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חַטָּא (Chatta): The One Who Misses the Mark · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome to Reformed Thinking.
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  I am your host and I'm really glad you're here with us.
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  It's good to be here. We're going.
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  To spend the next hour or so trying to, well, to take our
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  theology seriously. We live in a culture that just
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  loves surface level answers to some very, very difficult
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  questions. Memes.
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  Sound bites. Exactly.
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  We like answers that fit on a bumper sticker, but here we
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  really try to slow down. We want to open the text, look
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  at the history, and actually grapple with what Scripture is
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  saying to us. And you're so, so right.
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  Skimming the surface. It rarely helps anyone when the
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  storms of life actually hit. Our whole goal here is to look
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  at scripture and truth through a a very specific lens, the lens
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  of the Reformation. We're trying to stand on the
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  shoulders of giants, you know, looking at sola scriptura,
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  scripture alone and the doctrines of grace, all while
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  keeping 1 foot firmly planted in the Westminster Confession of
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  Faith. And today we're doing something
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  that I think is going to be incredibly helpful for you
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  listening, though I'll admit it might sound a little
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  intimidating at first. We are doing a word study.
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  Yeah. Before anyone hits the stop
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  button thinking we're just going to read a dictionary for an
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  hour. Just hold on.
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  We're looking at a specific Hebrew word today.
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  And to clarify for everyone listening, this is not just a
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  general conversation about, you know, bad behavior or a list of
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  rules. We're looking at a specific
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  linguistic examination of a Hebrew term.
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  We're going right to the lexicons.
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  We're looking at Brown Driver Briggs, which is, I mean, it's
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  the gold standard for Hebrew definition.
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  It really is. And the theological word book of
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  the Old Testament, which people often just call TWOT.
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  We're going to the data, yeah. The mission for this deep dive
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  is to examine the definition, the grammatical intensity, which
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  is something I didn't realize was so critical until we started
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  prepping for this. Yeah.
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  That's a big one. And the usage of this word to
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  really understand the biblical anthropology of man, because I
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  think usually when we think of sin, we think of an action, we
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  think of something we did wrong yesterday.
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  But this word I'd suggest something about about identity.
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  It does. It absolutely does.
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  We need to see how this word paints a picture of human
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  nature, and this connects directly to what the Westminster
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  Shorter Catechism calls original corruption.
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  OK. We're going to see that the
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  Hebrew language itself, I mean, the very grammar it supports the
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  doctrine that we're not just people who make mistakes.
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  We are people with a specific nature that defines us from
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  birth. So just to give a quick overview
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  of where we're getting this information, we're pulling from
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  Strong's number 2400 TWOT entry 638 B, and we're going to look
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  at grammatical analysis and some really specific uses in books
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  like Genesis, Amos, and the Psalms.
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  So let's unpack this. I guess we have to start at the
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  beginning with the root word. The root is essential.
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  You have to understand the root to get the branch.
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  So the word we are studying the noun ada.
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  It comes from the verb root Stow OK in Strong's.
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  That's number 2398 and the basic.
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  The most fundamental definition of that verb is to miss.
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  To miss a mark. Yeah.
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  I feel like most people who've, you know, grown up in church
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  have heard this analogy. It's the archery term.
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  You stand at the line, you air at the target.
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  You let the arrow fly and it if it falls short or it goes wide,
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  you miss the mark. That is the common illustration,
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  and it's helpful, but only to a point.
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  It gives you the visual of a target, a standard.
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  But we have to be really careful not to reduce it to, you know,
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  just an accident, right? When you miss a target in
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  archery, it might be because the wind blew or maybe your arm was
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  tired. It sounds almost morally
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  neutral. Oops, I missed.
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  I tried my best, but I just didn't quite make it.
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  Yeah, that doesn't sound like a biblical definition of sin at
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  all. It isn't, not even close.
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  If we look at the source material, specifically the
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  semantic domain, it defines it as moral guilt and violating a
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  standard. OK, so moral guilt.
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  That's a lot heavier than oops. A lot heavier.
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  So while missing the mark is the literal root, meaning the
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  theological nuances that you are offending a standard, you are
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  not just missing a bull's eye on a target, you are failing to
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  meet the requirements of the law giver.
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  So it implies there's a standard and it's set by God and I have
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  failed to meet it. It completely removes that
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  accidental nature of it. Correct.
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  But here's where we need to slow down and get just a little bit
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  technical for a moment. We are primarily talking about
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  the verb, the Yeah today, right? We are talking about the
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  adjective or the noun form. Yeah, and there is a very
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  specific grammatical note in our sources that completely changes
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  how we have to understand this word.
