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March 19, 2017 |
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We understand, or should, that there are no big sins or little sins. There is just sin - and sin separates us from God. Therefore, for example, Hitler's sin of killing millions of people is no greater than the sin of stealing office supplies. Hitler is not more separated from God than the thief.
That's hard for us to understand. To us it seems like there should be big sins and little sins and sins should add up. It even seems unjust to us that God's forgiveness should come as easily to a Stalin as to ourselves. It seems like great evils should require great suffering to pay for them before forgiveness would be given.
This is not God's way however. Forgiveness is just as available to a Hitler or Stalin, as to the petty thief. Jesus has paid the debt that was owed so there is nothing for us to pay.
Even before Jesus it was that way. We see in the Old Testament that there was only one kind of sacrifice for sin for the ordinary person. That sacrifice covered a multitude of sins. You could pile up all your sins on a single goat.
For leaders and priests there was a different sacrifice. This was due to their office, not their sin. They had greater training, understanding, and responsibility and therefore greater accountability. Even so, there was only one kind of sacrifice for sin, for each position, and therefore no sin was greater than another.
The sacrifice for sin was not a punishment for the sin. If it was there would have been more sacrifices for more sins. The sacrifice was an atonement that restores the relationship between man and God. Therefore it was actually a blessing and not a curse, in that God provided it as a way of restoring that relationship. After making such a sacrifice, a man would know his relationship with God was back to normal.
It's different for the punishment of unrepentant sinners. The Bible is clear that the punishments fit the crimes. But that isn't the topic here. We are only looking at sin and forgiveness.
There was one difference in sins though and it made a big difference. That's what we will look at in this lesson.
The following verse will look like a contradiction of what was said above - but it isn't.
If a man sees his brother who sins a sin that is not worthy of death, let him ask, and life will be given to him for those who are not sinning unto death; for there is mortal sin; I do not say that a man should pray for this. 17 For every evil is sin, and there is sin that is not mortal. (1 John 5:16-17)
There are two important observations to be made here. The first is a bit off topic but important to understand. It is that God has given his New Covenant people a super-power. We can pray that a brother (or sister) will be forgiven and he will be. Whatever he had done will be scratched off his record and God will remember it no more.
This isn't the kind of super-power that the world wants, of course. They want to fly or have x-ray vision or do something else that other men cannot do. Understanding God and his ways though, this power to forgive is a true super-power. It's also real, as opposed to the others. You have it, the world does not, and you should use it frequently.
That doesn't mean we have to use that power. It wouldn't be much of a power if we had no choice when to wield it. Here is an example of Paul choosing when to use it.
Alexandros the Blacksmith showed me great evil. May Our Lord pay him according to his works. 15 Beware of him also, for he is very arrogant against our words. 16 At my first defense, no man was with me, but they all abandoned me. May this not be accounted to them. (2 Timothy 4:14-16)
The blacksmith sinned against Paul and also his friends sinned by not supporting him. For the blacksmith, Paul says keep it on his tab. For his friends, he says don't hold it against them.
This should bring Jesus' words to memory "Forgive them father, they don't know what they are doing". Another person in the Bible said that. Who was it?0.
Also, I believe this power is what is meant when Jesus talks about binding and loosing.
To you I shall give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; everything that you will bind in the earth will have been bound in Heaven, and anything that you will release in the earth will have been released in Heaven. (Matthew 16:19)
And truly I say to you, everything whatsoever you will bind in the earth will have been bound in Heaven, and anything that you will release in the earth will have been released in Heaven. (Matthew 18:18)
If you will forgive a man's sins, they will be forgiven him, and if you hold a man's, they will be held. (John 20:23)
In short, God has given us some authority in Heaven.
To dig deeper here, look at Matthew 18:18 in context. Also look at the Postscript section at the end to understand the Past Prophetic verb tense that is used here and what that tells us about God and time.
The other observation from John's verse is that there are different classes of sins, mortal and not mortal. John isn't teaching something new to Christianity. The same concept exists in Judaism, which John was raised in. It's about how God views things.
The Catholic church took this verse to mean that there were greater and lesser kinds of sin, which they called mortal and venial sins.
