by Michiana Covenant | Oct 17, 2013 | Numbers, Westminster Shorter Catechism
The men’s discipleship study had an interesting conversation this week (prompted by the Didache — a second century pastoral manual) on the topic of “unintentional sins.”
In 1 Corinthians 10:13 Paul says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
Properly understood, this states that you will never face a situation where you have to sin. When you are tempted, God promises that he will always provide a way of escape.
Paul is dealing with the question of temptation. It is true — you will never face a temptation where you are “powerless” to do the right thing. Those who are in Christ now share in his Holy Spirit, and so we can never say, “I couldn’t help it — the temptation was too strong!”
But that does not mean that there is no such thing as “unintentional sin.”
Think about our catechism’s definition of sin:
“Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.”
The example I used with the men was the case of the stolen book. Sometimes, when you buy a used book, the “used” book was actually stolen from a library. You may have purchased the book innocently enough — but if you have purchased stolen property, then you are unjustly possessing the book of another.
It’s easy enough to remedy this if you know the truth — but if you never realize that it was stolen, then you may remain in possession of the stolen book, and thus you have perpetuated the injustice. You are (unwittingly) out of conformity with the law of God.
Of course, there are lots of situations like this. We frequently find ourselves (unwittingly) participating in injustice. If you are a stockholder in a company/organization that practices injustice, then you are investing in (and making money from) their injustice. If you work for a company/organization that practices injustice, then even if you are striving to conduct yourself justly, you are still participating in the corruption.
This shouldn’t surprise us. After all, if we believe what Genesis 6 says about us — that the inclinations of our hearts are only evil continually — that corruption has reached every part of us — we should not be surprised that there are “unintentional sins” where we are not even aware of what we have done wrong.
In other words, our problem is not just that we sin against God. Our problem is also that all creation and all human institutions have become corrupt. Corruption has spread to everyone and everything.
This is a problem that the Old Testament rituals were designed to correct. The sin and guilt offerings were designed to deal with “unintentional sins” — and then once a year on the Day of Atonement the “scapegoat” (Lev 16) was designed to deal with all these unintentional sins. Hebrews 9:7 says that the high priest went into the Holy of Holies “once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.”
And Hebrews goes on to say that Jesus deals with this problem more effectively: “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (9:14)
Notice that our problem is not just “guilt” due to our conscious sins. Our problem is also that we have become impure/blemished — we have become corrupt. And the blood of Jesus deals both with the guilt of our sin, and with the corruption of our nature.
Incidentally (pointing forward to our sermon in two weeks), this is why Peter speaks of baptism “for the forgiveness of sins” and the “gift of the Holy Spirit.” In Christ our legal problem is solved (we are forgiven for our sins) and our corruption problem is solved (we are washed/cleansed from our uncleanness).
Numbers 15 (which we will reach in early December) says more about unintentional sins — so stay tuned…
by Michiana Covenant | Sep 19, 2013 | Numbers
I had been planning for some time to start a series on Numbers this fall — but the building project makes it even more appropriate. The opening chapters of Numbers are all about the arrangement of the people of God as the Wilderness Camp — the War Camp of the Great King. They are sojourners on the way from Sinai to the Promised Land. God has rescued them from Pharaoh and he continues to provide bread from heaven for them in the wilderness — but they are not yet what they will be.
As it turns out, the opening chapters of Numbers will set us up nicely for our building dedication service on October 27 — as we should be at Numbers 10 by then, when Israel has everything set up and ready, and now embarks on its journey across the wilderness.