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  I saw this in the notes and I highlighted it because I
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  honestly did not understand it at first.
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  The source references something called Commet's Impure.
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  It sounds like a strange medical condition or, I don't know, a
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  potion from a fantasy novel. He has a bad case of the
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  commet's impure. What are we looking at here?
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  It does sound mysterious, doesn't it?
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  But it's just grammar. In Hebrew, vowels are usually,
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  well, they're flexible. They can change length or sound
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  depending on where the word sits in the sentence or what
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  prepositions are attached to it. They're fluid.
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  OK, so normally the vowels shift around a bit.
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  They adapt. Right, but it commits impure.
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  Specifically, in this particular noun pattern is unchangeable.
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  It's locked in. It's a long a sound that
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  absolutely refuses to shorten no matter what you do to the word.
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  It's stubborn. It's very stubborn, yeah.
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  And in Hebrew grammar, when you see this specific vowel
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  structure locked into a noun like this, it signals something
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  very specific about the word. It indicates an intensive form.
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  Intensive meaning, emphatic, like you're shouting the word.
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  It's not quite shouting intensive, meaning it indicates
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  an occupation or a habitual characteristic.
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  This is the difference between describing an action and
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  describing a profession. OK, I think I need an analogy
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  here. Help me visualize.
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  OK, let's. Take Let's take the game of
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  golf. You can go out to a driving
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  range today. You can rent a club, buy a
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  bucket of balls and hit them. You are golfing.
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  That's the verb. You're engaging in the action of
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  hitting a golf ball. I can do that.
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  I might not do it well at all, but I can do it but.
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  If I ask you, are you a golfer with a capital G, what do you
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  say? I say absolutely not.
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  I am a guy who hacks at a ball twice a year, if that.
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  Right. To be a golfer implies that this
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  is what you do. It characterizes you.
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  It's your identity. It might even be your
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  profession. You wake up thinking about it,
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  you train for it. It is who you are.
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  So the grammar this commets impure, it acts like that
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  professional label. Precisely.
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  That's a perfect way to put it. It turns the verb to sin into
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  the occupational noun Sinner. So when the Bible uses this
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  specific intensive form, it is not describing someone who
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  slipped up once. It's not the guy who golfed
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  once. No, it is describing a mark
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  misser, a professional, someone whose very nature, whose very
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  being, is characterized by missing the mark.
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  That is a heavy, heavy distinction.
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  It means we're not talking about behavior management anymore.
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  We're talking about ontology. We're talking about being.
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  And the source definition we have even uses the phrase
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  burdened with guilt. It implies a state of being.
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  You are carrying this identity around with you.
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  This fits so perfectly with the Reformed understanding of total
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  depravity. I remember hearing a pastor say
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  once, we aren't sinners because we sin, we sin because we are
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  sinners. And I always thought that was
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  just a clever turn of phrase, a good line for a sermon.
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  But you're telling me the Hebrew grammar actually mandates that
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  view? The grammar supports it
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  undeniably. The status precedes the action.
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  The nature of the Thea, the Sinner, is the root cause of the
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  acts of sin. We're dealing with an intensive
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  noun, a label of identity that is locked in just like that
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  vowel is locked in. And that leads us right into our
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  next section then, because we have to see who this label is
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  applied to. If this is such an intense
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  label, essentially calling someone a professional Sinner,
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  we need to know who fits the bill, and the first place the
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  sources take us is the book of Genesis.
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  Genesis 1313. Very famous text and it sets the
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  first biblical precedent for how this word is used.
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  It's speaking about the men of Sodom.
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  Right, the text says, Now the men of Sodom were wicked great
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  singers against the Lord, and that word for sinners is our
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  word aelim, which is just the plural of lay and lay.
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  And notice the phrasing there. It doesn't just say they were
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  sinners, they were wicked and sinners.
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  Why both? Seems a little redundant.
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  Well, wicked describes their actions, their evil deeds.
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  But adding sinners, you know, describes their nature.
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  It's defining their character. It describes a class of persons.
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  And notice who it's all against. Against the Lord.
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  Against Yahweh. Right.
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  That is such an important distinction.
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  We often think of sin as, you know, hurting other people.
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  And obviously, looking at the narrative of Sodom later in
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  Genesis 19, they were doing plenty of that.
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  They were violent, abusive, horrifically inhospitable
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  people, Absolutely. But the text identifies their
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  status primarily in relation to God.
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  All sin is ultimately theomorphic.
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  Theomorphic meaning against God's form.
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  Against God's form, God's character, God's law.
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  Whether you're lying to a neighbor or stealing from your
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  boss, you are fundamentally violating the standard of the
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  Creator. So in Genesis 13, we see this
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  label applied to the bad guys. These are the outsiders.
