Leviticus 4-6:7- "Forgiven"

Leviticus 4-6:7

Romans 5:12-21

Forgiven

Here is a question that I am sure we have asked ourselves now and again…..may be….

Is all sin, the same in God’s eyes?

Is all sin, the same in God’s eyes?

And here is the answer…….are you ready for it?

Yes and No.

Yes and No.

In a couple of really important ways, all sin is the same in God’s eyes, but in lots of other ways, all sin is definitely not the same in God’s eyes.

James 2:10 says this:

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

And so in this sense all sin is the same in God’s eyes because any sin that we may commit, whether that is jealousy in our hearts, lying with our lips, or murder, means that we have failed God.

We fall short of God’s glory, all sin means we miss the mark with God.

And so whether we worship false gods or whether we become envious of what our friends have- both are sin, and both mean we miss the mark.

We cannot slightly miss, or half miss, but we miss the mark altogether, no matter what that sin may be.

And so all sin is the same in that sense, because all sin brings a guilty judgement upon us.

But more importantly, all sin is the same in God’s eyes, because all sins can be forgiven through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, whether that is a sin of murder, theft, or gossip, all confessed sins can be forgiven through the cross of Jesus.

There is not one sin, that Jesus didn’t pay for.

And so in one sense- YES- all sins are the same in God’s eyes, but in another sense not all the sins are the same in God’s eyes.

As we see today from the book of Leviticus some sins are more devasting than others, depending on:

1.        Who is committing the sin

2.        What the motivation behind the sin is

In these couple of chapters of Leviticus, it mentions four different types of people who committed sins

1.        The anointed priest

2.        The whole congregation of Israel

3.        The leaders (such as the elders)

4.        The common people

If the anointed priest committed a sin, he would have to sacrifice the most valuable animal a bull, to atone for his sin. If the whole congregation of Israel sinned, they would also have to sacrifice a bull, and yet if a leader- say one of the elders sinned, they would have to sacrifice a less valuable animal- a goat. And if one of the common people- the average Israelite, sinned they would have to sacrifice the least valuable animal- a female goat.

You see, when the anointed priest sinned, there was a bigger price to pay, because the anointed priest represented the whole congregation, hence why the same sacrifice had to be made if the whole congregation sinned.

Now today, we don’t have priests whom we go to make atonement for sins, since there is now only one mediator between God and man, - Jesus Christ. However, God has given us elders in our churches, he has given us leaders and we know that when a leader falls into sin, his sin not only affects him and his family, but it effects the whole church. The weight of the sins of church leaders are much heavier- they are much more costly.

This is why the book of James heeds this warning, for those who are desiring leadership within the church.

James 3:1 says:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Interestingly when the whole congregation had committed a sin, it was the elders of the congregation who laid their hands on the bull sacrifice as their representatives. The elders were both responsible and representative of the congregation.

Friends, in our churches today, we have elders who are both your representatives and are responsible for your souls.

Since the anointed priest represented the community as a whole, his sins brought guilt upon the whole community. The anointed priest was the representative of all the congregation.

In Romans 5:12 it tells us that the representative of humanity was the man- Adam. And because Adam sinned and brought death into the world, the whole of humanity stands condemned under the sin of one man Adam. We are guilty of sin through our representative Adam.

This means, that through our human representative Adam- we are born sinners.

No-one is born innocent, no one is born neutral, but because of our representative – Adam-we are all born sinners.

“But”, and again, praise God for the “But’s” in the bible…..

Because of another man- Jesus Christ, and because of his one righteous act, his sacrifice of himself on the cross, we are now Justified…..just as if we had never sinned, since Jesus Christ is our representative before his father. Jesus is both our earthly and heavenly representative.

And so yes, in Adam, as our representative we stand condemned, but now through our heavenly representative- Jesus, we stand forgiven, we stand justified.

And the man- Jesus is so, so much better than Adam, because Adam sinned once and sin and death spread everywhere, and yet the one man Jesus was able to take all the sins of the world, all my sins, all your sins, and pay for them all, once and for all at the cross.

Now let me get back to the question I asked at the start, “are all sins the same in God’s eyes”?

And we have shown that some sins carry more weight than others, depending on who is committing them, but also some sins carry more weight than others, depending on the motivation for the sin.

In Leviticus God differentiates between unintentional sins, and intentional sins or “high handed” sins as they are labelled in Numbers 15:30.

The high handed sins, which are not mentioned in these chapters, are the sins which are done deliberately,these are the sins that you know bring offence to God, and yet you keep doing them because you want to offend God, you want to metaphorically stick the middle finger up to God.

Now, in the days of Moses, there was no sacrifice available for high handed sins, the sinner would either be kicked out of the camp or even stoned to death. The person who deliberately worshipped other gods, was kicked out of the Israelite camp, because by definition they were not an Israelite. A true Israelite was one who had faith in one God Yahweh.

Today, it would be like a person being part of a church family, but also deliberately worshipping satan. By definition they are not part of God’s family.

