Unintional Sins

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Le 4:27 'If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty,

 28 'or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed.

 29 'And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering.

 30 'Then the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar.

 31 'He shall remove all its fat, as fat is removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the LORD. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.

 

Wow! What a rigamarole to go through to have unintentional sins washed away. Aren’t you glad we live in the New Testament age where we have an advocate in the Lord Jesus Christ, who took on the task of  removing all our sins, intentional or unintentional once and for all on the cross!

 

 We have the sure promises as found in  1Jo 1:7-9, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (intentional or unintentional)  8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all just to unrighteousness.

 

In the matter of unintentional sins, some of the last  words of Jesus ring in my ear, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

 

It seems to me that we have an alarmingly growing number of “know nots” in the land as we pastors have soft-pedaled and generalized sin, lest we offend anyone in the audience.

 

In Peter’s Holy Spirit powered sermon on that first Pentecost, he removed any doubt about the unintentional sin committed by those who crucified our Lord. He spelled it out plainly and thereby opened the door to receive the forgiveness of God offered through faith!

Ac 2:36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

 

 And the answer was repent. Think differently about what you have done! You, like David have “sinned against the Lord,”  intentionally or unintentionally, now go, and make like the woman caught in adultery, forgiven and with a mindset to go and sin no more.

 

 

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word