Leviticus 5:14-19 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,… I. A SOPHISTRY NEEDING CORRECTION. This: that intention constitutes the quality of an action, whether conduct is criminal or not. But this declaration of "guilt," though in the action he "wist it not," testifies against a sweeping and all-inclusive application of that principle, viz., that intention qualifies action. 1. Ignorance may and does extenuate the guilt of an action. Knowledge deepens guilt (John 9:41; John 15:22). Ignorance alleviates it (Luke 23. 34; Acts 3:17; 1 Timothy 1:13). 2. Yet ignorance cannot excuse guilt. A man is not excused for breaking the laws of the land because he was ignorant of them. Nor is he innocent who trespasses, through error, against any ordinance of the Lord. And, if so in respect of ceremonial observances, much more so in relation to moral duties. Hence the curse stands against "every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them" (Galatians 3:10). 3. God Himself refuses to condone such ignorance. His Word declares that men "perish for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6); and that though "a people be of no understanding, He will not have mercy on them, and will show them no favour." II. MAN'S UNCOMPUTED GUILT. 1. Reckon up our remembered sins. "They are more in number than the hairs of our head." 2. Add the sins realised at the time but now forgotten. Memory lets slip multitudinous trespasses. 3. Yet what can represent the number of our unrecognised sins, done in ignorance, done in error? 4. Deviations and defects also, which God's eye alone detected, and which we too self-indulgently condoned. III. VAST VIRTUE NEEDED IN ATONEMENT. 1. Under the ceremonial arrangements for expiation, how manifold and minute and numerous were the regulations and provisions necessary to make atonement for sin! 2. When all sin had to be expiated by Christ's one offering, what value it must needs possess! Yet "by one offering" the Saviour "purged our sins."(1) It summons us to faith. "Look unto Me and be ye saved." "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."(2) It incites us to grateful adoration. "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood," &c. (Revelation 1:5, 6). (3) It assures us of perfect redemption. "There remaineth no more offering for sin," for "the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin." (W. H. Jellie.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, |
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