Intentional sin

For as long as I can remember, I've heard that there's no sacrifice in the Mosaic Law for intentional sins. I'm sure that's not a true statement, because Leviticus 6:1–7 outlines the trespass offering.  The trespass offering is prescribed for when someone defrauds his neighbor or swears falsely. These are undoubtedly intentional sins. 

Notice the difference in the descriptions of the the sin offering outlined in Leviticus 5:1ff and the trespass offering in Leviticus 6:1–7. The sin offering is for sins committed in ignorance, while the trespass offering is for sins committed knowingly. So yes, the Mosaic Law does have an offering for intentional sins.

Nevertheless, the Law does tell us that there is no offering for sins committed "with a high hand" (Numbers 15:30–31). So the question is, how do we reconcile Numbers 15:30–31 with Leviticus 6:1–7? If we take any intentional sin to be sins committed "with a high hand," then we have a real problem. But it seems to me we are to understand sin committed "with a high hand" to refer to a specific type or category of intentional sin. In other words, not every intentional sin is committed "with a high hand."

When Paul addressed the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:14ff), he told them that there is forgiveness for those who believe in the Lord Jesus "from all things from which ye could not be justified in the law of Moses" (Acts 13:39). That's an astonishing claim, and it would have been even more astonishing to the people listening to him than it is to us today. But it's nothing more than a succinct statement of the doctrine of justification by faith (faith alone in Christ alone) taught in Romans 4:1–8. There we read that the one who believes is a "man to whom [the] Lord shall not at all reckon sin" (Romans 4:8, quoting Psalm 32:2). 

And we should probably pause here (as we should pause so many times in Romans) and ask, do we really believe that? Do we really believe what Romans 4:1–8 teaches? I'm sure I often fall short of believing those words, even though I'm convinced they are God's own words. Our actions reveal what we truly believe, and my actions betray my own heart every time I look for some sort of penance, some sort of payment for sins that I commit. Every time I act like it's incumbent on me to make atonement for my own sins, it reveals that I really don't believe that God has already justified me freely from all sins.

Here's a question: have you ever confessed the same sin to God more than once? I know I have, and it revealed my own heart: it revealed I didn't really believe He forgave me the first time. 

But if we go back to Romans 8:1–8 or Acts 13:38–39 or Colossians 2:13–15, then we have to say that believing God means believing in absolute, final, unlimited forgiveness. It means that thinking we've sinned too much this time is unbelief. It's calling God a liar. It's thinking that our standards are higher than His. It's flattering ourselves that what Christ could not accomplish in dying for us, we can accomplish with some tears, some remorse, and maybe some ritual.

In a word, it's sin.

So let's take some time to bask in the completeness of the forgiveness that is ours at Christ's expense. There is no sin that God hasn't already forgiven those who believe on His name. Yes, even sins committed "with a high hand." 

Getting back to the question of the Mosaic Law, it seems to me the Law reveals two terrible things about us in those passages. First, if we're honest, we have to admit we've all sinned "with a high hand." None of us can say that every sin we've committed has been committed inadvertently. And if we're really honest, not one of us can say we haven't sinned deliberately, defiantly, and daringly. We've all sinned with a high hand.

But to me the far more troubling lesson is the lesson of the sin offering: we've all sinned inadvertently, perhaps even unknowingly. The law of the sin offering teaches us that we can be guilty without even knowing it, because we are sinners by nature. We can incur guilt without any effort at all, even without realizing we've done it. It's not merely that we sin, but that we are sinners. That's the real lesson of the sin offering. 

And the more deeply we realize it, the more deeply we learn to appreciate Romans 4:1–8.