The World and the Word

                The Difference between Sin and Evil

Numbers 15:24-36 records a perfect description of the difference between sins of weakness and deliberate sins. In these verses, the Bible (KJB) informs about "sins of ignorance" which also means sins caused by weakness. The presence of evil within the beings of every human inevitably causes living humans to sin and leaves them ignorant of how to overcome their sins and evil. God's Word tells them how they can. If the entire congregation of the Israelites trusted in the sacrifices that the priests made for them, then God would forgive them. Verse 29 extends this trust in sacrifices to strangers which includes the entire human race. Every sin, no matter how terrible, that any living human can commit, God will forgive if that sinner will trust in the sacrifice of Christ that He made for him when he confesses that he sinned because of his weakness and believes that only Christ can save him. He must believe that Christ has taken his sins away from him. This confession amounts to both repentance and faith which are inseparable. The difference between sin and evil is that sin carries within it the possibility of repentance and faith which will always reconcile a living human with God, whereas evil, which is spiritual death, never repents. All living humans will eventually repent of sins of weakness and come to faith that only Christ can take them away. But deliberate sins, which never repents and are totally evil, God will separate from all living humans for Him to cast into the lake of fire. John 5:24; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:11-15; Hebrews 2:9.

The burnt offerings that the priests made symbolize God's lesser form of salvation achieved by Christ's descent into Hell for all living humans whom God had to consign to one of the three regions of death because they did not repent while still alive in the flesh. But God will cause them to repent and believe of their own free will in the sacrifice of the Lamb as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. When these living humans repent and believe, God will use His fiery wrath against evil to separate their evil, spiritual deaths from their cleansed, living souls and spirits, and He will cast their spiritual deaths into the lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15. God will be able to separate their living souls and spirits from their spiritual deaths because Christ left all of their sins and evil that He bore for them on the cross behind in the regions of death when He rose immaculate from the dead. Psalm 16:10; Hebrews 2:9. God will provide His lesser form of salvation for all these living humans when He cleanses them of all remaining sins of weakness with the blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross and recreates them with new bodies to live righteous lives on His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5; John 5:28-29. God will save with a higher and lower form of salvation all living humans because of His Almighty Love for them. I Corinthians 13:8. The Bible teaches in many passages of scripture that God will reconcile everything to Himself that has been stained by sin. Colossians 1:15-23; Romans 8:18-23; Romans 11:36; Psalm 36:6; I Timothy 4:10; I Timothy 6:13; I Corinthians 15:22; Revelation 21:5; Revelation 22:11-12; John 5:28-29.