According to Roman Catholicism, a venial sin is a lesser sin that does not result in a complete separation from God and eternal damnation in Hell as an unrepented mortal sin would. (Wikipedia - Venial)
That thinking is not correct. But, having determined that there were greater and lesser sins, they took it upon themselves to determine how to decide which sins were the big ones. The Catholic Church did not build this understanding on the Bible, which is hardly a surprise, but instead they tried to classify sins themselves, partly based on severity, as perceived by the church.
Although the Roman Catholic Church does not provide an exhaustive list of mortal sins, breaking the Ten Commandments, suicide, induced abortion, masturbation, rape, and divorce are well-known examples. Additionally, some mortal sins are considered so severe that the church punishes them with excommunication. These include apostasy (deliberate renunciation of the faith) and the desecration of the elements of the Eucharist. (britannica.com - cardinal-sin)
Their three criteria for a mortal sin are: Grave Matter (severity), Full Knowledge (awareness), and Deliberate Consent (freely chosen). This means, for example, that stealing something of low value is a venial sin but something of high value is a mortal sin. The problem is obvious - who decides value. The question this raises is whether God cares about the value, or does he care about the heart.
When the reformation came in the 1500s they were no better equipped to understand what John says in that verse. They saw that the Catholic Church's criteria for mortal and venial sins were entirely man-made. The reformer, Calvin, rejected the idea as a Catholic Church invention. He was bothered by their attempts to classify sins and threw out the baby with the bathwater. But, he essentially ignores what John said above.
All the protestant churches are similar in that they mostly ignore John's words. A web search shows the topic to be mainly a Catholic issue. Lutherans accept that there are both kinds but consider mortal sins to be unrepented venial sins. Others view mortal sins as the continuation of venial sins into a habit. The Bible doesn't support anything like that. Those few authors who deal with the topic often put together embarrassingly bad interpretations.
We take the "death" mentioned [by John] here to be physical death, not eternal death in hell. When a believer continues in unrepentant sin, he will eventually reach the point when God may decide to remove him from this world1.
The more you think about that the more ridiculous it becomes2.
Most modern Protestant laity have never heard that there might be a difference in sins. None the less, the concept is very Biblical, with New Testament support.
So far we've said that there is no difference in the kinds of sins but John is saying some sins deserve death, others do not. Now we begin to resolve the apparent contradiction.
The following verses have a word in common.
If [the anointed priest] sins unintentionally in any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and commits any of them, … (Leviticus 4:2)
When a leader sins and unintentionally does any one of all the things which the Lord his God has commanded not to be done, and he becomes guilty, … (Leviticus 4:22)
Now if anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and becomes guilty, … (Leviticus 4:27)
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and even part of Joshua describe the laws and the sacrifices that atoned for sin, but they only refer to unintentional sins. If a sin was committed intentionally there was no sacrifice. There was no way to restore the relationship between man and God in those cases. A man would wear the guilt of that sin for as long as he lived.
That doesn't mean he would never be forgiven by God. He could repent (turn away from the evils done and turn back to God) and ask for forgiveness and be forgiven but there would still be that debt owed to God and that guilt. God speaks about this through Ezekiel.
"Cast away from you all your transgressions [law breaking] which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord God. "Therefore, repent and live." (Ezekiel 18:31-32)
God is saying it was possible to repent of intentional sins, for which there was no sacrifice, and still have everlasting life.
The truth is that every one of them committed intentional sins at some point in their lives, just as we do now, likely many times. The Apostle Paul says that he was killed by lust before he became a Christian.
The people of that time knew they could be forgiven, otherwise there would be no point in living after an intentional sin. Yet they also knew the guilt of a sin they could not atone for and a separation from God they could not fix.
Therefore, know brothers, that by this one, the forgiveness of sins is preached to you. 39 And all who believe in this one are justified of all things from which you cannot be justified by the Law (Torah) of Moses. (Acts 13:38,39)
Now we understand how it can be true that:
So now we need to understand the difference between intentional and unintentional. The unintentional sins are done because you didn't know they were wrong, or you had no plan to do them and they were accidental. Killing a person could be intentional (murder - 6th commandment) or unintentional. For example, throwing a rock at a tree and someone steps out from behind the tree and is struck and killed. That's unintentional.