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  These are the people who are so bad that fire is eventually
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  going to come down from heaven and wipe them out.
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  Right. And I think it's very easy for
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  us to read that and say, OK, sure, Sodom, Those guys were
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  definitely Factum. They were the worst of the
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  worst. It feels comfortable to leave
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  that label over there. Creates a nice neat boundary.
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  It does. Over there are the aims, the
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  professional centers, and over here are US, the nice religious
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  people. It's a very comfortable
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  theological wall to build. Isn't it?
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  It is. But the Bible doesn't let us
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  keep that wall standing for very long.
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  Because if you just keep reading, you get to the Book of
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  Numbers and the context changes dramatically.
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  OK, we're looking at Numbers 32 verse 14.
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  This is a fascinating scene. The Israelites are right on the
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  edge of the promised land. The tribes of Gad and Reuben
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  come to Moses and say, essentially, you know what?
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  We like the land on this side of the Jordan.
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  It's good for our livestock. We don't want to crossover.
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  And Moses is furious. He's absolutely incandescent.
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  He remembers what happened 40 years prior.
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  He remembers the spies who refused to enter the land, and
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  how that one act of unbelief caused an entire generation to
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  die in the wilderness. He sees history repeating itself
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  right before his eyes. And he just lashes out at them.
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  He calls them a brood of sinful men and assume seem.
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  He uses the exact same word, the same label that describes Sodom,
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  but now he is applying it to the covenant people of God.
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  And that word brood, it's very evocative in Hebrew.
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  It implies an increase, a growth.
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  It's almost an agricultural term.
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  Like a crop, like something that's been cultivated.
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  Exactly like a crop that is sprouted up.
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  Moses is looking at these tribes this next generation and saying
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  you are a new crop of the same poisonous plant.
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  You writing just like your father's.
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  The source definition here uses the word fallible.
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  It says fallible, sinful. Fallible is a gentle English
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  word for it, but in this context, connected to that brood
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  imagery, it means liable to air, prone to wandering.
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  It suggests that the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree
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  at all. This connects so deeply to the
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  reformed view of the transmission of corruption,
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  doesn't it? The idea that sin isn't just
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  something we choose, it's something passed down.
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  Yes. We don't start with a blank
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  slate. We are born into a brood.
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  We are born into a humanity that is already vivid.
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  We see this generational guilt. Moses isn't just critiquing
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  their current decision to stay on one side of the Jordan.
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  He's critiquing their very nature.
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  He is saying you are a crop of professional sinners rising up
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  in your Father's place to add to the fierce anger of the Lord
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  against Israel. So again and again it points
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  back to that habitual nature we talked about with the grammar.
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  The source definition says sinful, inclined to sin.
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  It's an inclination. The heart is the problem.
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  That is what the adjective form drives home.
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  It's an inclination. It's not just an event.
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  If it were just an event, a mistake, we could fix it with
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  better education or better laws or a better environment.
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  But if it's an inclination, if it's our very nature, then we
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  need something much, much more radical than that.
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  And that actually transitions us perfectly to the next section of
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  this, because if we're saying this is a nature and we now see
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  it applied not just to Sodom but to the tribes of Israel, we have
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  to deal with the fact that the Sinner is found within the
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  covenant. This is where it starts to get
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  really uncomfortable for us. This is the hard truth.
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  It is very easy to look at Sodom and say they are the sinners.
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  It is much harder to look at the visible church or in the Old
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  Testament context, the nation of Israel, and see the same label
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  being applied. Oh, but the prophets force us to
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  look. Let's look at Amos.
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  Amos is never a light read. He's this country preacher who
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  goes to the city, to the northern Kingdom to tell him
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  just how corrupt they are. And in Amos Chapter 9 verse 8,
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  he uses a phrase that is honestly, it's terrifying.
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  He says, Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful
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  Kingdom. Amalos, yeah, the sinful
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  Kingdom, and he is 100% talking about the Northern Kingdom of
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  Israel, Samaria. That is just shocking if you
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  stop and think about it. This is the chosen nation.
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  They have the history, they have the promises, they have the
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  identity of being God's people. They probably had bumper
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  stickers on their chariot saying Yahweh's chosen.
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  And yet God through the prophet characterizes the entire Kingdom
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  with this adjective Isa. It shows us that God does not
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  grade on a curve. We often think, well, I'm part
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  of the church or I'm part of a Christian family, so I'm safe.
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  But Amos is just shattering that presumption.
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  He's the source notes from commentators like Hoyt and
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  Garrett here. They point out that a nation
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  could be chosen and yet still be characterized as a sinful
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  Kingdom. So God is looking at the entire
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  entity of Israel and saying you have become Sodom.
