The mob hitman confessing his sins in church after another brutal killing is cliché. We instinctively know that God doesn’t forgive people so that they can go on sinning. Yet we struggle to understand the tension. We say things like “God gives you a clean slate,” and “Jesus helps you turn over a new leaf.” There’s a sense in which those statements are true, but they can also be misleading. God’s forgiveness isn’t like pressing CTRL-Z on your computer. It doesn’t erase the sin as if it never existed. The “guilt offering” or “reparation offering” in Leviticus helps to clarify the tension.

A sacrifice that was all about making things right

Each offering in Leviticus taught God’s people something different about the nature of sin and forgiveness. Despite the name, the purpose of the “guilt offering” wasn’t to make people feel guilty. It taught people about the debt of sin and the restitution required of His people. It dealt with sins like financial corruption (Leviticus 6:2), theft, and oppression (Leviticus 6:3). When the person became convinced of their wrong, they wouldn’t just confess it to the priest. And they didn’t just offer a sacrifice to God. They were to first go to the person whom they had wronged and restore to them whatever they had cheated them of. In fact, the law required that the person “restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt” (Leviticus 6:5). It was only then that he was to bring his sacrifice to the Lord and receive God’s forgiveness.

New Testament echoes of the Guilt Offering

Hundreds of years of guilt offerings shaped the conscience of the Jewish people. So, it’s not surprising that when someone like Zacchaeus who had extorted people’s money as a tax collector responded to Jesus’ message, his first instinct was to try to make things right. He immediately vowed to give half of his possessions to the poor and pay back four times the amount of anyone whom he had cheated (Luke 19:8). Similarly, John the Baptist called people to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8) and the Apostle Paul told people to perform “deeds in keeping with their repentance” (Acts 26:20). It’s not that you have to earn your forgiveness, but you do need to make things right.

A clean slate?

When you put your faith in Jesus, you’re not only completely forgiven by God but also credited with the righteousness of Christ (Philippians 3:9). And there’s nothing extra we have to do to earn it. But while our slate with God is wiped clean that doesn’t change the fact that there are people we may have hurt, wrongs we may have left undone, and things that we need to make right. A murderer can be forgiven by God but still need to go to jail.

In my case, I tried to list the people I felt I owed something to. I thought of something I had broken but never replaced and sent money and an apology. I thought of someone I had hurt deeply with my words and called to express my remorse. I wasn’t trying to earn God’s forgiveness or add to my salvation, but what Jesus did in making things right between me and God taught me that I needed to take measures to make things right between me and the people I had offended. The guilt offering reminds me of that.

Is there anyone you need to make things right with? Any wrongs you’ve left undone? God’s grace gives us the courage to face our sins rather than deny them. It offers us a new start with Him, but part of the new start involves taking responsibility for the people we’ve hurt. May God give you help as you do.

In awe of Him,

Paul