There is something important to understand from what the Bible says about unintentional sins.
if his sin which he has committed is made known to him, then he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without defect, for his sin which he has committed. (Leviticus 4:28)
You could (and still can) sin so unintentionally that you would be unaware that you had sinned. For such unintentional sins, whether you knew it was a sin or not, it was.
Intentional sins are different that way. They are done with the knowledge and awareness that they were wrong but with a determination to do them anyway. They are actions that are defiant toward God, whether we see it that way or not. At their root they are idolatry - obeying ourselves over God.
As an example, I knew a Christian man whose marriage was in trouble. They weren't getting along at all. There was no talk of adultery on the part of either one. As he considered divorce he carefully read the Bible. In the end he said, "I know God hates divorce but I think God loves me more than he hates sin", and he got the divorce and later remarried.
He made up a little story to ease his conscience, because he knew he was doing wrong. If that story was true it could be used to excuse any sin, over and over. It's a license to sin. People are amazing in that they can lie to themselves … and then believe it.
An intentional sin cannot be done accidentally or thoughtlessly. It takes a little time to form an intention that has considered what God says is right but has chosen to do wrong. Here are some synonyms of intentional that may make it clearer: resolved, determined, and even hell-bent, which seems appropriate.
Therefore, as we see so often, it is a matter of where the heart is, and God sees the heart.
The biggest problem with intentional sin is repentance. What word's are you going to take to God? You can't say "oops", because it wasn't a mistake, you did it intentionally. You can't say "it just happened", because you knew what you were doing. You can't say "I didn't know it was wrong", because you did know. You can't say "I'll never do it again", because you don't know the future. All you can do is humble your idolatrous self and throw yourself on his mercy. That will be enough."
David speaks of his intentional sins of adultery with Bathsheba and pre-meditated murder of Uriah.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.4 Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight (Psalm 51:2-4)
For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; you are not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17)
In these verses David recognizes there is nothing he can do to atone for what he has done. When he says "You do not delight in sacrifice" he is saying he would pile up sacrifice on sacrifice if that would please God and remove his sins. But God does not delight in sacrifices. The sacrifices had a particular purpose, dealing with sin, but they did not please God. But, in this case, there was no sacrifice.
David can only ask for forgiveness and for a sacrifice he can only offer brokenness and contrition (remorse, repentance). That is a sacrifice God wants.
Even for unintentional sins, having to live with unatoned sin hanging over your head was a common situation in Old Testament times because it might be some time before you could get to the temple for a sacrifice. I don't think we appreciate the freedom we have under this covenant.
The great thinkers of Judaism struggled with this question, why was there no sacrifice for the worst sins, the intentional sins. Why was there no way to restore the relationship with God. We understand the reason now; there was no sacrifice great enough. Therefore the Old Covenant was incomplete and showed that something was missing and yet to come. That was the sacrifice of God himself, in the form of Jesus.
We are so used to the the idea that the benefit of Jesus' sacrifice travels into the future to us that we don't even wonder why it would travel to people who never existed at the time. In the same way, it travels into the past as well as into the future to us. There were many who had repented and been forgiven of intentional sins and died. The debt they owed for those sins was paid for with his death.
Jesus death also serves as the atonement for us. Therefore there is no need for a sacrifice for sin. That sacrifice is also big enough to cover even the intentional sins that we fall into. That hasn't removed the need for repentance however. Intentional sin still separates us from God. The remedy is repentance which brings forgiveness and atonement, even for intentional sins.
Nowhere is this said more clearly than in Hebrews 10 that intentional sin still separates us from God. Prior to these verses the author of Hebrews has been encouraging believers to continue in the faith. Then he says this:
For if a man shall sin by his will after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there is no sacrifice to be offered afterward for sins, 27 but that terrible judgment is ready and the zeal of fire which consumes the enemies. (Hebrews 10:26-27)
In saying "sin by his will" he means intentional sin, so his point is, if you know the truth and you intentionally sin, you are separated from God and Jesus' sacrifice can no longer be applied. If you continue in that state, there is only judgment remaining for you as an enemy of God.
