to our social order but to see all the way through to Christ in the text.

Increasingly, biblically-aware Christians are consulting their Old Testaments to help them navigate modern issues of social justice and biblical law.

Unsurprisingly, as conversations over racial reconciliation escalate within the church, the notion of reparations has come to the fore, and many are inquiring as to what extent it may overlap with the biblical concept of restitution.

What is often missed in discussions of biblical law is that although the judicial code played a vital role in the civil polity of the Israelite nation, the law was given for reasons deeper and more relevant to redemptive history than the mere establishment of a theocratic state. The law in its moral, judicial, and ceremonial aspects doesn’t merely provide a general-equity blueprint for Christian cultural engagement; it also exists to point to a new and better covenant. Therefore, when we consult the Old Testament, we must seek not only to apply it to our social order but to see all the way through to Christ in the text.

Multiple portions of the Mosaic code deal with restitution, but Leviticus approaches the concept with special focus on the priesthood—leading us, in fact, to Christ. Leviticus 6:1-7 offers five truths to teach us about biblical restitution, culminating in a dramatic preview of the gospel.

1. Offenses requiring restitution are not only horizontal but vertical.

The types of offenses which demand restitution, according to the Levitical code, include one “deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or… oppress[ing] his neighbor… [finding] something lost… [lying] about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby” (vv. 2-3). But we must note how the text characterizes all these transgressions of law: as a “sin” and “breach of faith against Yahweh” (v. 2).

This text directly confronts those who would balk at imposing morality through legislation or applying a distinctly Christian ethic to economics, which is often supposed to be a sphere of moral neutrality. All crimes involving oppression, theft, and fraud are direct breaches of faith against God. Not all sins are crimes, nor are all crimes sins per se, but here the overlap is significant. In economics, we are not dealing with a domain of human culture hermetically sealed off from the commands of Scripture. And though the Levitical code applied only directly to the Israelite commonwealth, its general moral equity remains binding on all who possess the imago Dei.

So, in the cases of economic crimes, what does God require? Let’s continue.

2. Offenses requiring restitution are direct and measurable.

Note the complete lack of ambiguity as to what behaviors are legally proscribed. The crimes mentioned in the text involve tangible theft or property hidden or held back by fraud (vv. 2-4). Further, these crimes must be objectively measurable because one fifth of the value of the lost goods or wealth was to be calculated and added to the repayment (v. 5).

This stands in marked contrast to the prevailing notion that entire classes or ethnicities owe a nearly incalculable debt to other underprivileged classes. While we ought not to ignore the cumulative effects of injustice, the biblical principles which govern restitution to the oppressed are limited to the realm of direct, measurable offenses. With regard to reparations for ancestral sin Scripture is conspicuously silent, although the biblical authors had ample opportunity to address such topics in the history of God’s covenant nation.

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