Sin offering: Lev 4:1-35

This time we will handle the Sin Offering, the second offering in our list, coming after the Guilt Offering.

I want to repeat the correspondence and the difference between the Guilt Offering and the Sin Offering.
We see in the scheme that they match in the fact that in both offerings an animal had to be sacrificed; that they were both compulsory and both did not produce an aromatic perfume. Both the Sin Offering as well the Guilt Offering are related to sins that were committed ignorantly, not on purpose, unknowingly. But despite their innocent appearance they were still in conflict with the holiness of God and the sins made therefore the person or persons being guilty. After becoming aware of the sin the person had to confess and had to repent by making the offering.
A proof that the offering was only related to ignorant sin we find in Hb 9:7: But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

For sins that were committed consciously and intentionally no conciliation was possible! The only option was death. Neither Sin Offering nor Guilt Offering could cover the intentional sin.
Hb 10:26-27: If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
Willful sins required exclusion from the congregation of Israel and from its worship. A complete clarification about ignorant and willful sins we see in Nm 15:27-31:
'But if just one person sins unintentionally, he must bring a year-old female goat for a sin offering. The priest is to make atonement before the Lord for the one who erred by sinning unintentionally, and when atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven. One and the same law applies to everyone who sins unintentionally, whether he is a native-born Israelite or an alien. 'But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the Lord, and that person must be cut off from his people. Because he has despised the Lord’s word and broken His commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him.'

After the similarity we need also to discern the difference between the Guilt Offering and the Sin Offering.
The background for the Sin Offering is the settlement of the sins as sin. The sins are a violation against the Lord. There is no possibility for repayment by the person himself; only the Sin Offering could make him free again.
As we have seen last time the concept for the Guilt Offering on the other hand is compensation. An omission could be restored; a committed sin could be restituted; the guilt could be taken away by satisfaction.

The entire law regarding offerings was given to the people of Israel. The Israelites walked their way, although in an imperfect manner, with their God. Wicked people among them, who sinned intentionally, were to be eliminated immediately. As said, for such people no offering would help.
It is important to consider that at the time when they applied the offerings, the Israelites were already God’s people. It is not like this that they became God’s people by keeping the sacrificial rituals. When they had celebrated the Passover and left Egypt in which they had suffered slavery for 400 years and crossed the Red Sea, they had by grace become the people of God. The Israelites were not a better people than others so that they would deserve God’s attention; only because of God’s sovereignty they were put in His grace and salvation.
After the destruction of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea Moses sang about the people that God had redeemed (Ex 15:13); the people God had purchased (Ex 15: 16); the people that God would bring in His dwelling place (Ex 15:17). Only after the liberation He gave His Law to His people and the institution for the offerings.
Therefore we must conclude that, when reflecting on the offerings as an application for this time, the concepts can only be projected on those who believe. The lessons behind the sacrifices of the Old Testament are not directly meant for the unbeliever, but for those who live by faith.

The core-significance of the verb sinning is missing the target: missing the holy goal that God has set: serving and glorifying Him. This principle of course is first of all valid for the entire human race that was brought into a sinful state after the Fall of Adam. As Rm 3:10-12 says: There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.
But we have to recognize and admit that believers do sin as well, despite their new nature. I believe that the Book of Leviticus therefore has a direct significance for us. By means of the descriptions of the offerings we start to understand better our position and the position of our God.

Focusing on the Sin Offering we see that, when God confronts us with sin in our lives, it is firstly all about getting the sin eliminated in order to bring us back into the intended position of worshipper and glorifier of God. The death of Christ, who died once and for all, has made atonement for man’s sin, and assures Him of forgiveness.
Secondly, it is also about bringing us to repentance in order to restore the disturbed relationship with the Father. We will never loose our position as children of God as the Israelite would never loose his membership of the people of Israel. But obstacles like sins can block the relation with the Father. In the repentance God wants to confront us with the suffering and death of Christ so to make us realizing the seriousness of our deed and the greatness of the love of Christ. Knowing the high price that Christ has paid for our forgiveness should cause us to take sin very earnestly. Every sin, no matter how insignificant it may seem, required the blood of Christ to be shed. Let us never forget that while forgiveness is free, it was not obtained cheaply. Here is a motivation for godly living.

God doesn’t want us to live our lives indifferently. Some might think that after the conversion sin is abandoned and no battle is needed. There is no greater lie then this! Jesus says in Jn 14:21: Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.
Not obeying His commandments means sinning against the Divine institutions.
Paul writes in 1 Th 5:23: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This sanctification is a life-long process that brings us closer and closer to the Father. It goes with tumbling and arising. We have to accept that it goes this way and that in time of falling there is the wonderful help of the offering: the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from any sin.
John describes how the believer should go his way in 1 Jn 1:7-2:6: 
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have One who speaks to the Father in our defence- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, I know Him, but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.

