We Are No Longer Guilty - Leviticus 4-6

Leviticus 5:14-16 (ESV)

Laws for Guilt Offerings

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the LORD, he shall bring to the LORD as his compensation, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering. He shall also make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing and shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.

When we do something wrong, even when we didn’t mean to, there is still consequences for our actions. In the human courts of law there is a distinction, even in the case of murder, between intent and accident. If you intended to murder someone your sentence is much more severe than if you were convicted of involuntary manslaughter.    This aspect of our human law might find its basis in God’s character, as stated in the above passage.  Even God differentiates between knowing sin and unknowing sin.  It is possible in life to sin without fully realizing you did something wrong.  That is the point of the above passage.  If anyone commits an unintentional sin, however, there is still sacrifice.   There is still payment.  In the above case we are not given the specific sin the guilty party has done. It is something against the Lord, or the Lord’s representative (the Priest), or the Lord’s system (the Tabernacle).   In this case the guilty sinner was to give a sacrifice of something they owned, plus 20% in restitution.  Sin costs.  The point of offerings was to give from the heart something you held in your heart.   In the above verses we read about the guilty party giving a ram, without blemish.   In those days the people’s flocks and herds were their riches.   To give a ram of this distinction was to offer something from your heart.   It didn’t matter if you meant to sin or not, it still cost something from your heart.  The parishioner was to give to God in payment, something that costs them and showed their love for Him vs the thing given.   The same is true on our day today.  But, rather than brining a ram to church, we bring ourselves to church.  We give of ourselves to Christ as His children.  We were purchased by Him by Christ’s blood.  The system is still the same.  But for us, Jesus was the ram.   We now come before Him based upon the work of the Ram, Jesus Christ.   He paid our debt and we come in worship to say thanks and we have our guilt removed by that payment.   The system stays the same but the parts change.   God demands payment for all sin, no matter the intent.  Jesus paid it all.   We are guilt free.