For if any violated the law of Moses, he would die without mercy by the mouth of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more do you think he will receive capital punishment, he who has trampled upon the Son of God and esteemed the blood of his covenant to be like that of every person, who also was made holy by it, and he has despised the spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:28-29)
He says it works just like it did in Moses' law and why would we think otherwise when intentional sin has treated the Son of God so badly. We may not think of it this way but God says the man who does this has
If you think you are covered by grace, notice the last point.
Note that some translations say something more like "For if we go on sinning willfully." The translators are showing a continuous tense for the verb "to sin". They are conveying the idea that more than one willful sin is required.
The Greek verb can have a continuous tense but it doesn't make any sense in the context of these verses. For example, Paul relates willful sin to the Old Testament "for if any violated the law of Moses". Here he is plainly speaking of a singular event therefore the willful sin he speaks of must be singular.
Paul also says "there is no sacrifice to be offered afterward for sins". By that, he means that Jesus' atoning sacrifice is not available - you are out of the kingdom. These words only make sense if they apply to every willful sin. The words don't support the idea that each willful sin reduces the atonement some amount, eventually to 0. The words also don't support the idea that Jesus, after some undefined number of willful sins, says, "2 hatreds plus 1 adultery, that's it, now I'm offended, no more atonement for him."
In fact, "after having received the knowledge of the truth" indicates that it is the receiving of the knowledge of truth that makes atonement unavailable. Therefore every willful sin against that knowledge is unatoned.
Some translators are adding the continuous tense, probably because they like the wiggle room it seems to provide and because they don't understand.
The dishonest translation above is probably done to support a widely believed misunderstanding of sin - that a person can sin once in a while, but if it becomes a practice, then the person loses their salvation. This misunderstanding probably results from not understanding what this lesson is about, that there are sins that are mortal (those done intentionally) and the others are not.
If you believe there is only one kind of sin, you need to reconcile that with the fact that even Christians sin. The easy solution to that is to allow some amount of sinning before salvation is lost.
There are a host of problems associated with this model for losing salvation:
In the Old Covenant an unintentional sin required a remorseful heart and a sacrifice and then it was done with. If you didn't know you had done wrong a brother could tell you and then you could deal with it. In this covenant that sacrifice is already paid by Jesus. All we need is a remorseful heart (or have a brother use his super-power when we don't know we've done wrong). In either case the matter was dealt with and you moved on.
With intentional sin, however, you've gone back to being an unbeliever. It requires repentance which cleans the slate. Unfortunately repentance cleans the whole slate. This is what Ezekiel says about that
But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his treachery [betrayal of trust] which he has committed and his sin which he has committed; for them he will die. (Ezekiel 18:24)
But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his righteousness which he has practiced, he will live. (Ezekiel 18:21,22)
Repentance brings forgiveness after intentional sin but there is a loss. Say goodbye to all the glory you would have received for the good works (righteous deeds) that you had done.
This is because he has become a new man. When an unbeliever becomes a believer he becomes a completely new man as far as God is concerned.3 The old man has passed away. The Jews understood this, not as a metaphor, but as a reality. For example a converted man's family was no longer his family. All the old ties were broken.
Therefore repentance is better than remaining in sin, but keeping from intentional sin is better still.
If you are thinking this loss seems harsh for a loving god, you are not alone. The Israelites of Ezekiel's time thought the same. In the above passages from Ezekiel, God repeats these words:
Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' Hear now, O house of Israel! Is My way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right? (Ezekiel 18:25)
Jesus spoke about the loss that comes with intentional sin in his parable of the Prodigal Son. After the prodigal son returns, the older son complains about the good treatment of the prodigal son and about his own lack of reward.
His father said to him, "My son, you are always with me and everything that I have is yours." (Luke 15:31)
The prodigal son has lost his inheritance because of what he has done. Every good thing he had done for his father is gone. From this point on he will begin to rebuild but he is starting from zero.
| Judaism | Christianity | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forgiveness | Atonement | Comment | Forgiveness | Atonement | Comment | |
| Unintentional | Y | Y | Sacrifice possible | Y | Y | Sacrifice automatic |
| Intentional | Y | N | Lose works | Y | Y | Lose works Sacrifice automatic |
| Unforgivable | N? | N? | May not be possible | N | N | |
The verses from 1 John use a verb tense that isn't understood by many - the Past Prophetic tense. As a result it is often translated into English as future tense. This tense indicates that God acted in the past with the knowledge of what will happen in the future. In that verse, particularly, it means that God forgave that person immediately, before you prayed, with the foreknowledge that you would pray.