Let us go back to the Sin Offering as represented in Leviticus; verse 1 and 2 of chapter 4. The person who had sinned comes to the conclusion that he did something that ought not to be done. Then we see successively 4 categories of people and the type of sacrifice that these had to bring:
Anointed priest (vs 3) - bull
Whole Israelite community represented by the elders (vs 13, 14) - bull
A leader/ruler (vs 22, 23) – male goat
A member of the community (vs 27, 28) – female goat/lamb

Without going into the details we recognize here a typical trend: the closer the person who sinned stands toward God, the bigger size of animal he has to offer. Or in the other words: the size of the offer represents the level of responsibility: the closer to the Lord, the bigger the consciousness.
A priest, who daily dealt with God’s laws and with offerings, was considered more accountable in case of sinning. Applied on us: when we have understood in our life of faith so much about the value of Christ’s offering, God will go a deeper way with us when we commit sin.

Denial and betrayal
I want to highlight the concept of Sin Offering on the basis of two persons in God’s Word: Peter and Judas.
They both were among the close 12 disciples of the Lord Jesus when He wandered on earth. In their 3 years of intercourse with the Lord they should have perceived much about His holy personality and properties on the one side and about their own incapability and ungodliness on the other side.
In the end of these 3 years when Jesus’ end came near, we see Peter and Judah both putting their Lord down: Peter denies Him and Judas betrays Him. I find it difficult to judge if the one sin is more severe than the other. Anyway they were both utmost pain- and shameful since they were committed directly against their Lord Who they claimed to love so much.

Deceived by Satan
Read Lk 22:1-6; 31-34.
Both Judas and Peter were deceived by Satan to sin. We must learn the lesson: despite living close to our Lord we can become victims of Satan, the great Tempter. His focus is especially directed on the close-ones of the Lord. If they would fail then his victory would be even bigger. Likewise we saw in Lv 4: a sinning priest is more shameful than any member of the people. Let us not be trapped by our self-esteem like Peter, thinking that we are strong enough to resist the Devil in our own power.
We must still highlight that Peter did not have the intention to deny Jesus, while Judas carefully planned the betrayal. Here is the difference between unintentional and intentional sin.

The result of the sin
Read Mt 26:69-75; 27:1-5.
After recognizing their great sin both Peter and Judas were filled with bitterness. We read that Peter wept bitterly. Do we really perceive the depth of the word “bitterly”? Peter loved Jesus so much and now his act proved the contrary. His weakness seemed more powerful than his love. His courageous words, that he would be ready even to die with Jesus, turned out to be so futile. I think we remember those moments in our past that we disappointed the Lord. They can still fill us with bitter grieve. I’m so happy that the story of Peter is recorded in the Word of God. It is consoling to know that I’m not the first and not the only one who distressed the Lord in such way.
Concentrating on Judas, we see a different attitude. His reaction on his deed was that he became seized with remorse. He regretted his deed and was filled with shame because he understood that Jesus was innocent and did not deserve any condemnation. Trying to reverse his act he returned the silver coins to the priests. Up to the point of acknowledging that he had done unjust he was like Peter. But Judas did not come to repentance. He preferred to kill himself than to go-on loaded with shame. He finished his own life in pride. He did not want to be restored with Jesus because he never had considered Him as His Lord. Mind that he had no lack of knowledge. He knew exactly where his ways went wrong and he knew how his fall could be restored. He had seen to many examples of sinners who were forgiven by the Lord. We already concluded that Judas sin was an intentional one. No sacrifice would help. There was no restoration for Judas. Before this Jesus had already said in Mt 26: 24: Woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.

The restoration
Read Jn 21:14-19.
In this passage we read about Peter’s restoration. I imagined so many times the heaviness that must have accompanied Peter during those days. On one hand He was so happy that the Lord was resurrected and on the other hand he would not look forward to meet Him. What kept Peter perhaps going-on was the reminder of a small phrase that Jesus had said when He warned Peter: And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers (Lk 22:31). Another event would have given hope to Peter as well as we read in Mk 16: 7 where the angel says: But go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.'
It is so great that our Lord does not forget our miserable situation. He is there; encouraging and comforting in our repentance. He does not wait until we make the first move. He takes several moves and opens our eyes that were blind.
I’m convinced that, before this passage in John, Jesus and Peter had a personal confrontation which is not recorded in the Bible and in which Peter confessed his failure and Jesus granted him forgiveness.
Only later, as we read here in John, we see the fruit of Peter’s repentance. 3 times Peter had publicly denied the Lord and therefore 3 times he had to speak out in public that he loved Jesus. There is no word about sin or forgiveness; that stage has passed. It is about the restoration of the relationship with the Lord and on top of that, the future task the Lord had prepared for Peter to lead the church!

Praise to our Lord Who is so graceful and patient with us. Every time He wants to re-start with us again, and despite our failing He continues with us on to completion until the Day of Jesus Christ (Ph 1:6).
Many years later Peter wrote in his 2nd letter (2 Pt 3:17-18): Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever! Amen.

Questions

1. What have the Sin Offering and Guilt Offering in common?
2. What is the difference between the Sin Offering and the Guilt Offering?
3. What is an unintentional sin? How can it be forgiven?
4. What is an intentional sin? How can it be forgiven?
5. The Israelites became God’s people before/after the institution of the sacrifices.
6. What is the significance of sin?
7. What are the two steps to do after sinning?
8. Where do we read that after confession of our sins the blood of Jesus Christ offers forgiveness and purifies us?
9. Who had bigger responsibility: the priest of the king? Why?
10. What was the difference in attitude between Peter and Judas?