Romans 5:12,13 - Death spread to all men

5:12

We have been reconciled with God through the death of Christ. Now the question that Paul seems to anticipate is how can life and death of one man bring life into the whole world? Paul points out here that that is entirely consistent with Jewish thought, for Jewish teaching was that sin and death came into the world through one man, Adam. “Death spread to all men because all sinned”. Adam is seen as the head of the human race. Note that Paul says death spread because all sinned. The doctrine of original sin is not a simple matter of all of us inheriting sinfulness, there is more to it than that. We have all sinned, we are all guilty. 

5:13

This verse is quite difficult to interpret, but part of what I think it is saying is that the Jews put a wrong interpretation upon the Law. Sin existed before the Law, sin existed from the time of Adam. The penalty of sin, namely death, existed right from the time of Adam, many years before the Law was given. “But sin is not counted where there is no law”. I have to say that the two or three commentaries I have read on this are not that helpful on this phrase! We can all agree on what it does not mean, but none of them seem to have much of any depth to say on what it does mean.

Leviticus 5:1-19 - If anyone touches an unclean thing

5:1-4

The chapter starts off with four groups of sins. The first is failing to bear witness to events. Such a person will be held responsible for their failure. Today people can fail to give testimony out of laziness or out of fear. The next two involve someone becoming unclean by inadvertently touching something that would make them unclean. This would include touching the carcass of a dead animal or human waste. The last one involves someone taking a careless oath. I.e. just making some vow without really thinking about it.

5:5-13

Having listed the sins we now get the solution. First the person has to confess to their sin. We so often say “I didn’t mean it ..” or some such phrase thinking that means we are not guilty. We find a different approach here. It is not the same as deliberately sinning, but it is still sin and we are still guilty. The good news is that there is forgiveness, but first we need to admit the sin. We then get the various sacrifices that need to be made, There are various types, depending upon the financial state of the sinner. These range from lambs and goats, through doves, to a grain offering.

5:14-19

The final part of the chapter deals with more unintentional sins, but these matters seem to be more serious, “sinning unintentionally in regard to any of the Lord’s holy things”. In this case there is an additional “fine” to be paid. There is a stress that the person is guilty. Today we love to deny guilt, but it is only when we admit our guilt that progress can be made.

Romans 5:10,11 - We also rejoice in God

5:10

“For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life?” Once we were enemies of God, but now we have been reconciled. But the cross was not the end, Jesus died, but was then raised from death, never to die again. The justification is over and done with, it has been completed, but the process of salvation is ongoing. We are being transformed. God forgave us for a purpose.

5:11

“We also rejoice in God ...” Without the gospel God is someone to be feared. The only way of life without the gospel is to try and prove ourselves good enough, to overcome our sinfulness by our own efforts. And this is a futile endeavour, one which we cannot ever get anywhere near achieving. But that is not how we are called to live, it is not how we are meant to live. We can rejoice in God, we do not need to fear God in the sense of viewing Him as a harsh judge who needs to be satisfied. The wrath of God has been fully satisfied by the blood of Jesus. We have been reconciled, and we need to live as reconciled people.

Leviticus 4:1-35 - Sin Offerings

4:1-35

We now have a series of offerings headed “sin offerings”, and the ones in this chapter deal with unintentional sins. There are important similarities and differences between intentional and unintentional sins. The similarities are that they still have an effect. Someone may deliberately damage something belonging to me, or someone may unintentionally damage it. In both cases the item is damaged, whether or not it was a result of intentional or unintentional action. Likewise if we do something that offends the Lord, whether or not it was intentional, it still matters. However, there are also differences. If the action was deliberate then there is the attitude of the person towards the other one. 

In some ways unintentional sins that we commit can be harder to deal with. For if I have sinned deliberately I know I have done wrong, and my attitude was wrong. The matter is very simple, I need to repent. But if I have sinned unintentionally then I did not have a wrong attitude, and it can seem less clear what I have to do about it. However, the Law makes provision for forgiveness of all sins, intentional and unintentional, and here we have instructions regarding unintentional sins which are just as detailed as those for deliberate sins. We can be confident that the cross has dealt with our unintentional sins and our intentional ones.

The rules deal with unintentional sins by various groups, starting with the anointed priest. So even the most “holy” man can sin unintentionally. Then we have the whole community, then leaders, followed by any individual. So all can sin unintentionally, and it matters in all cases, but all cases can be dealt with. 

The text talks about when the person or community becomes aware of the sin. When we do become aware of an unintentional sin we should do something about it. It also talks about “an aroma pleasing to the Lord”, and “he will be forgiven”. Unintentional sins can be dealt with.

Romans 5:7,8 - While we were still sinners

5:7.8

Paul develops the shocking nature of God’s action. To die for someone else is a very rare thing indeed, even if the person being saved is a righteous person, is in some way deserving of it. But one can just about imagine this happening. So to die for someone else who is a good person is a momentous enough thing in itself, but this is not what God did. The Father sent the Son to die for us while we were still sinners. There was absolutely nothing in us to commend us in any way to God. We can only begin to appreciate the enormity of our salvation and the depths of God’s love when we begin to face up to just how undeserving we are.

5:9

“How much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God?” We have been justified by Christ’s blood,  so what does this mean? It probably includes the final judgement, but in Rom 1:18 Paul has said that the wrath of God is being revealed against all unrighteousness. It is something that is already happening. We are no longer a people under the wrath of God. Sin still has an effect, but rather than being under the wrath of God we are being saved from our sins and our sinfulness. God did not justify us, and at such enormous cost, in order to leave us under the domination of sin.

Leviticus 3:1-17 - Fellowship Offerings

3:1-17

We now come to the Fellowship offering. Some versions (e.g.NKJV, ESV) have “peace” offering. “Fellowship” probably captures the meaning more accurately. For us “peace” tends to primarily mean the absence of conflict, but the Jewish concept of shalom is much richer, implying harmonious and prosperous relations. The instructions are fairly similar to those for the burnt offering, but there is one very important difference. With the burnt offering the one making the offering was not allowed to eat any of the offering, in the case of the fellowship offering the person did eat part of the offering, so it was a shared meal.

There are still more sacrifice types to come, but we can see a progression. The burnt offering was concerned with atonement for sin, the grain offering thankfulness for provision, and the fellowship offering a sharing in life with God.

We get all sorts of details, and many of them are similar to the burnt offering. The animal had to be without defect, and there is the laying on of hands. However, the fellowship offering could be male or female, whereas the burnt offering had to be male.

The offerer was not to eat any of the fat or blood.

Romans 5:6 - Christ died for the ungodly

5:6

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly”. This verse makes it absolutely clear that any supposed goodness on our part had absolutely no part to play in our justification. We were weak, and we were ungodly, and Christ died for us. This action was taken on God’s initiative, it was entirely His decision. The only part we played was to provide the sin that needed to be atoned for. This is something we actually find very hard to fully accept, for all sorts of reasons. One is pride, we want to feel that, at least in part, we deserve to be saved. Two other reasons are somewhat more noble. We feel that we have to contribute something, that it would be wrong for us to receive something for which we are completely undeserving, and in fact deserve the exact opposite. We also fear that unmerited favour is a licence to sin. This latter point will be addressed in chapters 6-8.