Ignorant Sins

 "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Words of Jesus spoken while hanging on the cross.  Luke 23:34

"And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent;"

Acts 17:30

"The Law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple." Psalm 19:7

"Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." Psalm 19:12-13

When I was a little girl, sometimes I would get in trouble for doing things I didn't know were wrong.

I would do or say something, and my mom would look at me and say, "Don't do that; you know better than that!"  But did I?  Not always. Sometimes I would answer my mom's reprimand and say, "I didn't know that was wrong." But my mom always had a ready response to my excuse, "Maybe not, but now you do."

I found similar words in Leviticus chapter 4. This chapter talks about the sin offering that was made on behalf of ignorant sins.

Leviticus 4: 2 says, "Speak unto the children of Israel saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:" Verse 13 includes the whole congregation if they were to sin because of their ignorance. Verse 22 includes what must be done when a ruler sins in ignorance, and then in verse 27, the Lord also includes the ignorant sins of the common people.

But what stood out to me the most in this chapter, was that, although sins were done in ignorance, they would not be repeated in ignorance, because God revealed it for what it was:  SIN.

Leviticus 4:14a says, "When the sin, which they have sinned against it, is known,"

Leviticus 4:23a says, "Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge;"

And Leviticus 4:28a says the exact same thing.

Leviticus 5:17 tells us, "And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity."

God told the Nation of Israel, that even unintentional sins require atonement.

Just like when I was a little girl, I might have done something wrong because I didn't know it to be wrong, but once my mom told me it was wrong...I better not do it again because I now knew better.

God told His children, that there would be times when they sinned against Him because they didn't know it to be sin, but God always revealed their sin to them, so they could make a sin offering and be forgiven, and so that they would not commit that same offence again.

So, how do we know what sin is?  The world has blurred the lines between what is right and what is wrong, but Psalm 119:11 says, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."

The more we read God's Word, the more He will help us to identify the sin that is in our heart.  He has given us His Holy Spirit to convict and convince us to do right in all things.

When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, He paid for them entirely and completely:

Past, Present, Future.

But when God reveals to us that we have sin in our hearts, the proper response is to confess it and to forsake it, and then move on for the glory of God.

Sometimes, I didn't know...

    Now I do...

        But that's just me!

"We are to order our lives by the light of His Law, not by our guesses."

J.I. Packer