And so this is one type of sin: an intentional stubbornness. A person knows that what they are doing isn’t pleasing God and yet they don’t care. There is no feeling of guilt, there is no remorse, in fact this is the person who just loves to keep sinning.

The other type of sin which is mentioned here is unintentional sin.

Now what is unintentional sin?

Well it is not that deliberate, planned sin, but it is also not just a “woopsie”, “I have made a mistake”, it is something in between those two.

I think a theologian called Kevin De Young, describes it best when he says an unintentional sin is this, it is a sin where you fail in the moment to do what is right.

And so, it is not a sin, that you have planned to do, but it is a sin you have wilfully committed in that moment.

For example, remember when Peter lied and he denied, he knew Jesus.

From what we know from scripture, we can assume that up until the point, Peter wasn’t planning on rejecting his association with Jesus, but at that moment, when the pressure was on and Jesus was being flogged in front of him, Peter lied, he sinned, it wasn’t just a woopsie, but it was a sin.

He then did the same on two more occasions.

Or perhaps as it mentions in Chapter 5, verse 1, a unintentional sin, is some right you willingly fail to do in the moment.

For example, you may witness an injustice being done, but in that moment you fail to testify and help bring justice, because in that moment you become scared or you just become apathetic, or you just forget to testify.

You may not have started the day deliberately turning a blind eye to injustice, but in the moment, you willingly sinned and turned a blind eye to injustice.

Or perhaps one of the easiest unintentional sins we all fall into, is when in our anger we say things that we just don’t mean. In our anger we may swear we will do things that we shouldn’t. Things that we didn’t plan of even intend to do, but in our anger we said them anyway- we wilfully at that moment said things which were not good.

Now, with all of these sins against one another, yes the person whom we sinned against is affected, but also God is affected.

Remember when David sinned against Uriah by killing him, and stealing his wife?

During his confession in Psalm 51 he uttered that against God and God alone had he sinned.

David knew that any sin, against anyone, was first and foremost a sin against God – and why?- because it is God who decides what it right and wrong, it is God who decides what it sin and what is not.

This was why God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He wanted them to trust Him to define what was right and wrong. But as soon as Adam and Eve disobeyed, they started to define right and wrong themselves, and we have been doing it ever since, and hence this is why our world is in such a mess.

The world tries to define a moral compass within itself, instead of using the only true moral compass which God has already given us in his word.

Now before I wrap this up, I just want to quickly think about what it may have looked like for the whole congregation to unintentionally sin. I mean how could the whole assembly unintentionally sin? How could everyone in this church sin unintentionally?

Well, the example we have in the scriptures is found in Joshua 9.

Joshau had been commanded by God to go and wipe out all those who lived in the promised land of Cannan.

Now the Gibeonites, who lived in the land of Cannan had seen what Joshua had been doing to all the tribes and they were scared that they were next and so they pretended that they didn’t live in Canaan but lived in a land far away. And so some of the Gibeonites met with the Israelites and deviously made a pact, that the Israelites wouldn’t destroy them.

As soon as Joshua and the Israelites realised they didn’t come from a faraway land but where tribes of Canaan, they were fuming. They couldn’t wipe them out as God commanded because they had sworn an oath before God that they wouldn’t- they were tricked into going against God’s command.

Friends, let this be a lesson for our church and for us as individuals.

We live in an age where there is a different cause that organisations want you to stand for each and every day. We live in an age of fast paced technology, where people, organisations want us to sign and make pacts.

Let us be careful what we put our names too- let us not swear oaths in rash manners- let us sit and wait, let us research and pray about what we put our names to.

Now, let me finish where I started……

Is all sin the same in God’s eyes?

Yes and no…..

Most importantly all sin is the same in God’s eyes in this sense…..whatever sin you have committed, whatever sins you may struggle with, HE is eager to forgive your sins. He is eager to forgive your sins because He is eager to mend his relationship with you.

Throughout these couple for chapters, this same phrase is repeated on many occasions

Look at chapter 4 verse 26 with me:

So the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin, and he shall be forgiven

No matter if you were a priest, a leader a common person, God made a way for your sins to be atoned for and forgiveness to be given.

No matter if you could only afford a bit of flour or a whole bull, God made a way for your sins to be atoned for and forgiven.

No matter if you failed to do good, or you willingly sinned in that moment, God made a way for your sins to be atoned for and forgiven.

Friends, in the person of Jesus, God made a way for your sins to be forgiven and atoned for. He made a way for you to be at one with God. It is a much better way than the old sacrificial system, it is a way that was provided by the blood of God himself, the blood of Jesus.

Friends, the blood of Jesus even provides a way for those of you who are deliberately “sticking your finger up at God” – metaphorically, to be forgiven and restored to relationship.

While you still have breath, it is never too late,

to confess your sin to our high priest- Jesus,

receive his forgiveness though his sacrifice- Jesus- the lamb of God,

and be atoned for your sins, be at one with God.

Let us pray.