Does God view unintentional sin differently? from Compelling Truth
The Old Testament makes some interesting differentiations between unintentional sins and sins done “with a high hand” (Numbers 15:27–31). While this differentiation was necessary under the Law, under the new covenant there is no longer a need for this differentiation.
The Old Testament Law says, “If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord’s commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them, if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering” (Leviticus 4:2–3). The rest of the chapter gives the specific offerings that should be given if a leader or the whole congregation sins unintentionally. The word for unintentional here means “inadvertent,” meaning the sin was not planned out or thought through beforehand. These sins were still wrong, and the person who committed the sin was still in need of atonement, which is why there is a specific sacrifice prescribed for it.
Elsewhere in the Law, there is a reference to a different kind of sin than unintentional sin, and that is a sin done “with a high hand,” meaning the doer has an attitude of defiance towards God: “But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment, that personal shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him” (Numbers 15:30–31). The punishment for intentional sins is more severe because of the attitude of the sinner, not because the sin itself.
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