Of course, some might say, “But Pastor, don’t you know what happened next?!! Israel disintegrated!” Yes, but keep reading. The book of Numbers includes the story of Israel’s rebellion — but the overarching narrative is that God had mercy on his people, and in spite of their rebellion, he renewed and sanctified his people, and by the end of the book, there is a faithful generation that is ready to enter the Land. So yes, I fully expect that we will disintegrate — that we will sin against each other — that we will grumble against each other (and against God!) — but I also expect that God will show mercy, that God’s people will repent and forgive, and that by the end of our stories there will be a faithful generation that will be ready to the enter the Land. There is no way to the Promised Land except the way of the cross.
by Michiana Covenant | Jun 17, 2012 | Job, Pastoral Notes
There are three questions that drive the book of Job:
1. Job’s question: Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul? (3:20)
2. Satan’s question: Does Job fear God for no reason? (1:9)
3. God’s question: Have you considered my servant Job? (1:8)
The wisdom debate with the friends drives Job to see past his own original question to ponder Satan’s question in chapter 21. He quotes the wicked as saying, “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?” (21:15), and finally concludes, echoing Psalm 1, “The counsel of the wicked is far from me.” (21:16)
And indeed, as Job comes to his final summary in chapter 27-31, you can even see how Job is pushing towards God’s question — although he can only affirm God’s description of him: “a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil.” He does not identify himself as “the servant of the Lord.” Until he sees himself as the suffering servant, he will not understand his own question!
So what is Elihu doing in all this?
The simplistic structure is that in chapter 33 he echoes Job (offering to play Job’s advocate — or comforter — one who will “justify” [piel] Job, not as a judge [which would be the hifil], but as an advocate). It was fitting that we covered this on Pentecost Sunday — since Elihu offers to play the Advocate to Job’s Suffering Servant! — and whatever response Job may have had to Elihu, *our* response should be, “thanks be to God we have a better Advocate than Elihu!!”
Now in chapters 34-35 he echoes the friends, paraphrasing and quoting them (in spite of his claim that he will not answer Job with their arguments!), and coming to the same conclusion as the friends: Job “answers like wicked men” (34:36). But is this Elihu’s conclusion? Or is it Elihu’s summary of the friends’ conclusion?
I have become convinced that this is, in fact, Elihu’s own conclusion. He address the friends in 34:2 and 10 as “you wise men,” and “you men of understanding,” and then in 34:34 he says that “men of understanding…and the wise man” will say that Job speaks without knowledge. And Elihu clearly agrees with them: as he concludes in his own statement, “Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.” (35:16)
Elihu is convinced that God will never condescend to answer Job. Therefore Elihu must answer Job on behalf of God. The wise men of the earth must judge Job — and their verdict must be: “Guilty”! And if anyone else had said what Job said, Elihu would have been right.
And if anyone else had said “the Father and I are one,” they would have been right to condemn him! The book of Job serves as a warning to the rulers and judges of Israel — beware! Do not condemn the suffering servant of the Lord! Do not be too quick to condemn the one who claims “I am innocent” — “I am in the right!”
by Michiana Covenant | Feb 5, 2012 | Job, Pastoral Notes
Job 1-2 recounts the worst three days in Job’s life. They were not necessarily sequential (each time it merely says, “And there was a day”), but by condensing the story of Job into three days, we are being encouraged to see the whole of Job’s sufferings as a three day descent into hell!
And it is all God’s fault!
There are some interesting parallels with Jonah – who spent three days in the belly of the fish. But in Jonah’s case, while it was true that God was the one who had done this, it would be easy to see how Jonah had (if anything) deserved worse of God. But Job has done nothing to deserve what happens to him.
It’s all nice and good to say, “Oh, but Job was a sinner!” The problem is that the text disagrees with this diagnosis. After all, when they asked our Lord Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answer was, “Neither!”
The story of Job is the story of God’s suffering servant. Job is all that Israel was supposed to be — and he endures a sort of exile, abandoned by God to torment and despair. And during his exile, God is silent. God does not explain anything until Job has passed through the ultimate test. But when Job passes the test, the LORD restored the fortunes of Job. There is an eschatological message in the book of Job: the suffering servant must wait patiently, because the LORD will make all things right in the end.
And because our Lord Jesus Christ waited upon the Lord, and endured all that Israel was called to endure, he has been raised up in glory — and we who are called by his name are now called to endure patiently through our “light and momentary” trials because Jesus has already been seated in glory — the Lord has restored his fortunes, and has given us his Holy Spirit as the guarantee of the full inheritance!
