Atonement is Not Permission to Sin

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 15 Listen: (5:09) Read: Galatians 4 Listen: (4:13)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 15: 32–36

32 While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, 34 and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” 36 So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Reflection: Atonement is Not Permission to Sin

By Erin Newton

Israel’s relationship with God was founded on the covenant. Much like marriage, this relationship was built on trust and fidelity.

Numbers 15 talks about the ritual required for sins committed unintentionally. These are sins that had no premeditation; they just happened. Determining the intentionality of sins was based on the motivation of the person. Was this due to forgetfulness or naivety? Or was this something that was openly acknowledged and then willfully ignored? Those would be called “intentional sins.”

Thankfully, God provided the people with rituals to enact when unintentional sins were committed. The guilty parties would offer the proper sacrifice and a clean slate would be issued.

The process of atonement seems like a way to guarantee forgiveness—a biblical get out of jail free card. The law is easy to measure and to judge oneself against. Any flaw could be erased. Any error could be corrected.

Sort of.

The problem of oversimplifying life under the law is that we risk using atonement as permission. Or as Paul said, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (Rom 6.1).

Should we? Even before Christ, they had a way out for unintentional sin. But the law is clear about those who sin with a high hand. Such actions were the equivalent to breaking a marriage vow. The person who chooses to sin against God’s command is choosing not to be in covenant with him.

The man caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath has chosen to work when he was told to rest. (How many of us could fall prey to the spirit of the workaholic?) Taking a day off was more than observing self-care. For ancient Israel, it was specifically the sign that they were in a relationship with God, their Redeemer from slavery and their Provider in the wilderness.

The death penalty for such high-handed actions sounds harsh. The punishment fit the crime of treason (in this perspective, it was treason against their King).


Although we are no longer under the law, we are still bound to God in the same relationship of trust and fidelity. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life” (Rom 6.12-13).

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed from the housetops.” — Luke 12.2-3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime

 by Phyllis Tickle

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Read more: Wandering Sin

We don’t get to say, “I didn’t intend this” or “I didn’t do that.” We are connected to these sins and must confess them.

Our Sins Ever Before Us

Psalm 51.3
For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is always before me.

Reflection: Our Sins Ever Before Us
By John Tillman

Psalm 51 is a Psalm that seems to echo through the New and Old Testaments. Its phrasing, words, and sentiments are often repeated.

In Luke, Jesus puts its words in the mouth of the Tax Collector in his parable about prayer: “have mercy on me, a sinner.
Jesus alludes to it again in the Prodigal Son’s rehearsed speech of repentance.
The Pharisees adapt its language in John, when condemning the man born blind.
Paul quotes it in the third chapter of Romans and repeats its themes in Romans seven.

Many see this Psalm as a beautiful picture of how we can come to God for forgiveness no matter what we have done, and it is a beautiful picture. But before David could write this song of confession, he had to reach a moment of revelation. Before we sing the beautiful song of Psalm 51 we must hear the ugly parable of Nathan. The ugliness we see is the reflection of our sins.

Like David, we must be forced to see our sin for what it is.

David was already a lustful man—taking a large number of wives and concubines. He was already a bloody man of war and vengeance, so much so that God would not let David build the Temple. These sins eventually led him to a breaking point.

He became an adulterer—purposely seeking out and sleeping with another man’s wife.
He became a liar—seeking to hide his crime and dodge his responsibility for the child.
He became a murderer—murdering Uriah, a friend who was more honorable than David himself.
He became a coward—farming out the murder to someone else.

Before we pray or listen to Psalm 51, we need first to pray that there will be a Nathan in our lives to reveal to us the sins that we are failing to see. The reason David’s sin is “always before him” is because Nathan was there to reveal it.

In our prayers today, may we echo this Psalm as Jesus and Paul did, but first, may we seek revelation from the Holy Spirit of the sins we do not see in ourselves. We can’t confess what we refuse to see.

Racism. Idolatry. Pride. Greed. Lust. Reveal them to us, Lord.

Have mercy on us, Oh God. According to your unfailing love!

Song:Psalm 51” — Charlie Peacock, Westcoast Diaries Volume Two

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. — Psalm 51.11

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 15 (Listen – 5:09) 
Psalm 51 (Listen – 2:19)

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When Christians speak truth to power, we are empowered with the same Holy Spirit that spoke to Nathan. Whether to a monarch, a magistrate, or a magnate, we represent the message of the Gospel.

Read more about Confession Destroys Denial
We confess we have been deaf to cries of the needy, cries for help, and cries of injustice…Never let us rely on earthly kings to carry out the tasks of the heavenly kingdom.