- Oct 10, 2011
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Did you see my post #19...?No.... there is a difference my friend. Let me share this through the Hebrew language because it allows us to see what we have such a hard time articulating in English, ok?
There are three words in Hebrew that we might just chuck in the same corner and call it all sin. But our definition of sin is lacking and here is the proof. Three words...
#1 - chata'ah... this is the word we would translate as sin. Now, today we would say "sin is missing the mark." And that is true, and yet that definition also misses the mark. In Hebrew, the definition of chata'ah is best understood through a picture. Imagine an archer who has a bow, an arrow, and a target. He aims and he shoots with the intent of ALWAYS hitting the target. He never wants to aim at another target.... only the one before him. BUT... because he is a fallible man, he will simply miss from time to time no matter how hard he tries not to. Thus, this isn't intentional sin, this is unintentional sin and is forgivable because we're fallible, we are not God, and we will make mistakes (which God desires us to learn from).
#2 - avon... often translated as iniquity or transgression, we have the same archer, same bow and arrow, same target (the righteousness of God)... and the SAME INTENT. However, in this case, the archer gets caught up in an emotion and temporarily aims at another target. Once he calms down, and realizes his error, he would repent and go back to the original target.
#3 - pesha... simply rebellion. Same archer, same bow and arrow, same target... but this time the archer KNOWS WHAT TARGET God desires him to aim at, and deliberately with intent to go against God's will, this person looks for any other target to aim at.
So to sum this up... when we see that the love of God is keeping His commandments and we embrace that verse but then say we can't keep them because we are fallible, we are falling into a trap. We can walk the walk (we can do ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens us) and yet we can error as well. Not that we should desire that, and not that God desires it... it is simply that even if all we want to do is hit that one target with all our heart, mind, and soul... until we are perfected, we will simply miss every once in a while. When we do, we repent, learn from it, grow, and move on.
Blessings.
Ken
Anyway, thanks for mentioning and posting this/that.
God Bless!
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