Calvin on voluntary sin vs. sins of ignorance

Here is another quote from Calvin on the subject of voluntary sins vs. sins of ignorance:

“Certain men, somewhat more prudent, when they see the teachings of Novatus refuted by the great clarity of Scripture, do not deem every sin unpardonable, but only voluntary transgression of the law, into which one knowingly and willingly falls. Now those who speak thus allow pardon for no sin, except on that is an error or ignorance. But in the law the Lord commanded one sort of sacrifice to be offered to atone for the voluntary sins of believers (Lev. 6:1ff), another sort to redeem their acts of ignorance (Lev 4). Consequently, what depravity it is not to grant any expiation for voluntary sin. I say that nothing is more apparent than that Christ’s sacrifice is alone sufficient to forgive the voluntary sins of the saints inasmuch as the Lord has attested this by carnal sacrifices as seals.” (Calvin, Institutes).

Novatus was a contemporary of Calvin that taught that if someone sinned one of the "bad sins" voluntarily after being baptized that they had to be excommunicated from the Church and no forgiveness remained for them. If that was the case then there probably weren't a whole lot of people left in his church! As Calvin points out in several places this is a grave error and it does not see sin the way Scripture does, and worse than that it attempts to limit the extent of forgiveness that Christ's sacrifice accomplished. Thankfully Christ's death on the cross makes an allowance for the worst of sins, as long as there is repentance involved (I John 1:9).

Note: If it seems like I'm spending a lot of time and effort on this subject, well its for a couple of reasons. #1, it's the reasons I created this blog, to struggle through some of these verses. #2, it's because I have struggled with these verses. In the past I have struggled with God's forgiveness for certain sins in my own life in light of a lot of these passages. But to my surprise I keep finding one thing...grace! And I hope that's what these blog entries convey to whoever reads them.

(Go here for rest of this series)

Sins of Ignorance from M. Henry

Matthew Henry states in his commentary on Hebrews:

"Sins are errors, and great errors, both in judgment and practice. We greatly err when we sin against God; and who can understand all his errors? They are such errors as leave guilt upon the conscience, not to be washed away but by the blood of Christ."

(Go here for the rest of this series)

Sins of Ignorance from Owen...

This if from Owen's commentary on Hebrews and he explains more on this subject...

"That which he offered for. It was their “errors,” or their sins. The Socinians, some of them, —not for want of under standing, but out of hatred unto the true sacrifice of Christ, —contend from hence that the anniversary sacrifice on the great day of expiation, the principal representation of it, was only for sins of ignorance, of imbecility and weakness. But it is a fond imagination; at least the argument from these words for it is so. For besides that the Scripture calls all sins by the name of “errors,” Psalm 19:12, 25:7; and the worst, the most provoking of all sins, is expressed by “erring in heart,” Psalm 95:10; and the LXX. frequently render “to sin” by ajgnoei~n, 2 Chronicles 16:9; 1 Samuel 26:21; Hosea 4:16, etc; —besides, I say, this application of the word elsewhere unto all sorts of sins, in the enumeration of those errors of the people which the high priest offered for they are said to be “all their iniquities,” and “all their transgressions in all their sins,” Leviticus 16:21. Wherefore to offer for the “errors” of the people, is to offer for “all their sins,” of what nature soever they were. And they are thus called, because indeed there is no such predomi-nancy of malice in any sin in this world as wherein there is not a mixture of error, either notional or practical, of the mind or of the heart, which is the cause or a great occasion of it."

Follow up...

Doug Wilson has a post today that explains in a little better detail more about the subject of ignorance here. In fact he has a whole series on this topic here. He does a lot better job of explaining it than me!

Sins of Ignorance

“But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance” – Heb. 9:7

The phrase ‘sins of ignorance’ is one that has been very confusing, and has accomplished everything from sparking debate among commentators to causing tender consciences to be shaken. The phrase has been translated many different ways, such as ‘errors’(ESV), ‘sins of ignorance’(NKJV), and ‘unintentional sins’ (NIV), depending on which translation you have. We can quickly see where the trouble arises when we read in Numbers 15 that sins committed in error can be forgiven, but that there is no sacrifice for sins committed defiantly (with a high hand). It seems at first glance that there is a huge gap between the two. For example, if I sin and didn’t mean to do it, then it’s ok and it can be forgiven because I did it ignorantly. But if I sin on purpose, then it must have been defiant and God can’t forgive me (which can cause a lot of misdirected introspection). If this is true how did God forgive King David and Peter? Could Peter say he didn't mean it after 3 times? I think if we look further into the text we can hopefully clear the fog on this passage (or at least some of it), and more importantly reveal the abundant patience and forgiveness that God offers sinners.

The Greek word here for ignorance is agnoema, which Strong’s Greek concordance defines as “sins committed through error, ignorance, or thoughtlessness”. If we go even further, the root for this phrase comes from the Greek word agnoeo, which simply means to be wrong or make a mistake. With this in mind I think the meaning begins to start becoming clearer already. To sin in this way is simply having bad judgment by leaning on our own understanding instead of believing what God says. Calvin backs this up in his commentary on Hebrews by saying,

“As the verb shagag (Hebrew equivalent to agnoeo), means in Hebrew to err, to mistake, so shgagah, derived from it, properly denotes error, or mistake; but yet it is generally taken for any kind of sin; and doubtless we never sin except when deceived by the allurements of Satan. The Apostle does not understand by it mere ignorance, as they say, but, on the contrary, he includes also voluntary sins; but as I have already said, no sin is free from error or ignorance; for however knowingly and willfully any one may sin, yet it must be that he is blinded by his lust, so that he does not judge rightly, or rather he forgets himself and God; for men never deliberately rush headlong into ruin, but being entangled in the deceptions of Satan, they lose the power of judging rightly.” -(emphasis mine)

So to put it simply, Calvin says sinning ignorantly (whether we “meant to do it” or not) is forgetting what God says and only pursuing what we want. He also mentions that the reason we sin is because we are satisfying our own lusts and desires and that blinds us. We are leaning to our own understanding instead of acting on what God clearly says.

So does it have to do with whether the sin was committed on purpose or not? Doug Wilson makes an interesting comment here on his blog when he says, “The word rendered errors here is agnoema. It is a broad term, encompassing sins generally, and has reference to sins committed in ignorance or thoughtlessly. Sin is defined as such by Scripture, and not by the knowledge or intention of the one committing the sin.” What Wilson is saying here is that God doesn’t necessarily have a file labeled “knew better” and “didn’t know better” which he files our sins under, but rather He defines our sinning against Him as ignorant and thoughtless because that’s what we are when we commit them. We are sinners and that’s what we do…we sin.

Thankfully God has provided a sacrifice to cover our selfish and thoughtless sins…His son Jesus! Have you sinned and then realized it later, repent, confess it to Him and He will forgive you. Have you sinned on purpose and knew better? Do the same, repent and believe! We must be careful though and not use this as a license to “sin so that grace may abound”. There is a point where we can so willfully alienate ourselves from God that we can get hard towards His warnings and then we enter dangerous ground, i.e. Romans 1 & 2 (more on this later).

...“The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Ex. 34:6-7)