The “Do-over”
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying ‘If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, and commits any of them, . . .” Leviticus 4:1-2 NASB
Unintentionally – The book of Leviticus provides atonement for unintentional sins. It is not necessary to take these unintentional errors to the Cross. Leviticus tells us that God provides specific rituals for dealing with sins that we were unaware of when we did them but we now realize that they were offenses to Him. Of course, without an altar, a Temple and a Levitical priesthood, taking these actions to the Cross is probably a good idea, but that wasn’t the original requirement. Therefore, we should notice that even God distinguishes sins committed accidentally from sins committed deliberately. And that’s the problem, isn’t it? You and I are saddled with deliberate sins. These are the ones that kill us. And there is no sacrifice in Leviticus to deal with these.
What can we do? The usual answer is to run to Jesus. Yeshua died on the Cross to substitute His life for ours, thereby removing the punishment we deserved, meeting the requirement of the law and rescuing us. But perhaps there is more to it. Consider Jacob Neusner’s insight:
“The willful sin can be atoned for only if repentance has taken place, that is to say, genuine regret, a turning away from the sin, after the fact therefore transforming the sin from one that is deliberate to one that is, if not unintentional beforehand, then at least unintentional afterward.”[1]
How can a sin be “unintentional afterward”? That’s not how we usually think about intentionality and time. We think in straight lines. Intention comes before action, therefore it is impossible to change the intention after the action. But maybe we are just too Greek (the Greeks thought of time like a river flowing in only one direction). We know enough about the Hebraic view of time (there is no word for “time” in Hebrew) to realize that its concepts are not quite as uniform as the Greek straightjacket. ‘Aharit, for example, describes the future but looks toward the past. There are other Hebrew oddities. One is the concept that patterns repeat themselves in the course of history. What happened before will happen again. In this sense, time is more like a wheel moving down the road. It is going somewhere, but it moves through revolutions. It’s not like a river (one Greek philosophy said, “You never step into the same river twice,” because it constantly changes with the flow). What if repentance is the process by which I get a “do-over” with God? What if repentance is acknowledging that if I had the chance, I would not do what I did? And what if God accepts my acknowledgement as atonement and then gives me the opportunity to prove it? What if the second chance is really a way of erasing the first failure, of changing the intentional into unintentional by hindsight? If this is the nature of repentance, then the condition that repentance be followed by a change in behavior is already contained within the very concept. There is no “do-over” unless it is done differently.
What does this mean for the idea of Yeshua’s atoning death on the Cross? Does it mean that His death transforms our intentional sins into backward unintentional sins? Does it mean that because of His sacrifice more than the requirements of the Law were met? Could it mean that His death gives us a retake on mistakes? Is the temporal field so fixed that God cannot redress our past sins according to our present condition?
If you had to do it over again, would you still have acted disobediently? I guess that’s the real question, isn’t it?
Topical Index: unintentional, sin, time, Leviticus 4:1-2
Skip, this is a great way to think of time. I think it is also the way that G-d challenges our faith through testing. In the way He moves our faith forward by saying our passions (animal soul) got the better of us once, will we choose righteousness the next time? It certainly adds a new dynamic to James words “faith without works is dead”, if our faith in Yeshua is not moving us further from our passions to righteousness then what kind of faith do we have? Maybe if we thought of our failures like a track race in that when G-d fires the pistol, do we move off of the block or just remain static?
Thankyou, Skip. Beautifully stated. Hebrews chapter 10 comes to mind…
“If you had to do it over again, would you still have acted disobediently? I guess that’s the real question, isn’t it?”
“What happened before will happen again.”
I have been dealing with issues regarding my daughter and she has been making bad decisions
Don’t know that I would categorize her acts as sins, but they certainly are not on the right path
It tears me apart to not see be the best she can be, but then I never was in High School or after
Makes me think of the Hawthornian theme of the sins of the fathers; she has inherited my genes
If I had my life’s experience next time around at the age of 15, I might be a very good boy, or not
Pray for God to meet her at each point of choice and help her choose the best. Have hope in God. My constant prayer for my children and grands is “Please lead (name) into paths of righteousness for Thy Name’s sake.”
Part of today’s teaching comes near to explaining the “how” of Joel 2: 25
I’ve been waiting for that subject of “time” to be woven in and out of your lessons. I know from personal experience its no obstacle to God if time has “passed”.
Thank you so much Skip for this. I love how my intentional sins become unintentional in YHVHs mind through repentence.
Ya has impressed on me this festival season that understanding the sacraficial system is really important in understanding Yeshua’s sacrafices for us on the cross. My soul has been exploding with NT application as He’s opening my understanding.
My Stone’s Chumash has been very helpful in this endevour. If you can direct me to some other resourses (not commentaries so much) I would appreciate it.
The MOST IMPORTANT thing I’ve known all along but recently am coming to understand differently is the reason for the exsistance of the Tabernacle and Temple in the first place was not to atone for sin but to have a place to draw near to YHVH and experience His presence in fellowship and worship HIm. It is not a safe proposition. The sin sacrafice made it safe.
I put the following in a different blog but I must repeat it hear. For those who read this before please bare with.
“I think we don’t understand the reason for the sacrafices. As best as I can figure they were a means by which we could drawn near to YHVH safely. It’s so hard for us to keep the pagan idea of appeasement out of our heads. There is no sacrafice for intentional sin. Yeshus’s sacrafice covers unintentional sin so that we can come boldly to the throne without fear. The temple sacrafice served the same purpose.
There wasn’t a 100 mile long line of people waiting to bring a sacrafice to the temple for every intentional sin they commited. The sin sacrafies were offered with a good conscience, by faith, for any sin commited unintentionally, so that the worshipper had a covering for that one event when he/she came to draw near to YHVH at the temple and not become toast like Aarons sons.
If we aren’t pursuing obedience from the heart (mind) to torah to the best of our understanding, we are likely/possibly on the wide path that leads to distruction especially if you try to enter into the temple. You can’t climb over the wall you know?!
True repentance is the only way back to the road that leads to the gate of the temple but you still need that covering when you get there. Praise YHVH for sending His Son to be the perfect propitiation for our unintentional sins so that we may draw near with full confidence that we are excepted, welcomed, and heard and the Judge of the universe is for us and against our enemies.”