The Two Broad Categories of Sin

Leviticus 4:1–33, Atonement for unintentional sin. Listed in this chapter are the steps priests (verses 3–12), the people (verses 13–21) and the leaders (verses 22–26), or people of the land (verses 27–35) had to take to deal with sin. These four categories cover all people on earth: the priests, the Israelites, the leaders of Israel, and everyone else (all the Gentiles).

Yeshua’s blood atonements is sufficient to cover all humans. The steps to make atonement for unintentional sin prophetically point to Yeshua’s death as a sin offering for man. They include offering a young bull on the altar (i.e. Yeshua’s death on the cross), the sinner laying his hands on the bull (i.e. confession of one’s sins and transferring those sins to Yeshua), sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice before the veil of the holy of holies (i.e. a picture of Yeshua’s blood being presented before the throne of Elohim on man’s behalf), sprinkling blood on the altar of incense (i.e. Yeshua interceding on the sinner’s behalf before the throne of Elohim, and the sinner himself worshipping YHVH and offering up prayers of repentance), the blood was then sprinkled on the ground at the base of the altar of sacrifice (i.e. the earth is cleansed from defilement because of man’s sin).

This is a prophetic picture of Yeshua’s blood being sprinkled on the earth while he was hanging dying on the cross. 

Leviticus 4:2, Sins unintentionally. This chapter deals with the sin offering for unintentional or inadvertent sins that occur through carelessness. By contrast, there is no animal offering to atone for an intentional sin (The ArtScroll Tanach Series Vayikra Commentary, p. 72).

Elsewhere, the Torah spells out the fate for those who sin presumptuously or intentionally. They were to be cut off from Israel, which is tantamount to a death sentence (Num 15:30). YHVH pronounced such a harsh sentence on the willful sinner because he had defiantly despised the word of YHVH—the Torah (Num 15:31).

After this exhortation in Numbers, the Torah then gives an example of one who had sinned willfully. The penalty for this was death (Num 15:32–36). The Testimony of Yeshua discusses this type of sinful behavior as well in what has become known as the unpardonable sin (Heb 10:26 cp. 6:4–6).

Sins…against any of the commandments. The spiritual implications and ramifications of this statement should be clear enough. The Bible defines sin as the violation of the Torah-law (1 John 3:4). If one breaks one of the Torah-commandments of Elohim, one has broken them all (Jas 2:10). The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23; Ezek 18:4). All people have sinned (Rom 3:23).

Sadly most mainstream Christians don’t have a clear understanding of what the biblical definition of sin is. It is simply the violation of Elohim’s commandments. If believing people knew what sin was, they’d all be kosher eating, Sabbath and biblical festival keepers.

 

2 thoughts on “The Two Broad Categories of Sin

  1. Glad there is still room for repentance, as you pointed out in the blog on being blameless, “tamyim”. Without the example of David’s repentance, it might appear hopeless for most of us. Even with his repentance, however, he did suffer terrible consequences from his sin.

  2. The concept of the unpardonable sin has never been totally clear to me. According to Mark 3:28-30 Yeshua seems to indicate that those Torah-teachers who said that He had an unclean spirit in Him were committing this unpardonable sin because they blasphemed the Holy Spirit which was in Yeshua.
    Hebrew clearly states that there was no more sacrifice to cover those sins that are being committed deliberately, after one has been infilled with the Ruach HaKodesh (back sliding). What about the man in the Corinthian church, who had a sexual relationship with his stepmother (1Cor 5:1-5)? Why was he allowed back into the congregation after he repented and stopped his sinning (2 Cor 2;5-8)? Should we assume, that he had not been filled with the Holy Spirit before his sexual sinning and therefore he didn’t commit the unpardonable sin?
    Although, your article was very helpful, I am still a bit confused.
    I do wonder for example, what exactly counts as a deliberate sin. Is it a sin one plans to do or might it also be counted as a deliberate sin if one knows whats wrong but occasionally is overcome by the temptation?
    Sonja

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