Blameworthy
Numbers 15:22–26
“‘Now if you as a community unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the LORD gave Moses—any of the LORD’s commands to you through him, from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come—and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering. The priest is to make atonement for the whole Israelite community, and they will be forgiven, for it was not intentional and they have presented to the LORD for their wrong a food offering and a sin offering. The whole Israelite community and the foreigners residing among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong."
Criminal liability or blameworthiness in our justice system involves both the evil act (actus reus) and the intent (mens rea). People who break the law are held to be guilty because they know that their act is against the law. Now in many cases people do not know the law well enough to know that what they are doing is against the law. Ignorance of the law does not excuse anyone, our legal system imputes to such people the knowledge of the law, so that they can be held to be blameworthy. That's quite similar to Israel here, there are unintentional sins and they need to atone for those as well. It just tells us how pervasive sin and the accompanying guilt is as reflected in the law. Guilt is not just the commission of an evil deed. For people can be found not guilty by reason of insanity, for example. In such a case, there is no contest that the person did the deed, but he is reckoned not guilty of the deed due to extenuating circumstances (mental incapacity is, but poverty and hunger aren't). Guilt is not just the fact of having done an evil deed but rather being blameworthy. God already expects that we all fall short everyday, and we are responsible/blameworthy for it, but He has made a way, as He always had. God's rhetorical question to Jonah with the prophet's continued disappointment that God should save the guilty was telling: "But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city (Jon 4:11)?" God desires for all to be saved (I Tim 2:4) and it comes around to His love and grace that our guilt has been embodied in Christ, the extenuating factor in all this, which brought about our redemption. Christ was sinless and yet, He took the guilt and blameworthiness, He became sin for us that we may become the righteousness of God (II Cor 5:21). I rejoice in the metaphor of Christ's blood that clothes us in righteousness, it is greatly delightful indeed (Isa 61:10), let us not receive this grace in vain, but press on through many circumstances (II Cor 6:1…). God is so great and worthy of all praise in that "at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… He demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received reconciliation (Rom 5:7–11)." Hallelujah! For there is now no condemnation, and so let us walk after the Spirit (Rom 8:1).
“‘Now if you as a community unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the LORD gave Moses—any of the LORD’s commands to you through him, from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come—and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering. The priest is to make atonement for the whole Israelite community, and they will be forgiven, for it was not intentional and they have presented to the LORD for their wrong a food offering and a sin offering. The whole Israelite community and the foreigners residing among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong."
Criminal liability or blameworthiness in our justice system involves both the evil act (actus reus) and the intent (mens rea). People who break the law are held to be guilty because they know that their act is against the law. Now in many cases people do not know the law well enough to know that what they are doing is against the law. Ignorance of the law does not excuse anyone, our legal system imputes to such people the knowledge of the law, so that they can be held to be blameworthy. That's quite similar to Israel here, there are unintentional sins and they need to atone for those as well. It just tells us how pervasive sin and the accompanying guilt is as reflected in the law. Guilt is not just the commission of an evil deed. For people can be found not guilty by reason of insanity, for example. In such a case, there is no contest that the person did the deed, but he is reckoned not guilty of the deed due to extenuating circumstances (mental incapacity is, but poverty and hunger aren't). Guilt is not just the fact of having done an evil deed but rather being blameworthy. God already expects that we all fall short everyday, and we are responsible/blameworthy for it, but He has made a way, as He always had. God's rhetorical question to Jonah with the prophet's continued disappointment that God should save the guilty was telling: "But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city (Jon 4:11)?" God desires for all to be saved (I Tim 2:4) and it comes around to His love and grace that our guilt has been embodied in Christ, the extenuating factor in all this, which brought about our redemption. Christ was sinless and yet, He took the guilt and blameworthiness, He became sin for us that we may become the righteousness of God (II Cor 5:21). I rejoice in the metaphor of Christ's blood that clothes us in righteousness, it is greatly delightful indeed (Isa 61:10), let us not receive this grace in vain, but press on through many circumstances (II Cor 6:1…). God is so great and worthy of all praise in that "at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… He demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received reconciliation (Rom 5:7–11)." Hallelujah! For there is now no condemnation, and so let us walk after the Spirit (Rom 8:1).
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