Leviticus 5:15–19

Someone who sins in this way has clearly failed to render what was due to God. He is guilty of an offence. What was true of God's earthly people is sadly often true of believers today: we fail to render to God what is His due.

The word for sin is chata, which literally means departure from right. The word asham, translated trespass, expresses guilt. The trespass was an act of treachery (maal) in the holy things of Jehovah, though taken to be done not on purpose but by accident. Others might see no moral wrong in it. Yet it was a secret betrayal of Him with whom they stood in holy relationship, and it brought guilt.

The words about sinning unintentionally stand in the law about the holy things of the Lord, but they are left out of the law about wrongs between people. The reason is obvious. The claims tied to the holy things of the Lord reach infinitely beyond the most sensitive human feeling. A man may interfere with those claims again and again — trespass on them again and again — and never be aware of it. A man's own awareness can never be the measure in the sanctuary of God. This is an unspeakable mercy. God's holiness alone must fix the standard, when God's rights are in question.

The ram was the fitting animal to offer where God's holy things had been desecrated, and that was the aspect of evil met in the Trespass offering. It was not simple wrong, which the Sin offering covered, but treachery in relation to Jehovah. Verse 15 confirms this with Moses' valuation "in silver by shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary." Gold pictures divine righteousness in God's presence, while silver pictures His grace, as we may see in the atonement money for the children of Israel, and indeed wherever it appears.

There is another marked difference between the sin offering and the trespass offering. In the sin offering, what is brought matches the means of the one who has sinned. In the trespass offering, everything follows the valuation of Moses — a picture of Christ. How fitting that in every case the offering is a ram. It speaks of Christ. His love was selfless, and everything in Him gave way to the will of God, even to death. He was completely consecrated to that will, and His steadfast purpose resisted everything that tried to turn Him aside from the path of unquestioning obedience He had entered for the glory of God.

The great thought pressed on us in the trespass-offering is restitution — making amends for the harm done. The priest has to estimate this in shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary. So the estimate is a divine one: the priest gives the divine judgment. But even this was not enough. A fifth part more still had to be added. God would have more good come out of the evil than the evil ever took away. He will not merely put things back where they were before. That would not be worthy of Him.

Jehovah required a tithe of the Israelite's increase, which He Himself had blessed. In the same way He demanded a fifth part, or a double tithe, as the fine of the Trespass offering. All of it went to the priest, which again keeps up the character of relationship already seen.

The law demanded a trespass-offering, and that offering was to be a ram of the flock. Once the ram had been properly dealt with at the altar, and the money payment made, the guilty one could go home with the assurance from Jehovah Himself of the forgiveness of his sin. Absolution from the priest was not the question. No priest of Aaron's house could absolve a man from his sins, but he could tell him what Jehovah had promised.

The trespass offering speaks of sin as an injury that must be paid back. The sin offering speaks of sin as something God cannot look at, because He is holy, and must put away from Him.

Here someone did a real wrong in the holy things that belonged to the Lord. The man did it "through ignorance," yet God could not pass it by. God can forgive every kind of trespass, but He cannot overlook the smallest detail. His grace is perfect, and therefore He can forgive all. His holiness is perfect, and therefore He cannot pass over anything. He cannot approve wrongdoing, but He can blot it out. And He blots it out according to the perfection of His grace, and according to the perfect claims of His holiness. It is a very serious mistake to think that a man is all right and safe as long as he lives up to what his conscience tells him. Peace built on that foundation will be destroyed forever when the light of the judgement seat shines into the conscience.

There was another element that marked out the Trespass or Guilt offering. "He shall make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing." And there is more. Jehovah required a tithe of the Israelite's harvest, since He was the one who blessed it. For the Trespass offering He demanded the fifth part as the fine — a double tithe. All this was to go to the priest. "And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven."

The priest has to estimate the harm in shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary. The estimate was to be a divine one, for the priest gave God's judgment. The restitution money, too, was weighed by the sanctuary shekel. But even this was not enough. The offender still had to add the fifth part more. God wanted evil to end in an overflow of good, not simply in things going back to where they stood before.

Think of all the wrong and all the trespass we have done against the Lord. Think, too, of how God has been robbed of His rights in this wicked world. Then look at the work of the cross with fresh interest. There God did not merely receive back what was lost; He is an actual gainer. He has gained more by redemption than ever He lost by the fall. He reaps a harvest of glory, honour, and praise in the fields of redemption. It is richer than any He could have reaped in the fields of creation.

The trespass offering has two sides that would not come together in ordinary use. One side looks toward God, the other toward man. In Christ's fulfilment of the offering they did come together. God and man are both seen as suffering through sin, and both are now gainers through the work of Christ. This is the apostle's "much more" in the fifth chapter of Romans, and it is the "fifth part more" of Leviticus.