We are used to living in time, with causality going in one direction. Therefore we sometimes come to think God is the same way, or at least we don't recognize how different things are for God.
Christians tend to view petitionary prayer as having a cause and effect relationship, the prayer is prayed and sometime later, god willing, the petition is granted. It is very natural for us to think this way. After all we are trapped in forward moving time and that is all we've ever known.
But sometimes we look at how that petitionary prayer was granted and we see that a number of things started to come into place before the prayer was prayed. Some might think that it was therefore unnecessary to have prayed the prayer - what was needed was coming anyway.
But that misunderstands the nature of God. Because he is omniscient and sees all of time not as a movie (a time ordered series) but more like a single still picture (everything at one time), cause-and-effect does not apply to him. Therefore he knew, from the beginning of time, that you will pray that petition and he can begin the process of granting it whenever he wishes so that it will be granted at the time of his choosing. That includes beginning before you pray the prayer.
This can result in odd situations like we see in Leviticus 19:5. A peace sacrifice can be eaten on the day it is sacrificed or on the day after but not on the next day. If it is eaten on the third day then the sacrifice is unacceptable to God.
This doesn't mean the sacrifice became unacceptable when eaten on the third day. God knew at the time of the sacrifice whether it would be eaten on the third day, even if the person sacrificing the offering didn't. Therefore it was unacceptable at the time it was sacrificed because God knew it would be eaten on the third day.
During discussion, the question was raised whether a Christian jumped from the tower on 9/11 whether that would be an intentional sin and, because his death resulted immediately, it was an unforgivable sin.
This is an area that the Bible doesn't address directly. In the end all we can really say is that God is just and fair.
For myself, if I still had the faculties to think rationally, I would not jump. I believe that robs God of the chance to save you. How would you know that firemen won't come barging into your room the moment your foot goes out the window. Also, there were people who were saved and some of them rode the tower down to the ground. So, as long as you are able to think rationally I think it would be wrong to jump (commit suicide).
But the key is that ability. With the smoke and heat, the plane crash that started it, a person may not be rational. In their thinking at the time it might make sense to jump, even though that isn't what God wants. Remember that it is necessary to be aware at the time that you are doing something wrong, or about to.
We need to be careful not to make the mistake mentioned in the section above and forget that God knew 9/11 was going to happen before it did, in fact back at creation. We also know that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to resist.
The best way to avoid the temptation to jump is to not be there. God could arrange a failed alarm clock, bad traffic, or whatever to place the Christian in a different place, on a different floor, or somewhere away from the building.
All we can say is that God will do what is right. We also need to understand that God isn't looking for opportunities to "kick people out of the club."
1. Leaders and priests are more accountable for their sins.
There should not be many teachers among you, my brethren, but you should know that we will incur greater judgment (James 3:1)
2. There are three steps to restoring a relationship with God, repentance (turning away from evil), asking for forgiveness, and atonement
3. Unintentional sin still requires recognition of the sin but the atonement is already paid therefore restoration is automatic.
4. Intentional sin still requires repentance but the atonement is already paid therefore restoration is automatic. However, all your good works and their glory, are lost.
0 Stephen, while being stoned. Acts 7:60
1 "Does the Bible teach mortal and venial sin?" https://www.gotquestions.org/mortal-sin-venial.html
2 This thinking results from the once-save-always-saved false teaching. It contains the idea that a person can be a believer and also reject God. In this case it produces a need for God to kill former believers when he would not kill unbelievers. Knowing, from his own eyes, that this is not true, the author qualifies his statement with "God may" which disconnects it from if-then causality. That completely invalidates his interpretation that John is talking about physical death.
3 "http://ourhope.site/2018-02-11%20TheChildrenAreFree/TCAF.html"