In Sophocles’ three Thebean Plays, the playwright introduces us to a mythical man named Oedipus. Unknowingly raised by an adopted family, Oedipus leaves for another town and marries Jocasta, the widowed queen of the city. They have four children together and love each other dearly. However, there is a problem. Hidden from them both is the fact that Jocasta is Oedipus’ mother. She was certain that her son was dead and he was certain that his parents lived far, far from him. They certainly had no intent to be involved in an incestual relationship, but incest it was.
Throughout the course of the plays, Sophocles insists that Oedipus’ sin was no fault of his own. His only desire was to be in a healthy marriage and he truly loved his wife as a good husband ought. He had no way of possibly knowing that Jocasta was his mother, so how could he be held accountable for actions he did not even intend to commit? Certainly the gods of Greece could not blame him for unknowingly marrying his mother.
This raises an interesting problem for Christians, does God hold us accountable for unintentional sin? Like Oedipus, are we exempt from the guilt of a sin unknowingly committed or do we still bear the guilt?
Leviticus appears to provide a very clear cut answer. In 5:17 the law says, “If anyone sins, doing any of the things that by the Lord’s commandments ought not to be done, though he did not know it, then realizes his guilt, he shall bear his iniquity.”
This verse seems to say that even if you sin unintentionally that you still bear your guilt. In other words, it’s still sin. This brings up an interesting idea for if this is true, then sin does not require volition, or a desire to sin. I used to define sin as “willful disobedience against God”, but if Leviticus is to be believed then sin does not require a will. This is somewhat of a scary thought, for if we don’t have to be willing ourselves to sin then how can we avoid it. If we think we are telling the truth but then find out it is a lie, we are still held guilty for our lie. Even though we had every intention of telling the truth and not sinning. We can still be sinning even when we do all we can to honor God.
I understand the fact that God is holy and cannot allow unholiness, but this just does not make sense to me. Why does God hold us accountable for sins we did not mean to commit, and not just by negligence for not knowing that murder is sin is simply a lack of seeking truth, but when we seek to honor God by telling the truth only to discover it’s a lie and then be caught in sin?
A girl in my group, Megan, said that if we truly love God that we would want to repent even if we had no idea that we were in sin. I agree with her wholeheartedly, but I’m still confused. So I’m looking more into sin…and what it is exactly.
I’d also love to hear what others think about this problem. Hearing from you all always helps the truth seem more clear!
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6 comments:
Whoops, stupid enter key.
You bring up some interesting points, but I think you missed a (rather key) phrase in your interpretation. "then realizes his guilt". If you sin, don't know, and never know, I'd argue that you're probably clear of any sin (unless it violates some other law, such as "love your neighbor as yourself" or "love the Lord your God with all your mind..."). If you discover your sin and confess your sin, then James 2 comes into play "If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Hence, if made aware that something you are doing is a sin, cease the action and confess. The two basic laws (love your neighbor and love God) cover most of the territory, but if you are not sinning against those commands, and you don't know that what you are doing is a sin, you're fine until you find out.
That's my two cents anyway
you make a good point...but then it leads to truth as a thing to be avoided. If we can avoid sin by not knowing that we are sinning, then truth-in effect-would not be setting us free but putting us into bondage. That, i believe, is the opposite of what God has created truth to do. and it would also make us seek to avoid knowing the truth, and that seems wrong. We ought to seek the truth and the Bible says "the truth shall set you free". So, that would actually seem to say that greater freedom comes from finding out the truth about your sin so you can come to repentance. Maybe this question is more about repentance than guilt...
thanks for your thoughts Zach, i'd love to keep talking if you have time.
I see what you're saying, but knowing the promise in James 2, it doesn't seem that it would make too much of a difference one way or the other. Once you know it's a sin, repent, and all is well.
Truth in this case as well is something that would happen by accident mostly, if you believe you are telling the truth but are really telling a lie, you're not really going to go searching for the truth, because you think you ARE telling the truth.
Or in the case of Oedipus, he wasn't thinking, "hmmm, I wonder if this person I married is my mom, I better check on that". He had no reason to believe that that was the case, hence him finding out would be purely accidental.
I agree with you that this question is more about repentance than guilt, and you can't really repent of something that you didn't know was sin.
exactly...and i don't think you should go running about paranoid about whether or not your girlfriend is your mom (okay, clearly a bit extreme, but it works for the illustration). So then what responsibility do we have to discover the sin in our lives (ie. "are you my mom?") and if we don't discover the sin by accident do we die guilty? I beleive that Jesus' death covers all sin past, present, and future, so it's not that sin gone un-confessed will keep you out of heaven, but it's still an interesting thing to think about. Is that held as sin against us? Can we ever answer this question? So assuming that we are held accountable for sin that was committed unknowingly and we are to repent for it...what happens to sin that we never find out about?
(i know this may be taking it too far...let me know if i'm extrapolating too much)
I'm starting to wonder if maybe we should be responsible for our unintentional sin. I don't think we'll unintentionally sin if we're close enough to God to be totally in His will. Joshua sinned without knowing with the Gibeonites--because he didn't ask God's opinion first. He can see the whole picture, so that's why we need to seek/trust Him.
...at least, that's my late-night hypothesis. :)
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