If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible.
Leviticus 5:17
The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are where the laws of the Lord are found for the Israelites. There are many of them and unintentionally breaking one of them is bound to happen. When an Israelite does unintentionally break the law, he is guilty and held responsible.
The sin offering and guilt offering are for unintentional sins the people commit. They do not make these offerings until they become aware of the sin (Leviticus 4:14, 4:23, 4:28)
A lot of the laws found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are specifically for the Israelites. However, what the law shows is God’s character. As Jesus says in Matthew 22:27-30, the two most important commandments are:
- To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
- To love your neighbour as yourself.
Those two laws really sum up all the laws we will be reading.
God hates sin as it goes against God. Sin is doing what God tells you not to do and not doing what God tells you to do.
There are sins we commit that we don’t even know we do. And we are still guilty and responsible for them. It is important to check yourself daily to make sure that your heart is in line with God’s. If there is any sin you realize that you are doing, confess it to the Lord, ask for forgiveness and stop doing it.
The stop doing it part might be really hard as it could be a habit, but by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, you will change.
When Jesus died on the cross, he died for all the sins you’ve committed and will commit. By believing in Jesus, God pardons all our sin. That doesn’t mean we go on living a life of sin (Romans 6). What it also means is that we start living a new life. A life that’s not your own. A life that seeks to live out the desires God has for us so that God may be glorified.
God knows that we’ll stumble on the way and sin because we’re not perfect. But rest assured, that even when we stumble, God will forgive us and pick us back up (1 John 1:9).
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:8-10