Leviticus 5 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence

         It is not often that I have run into a professing Christian who believes that he or she no longer sins, although I have come across a few of them during my course of ministry.  It is not that they think that they have never done anything wrong, but because they now have the Spirit of God within them and have the desire to live in righteousness and holiness, they are somehow above sin.  Even though they may break some obscure law in Scripture, because they did not intend to do so, it was not really sin for them at all.  But in our passage this morning, Moses seems to differ with that line of thinking.  

         Over and over again, the Lord, speaking through Moses, points out the sins committed by an individual even though at the time of the offense the knowledge of those sins were hidden from that person.  Even in those situations, the Lord says that the individual is guilty in the sight of God for committing such an offense, even though he didn’t intend to nor was even aware of the law condemning such an action.  According to v.15 these unintentional sins are still considered breaches of faith, even though they are seen as simple mistakes in our eyes.  And because it is a breach of faith, a guilt offering was needed in order to restore the individual into the fellowship of the Lord through the forgiveness of sins.   

         Since Jesus paid for all our sins in full on the cross, even the sins that we didn’t know that we had committed, we are no longer required to offer a guilt offering in the manner prescribed in this passage.  Nevertheless, we are still called to confess any sins previously unbeknownst to us when the Lord convicts us of them and to make restitution to anyone we have wronged even in ignorance.  Additionally, we are called to confess our sins daily, bemoaning even the sinful nature out of which all these particular sins flow.

         It may be hard for us to grasp, but even the fact that we don’t know the Scriptures like we ought is itself a sin of omission before God.  So just because we didn’t know something is sin, does not mean that we are in the clear.  Rather, it proves that we do not love the law like we should and that we do not have much of the mind of Christ.  Anyone who is growing in righteousness and humility will see this truth much more plainly and will daily plead “guilty” before the Lord, confessing his sins freely and looking to the blood of Christ to cover each and every one of them.