The principal, that is, the full value of the fraud committed, had to be paid, and a fifth part added to it. Where fraud had taken place, restitution was a very healthy test of repentance. If a man tried to dodge it, the priest could not offer the Trespass Offering. The offering and the restitution had to go together.

Even when a man had met every human claim, forgiveness and atonement still came only through the death of another, "for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."

Ignorance was no tenable excuse. They were Israelites, and the LORD had imposed commandments which they were responsible to keep. If anyone did not know, yet he was guilty. Indifference to His requirements must have been the state behind it... Was the LORD to be blind, because the man failed to know what was plainly written in His law? He was guilty, and must bear his iniquity.

We cannot press this on our minds too strongly: conscience is not the standard of right and wrong. The word of God alone is that standard. The Word itself testifies about the man who breaks one of the LORD's commandments without knowing it. He is still guilty, and he shall bear his iniquity. For who can honestly say he was necessarily ignorant of what the word of God declares?

A man's awareness can never be the regulator in the sanctuary of God. This is an unspeakable mercy. God's holiness alone must fix the standard, when God's rights are in question.

Unconverted people pass over sin lightly. They say God will pardon our faults. But nothing will escape Him — not wrongs done to others, and not sins committed in ignorance, unknown to us. It is impossible to be in ignorance without sin. If I sin in ignorance, it is because I am a sinner, and ignorance is one of the consequences. If I do not love as Christ loves, that is sin.

Do you want to see how bearing sin in Isaiah 53:12 connects with the punishment due to it? Then compare Leviticus 5:1, 17; 17:16; 24:15; Numbers 5:31; 14:34... In all of these you will see it means coming under all the consequences of the sin committed, and being answerable for it before God.

There is such a thing as a sin of ignorance. Nothing shows more strongly how unable man is to deal with sin. If he does not know of it, what can he do about it? Nothing. He is as powerless as he is ignorant.

A person might sin without realising it in the holy things of the Lord, or he might sin in ignorance in such matters. The sins in verse 17 seem to refer to those mentioned in verses 15 and 16. Still, he had sinned, so he was commanded to bring a trespass offering. When that offering was properly dealt with at the altar, the guilty one could go home with the assurance from the LORD Himself that his sin was forgiven. The Lord was so careful to impress this on the offender that it is stated three times in these few verses. Pardon from the priest was not the question. No priest in Aaron's family could pardon a man's sins, but he could tell him what the LORD had promised.

We could not enjoy true peace and freedom of heart if we did not know one thing. Our divine Trespass Offering has perfectly met the claims connected with the holy things of the Lord... Our very best service, our holiest times, our most sacred moments of devotion may still hold something of trespass in the holy things of the Lord — something that ought not to be done. So we need the assurance that the precious blood of Christ has met every one of our trespasses.

Neither carelessness nor ignorance could hide his guilt or remove the offering needed for it. But the man who offered in this way would be forgiven. The language here is even stronger: "It is a trespass offering: trespassing he trespassed before Jehovah." Otherwise a man might easily have excused it.

The trespass offering also deals with sin, but not simply as evil in general. It deals with sin as an injury to God or to people. These too are sins of ignorance. This section speaks first of sin in holy things. For it a man had to offer a ram without blemish, and silver as well, valued according to the injury done. He had to pay the trespass in full, and add a fifth part on top. Only this counted as making proper amends.

Suppose we have gone wrong as worshippers, doing without knowing it any of the things that are forbidden. Here is sin, though we did not know it. The holiness of God is not limited by our conscience.

Unconverted people pass lightly over sin and say that God will pardon our faults; but nothing will escape Him, neither wrongs toward others nor sins committed in ignorance, unknown to us. It is impossible to be in ignorance without sin. If I sin in ignorance, it is because I am a sinner, and ignorance is one of its consequences.

The guilty one could go home with the assurance from Jehovah Himself that his sin was forgiven. The Lord was so careful to press this on the offender that the promise appears three times in these few verses. Whether the man brought a sin offering or a trespass offering, the Lord assured him of forgiveness once he brought the appointed sacrifice and met the demands of the law. Absolution from the priest was not the question. No priest of Aaron's house could absolve a man from his sins, but he could tell him what Jehovah had promised.

Even this was not enough. The fifth part more still had to be added. God would have a surplus of good come out of evil, not a mere making up to where things were before. That would not be worthy of Him. How could He have allowed sin at all, merely to show His power in defeating it and no more? Such a victory would be little better than defeat.

If man has robbed God of His glory, Christ has restored it. But if that were all He had done, man would only be put back in the position he lost by his sin. In the added fifth part there is a revenue of glory for God. That glory gives a basis for His eternal purpose and puts man into a new place in heavenly blessing.

One should always realise the possibility of having sinned without knowing it. What care and sensitivity this would produce in the path of someone who wants to walk with God. We may not know that we have trespassed. But the One who measures everything by the unbending standard of the shekel of the sanctuary knows.