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  Essentially, yes, in terms of your nature, your character,
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  your inclination. He is taking the label we
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  thought was reserved for the worst of the worst and applying
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  it to his own visible people. And then just two verses later
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  in Amos 9.10, he gets even more specific.
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  He says, All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword.
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  All the sinners of my people. That is a very specific phrase.
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  A at Eni. There's a distinction being
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  drawn here, isn't there? A huge one.
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  It's the distinction between the visible and the enviable church.
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  This is a core Reformed concept. Within the visible group called
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  My People, which was Israel then or the visible church now,
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  there's a subgroup identified as Eni, the Sinners.
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  So just because you are in the crowd, just because you are a
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  citizen in the sinful Kingdom, broadly speaking, or even
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  sitting in the visible assembly on a Sunday morning, it doesn't
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  mean you are exempt from this title.
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  You hit the nail on the head. Not everyone who is called my
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  people externally is free from the status of Anus internally.
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  This reinforces the doctrine that membership in the Covenant
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  community on the outside does not guarantee inward
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  regeneration. There are sinners of my people
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  who are essentially indistinguishable in nature from
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  the sinners of Sodom, despite their different outward
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  affiliations. That is a sobering, sobering
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  thought. It really makes you question
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  where your confidence lies. Is it in your label?
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  Is it in the fact that your grandfather was a Deacon?
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  Or is it in a true change of nature?
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  It strips away all the external securities.
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  All of them. If Israel can be the sinful
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  Kingdom, then no external label can possibly save us.
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  And that leads us to investigate what this guilt actually is,
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  because there's another definition in our source
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  material that I think is the most technically interesting one
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  for our theology. It took me a minute to wrap my
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  head around it. You're referring to the forensic
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  definition. Yes, the source defines not just
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  as one who sins, but as one who bears blame.
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  Or one counted, culpable counted.
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  Culpable. That's legal language.
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  That's courtroom language right there.
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  And the example used is First Kings 1.21.
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  This is the story of Bathsheba and David, and we really need to
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  set the scene here because it's a bit of a political thriller.
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  David is old, he is about to die and the sharks are circling.
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  There's a massive power struggle going on for the throne.
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  Right. Adonija, David's other son, is
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  trying to seize the throne for himself, but God has promised
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  the throne to Solomon, who is Bathsheba's son.
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  So Bathsheba rushes in to see David.
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  She's desperate. She said.
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  David, you promised Solomon would be king.
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  And then she says this line. Otherwise it will come to pass
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  when my Lord the king sleeps with his father's, that I and my
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  son Solomon will be offenders. And the word she uses for
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  offenders is Liam. OK, now think about that
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  carefully. Have Bathsheba and Solomon done
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  anything immoral in this context?
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  Have they robbed a bank? Have they worshipped an idol?
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  Have they lied? No, they haven't done anything
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  sinful in the behavioral sense we usually think of.
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  In fact, they're trying to ensure the rightful, God
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  ordained king takes the throne. They're the good guys in this
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  scene. Spot on.
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  So why in the world does she call herself a boot?
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  Why does she use the Sodom word to describe herself and her son?
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  She means that if Adonaija becomes king, she and Solomon
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  will be treated as criminals. They'll be executed as traitors
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  to the new regime. They will be counted culpable.
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  They will bear the blame. This is a massive concept for
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  understanding biblical theology. Theater isn't always about what
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  you are doing in that specific moment.
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  It's about your legal standing before the king.
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  If a dodge is the king, their legal standing is Sinner
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  offender, regardless of their personal morality.
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  This connects directly to the doctrine of justification,
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  doesn't it? It connects to justification and
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  even more specifically to the doctrine of imputation in First
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  Kings. They fear being counted as
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  sinners politically, but theologically this explains how
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  we can be born sinners. Because of Adam.
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  Yes, yes, federal headship in Adam, our representative.
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  We are counted culpable. We are reckoned as offenders.
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  It's a legal status. We are born into the status of
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  ADA. We bear the blame of the
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  covenant head even before an infant has committed a
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  behavioral sin. They're born into a state of
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  legal culpability because of their connection to the first
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  Adam. That is such a hard pill for
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  modern individualist to swallow. We want to believe we stand or
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  fall entirely on our own record, but the Bible says we're born
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  with a record already. But the flip side of that, the
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  glorious side of it, is the gospel.
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  Because if guilt can be imputed or counted to someone who didn't
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  necessarily do the Jeep personally, like Bathsheba
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  fearing she would be counted A traitor, then righteousness can
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  also be imputed. That is the hope, that is the
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  whole thing. And Christ can be counted as
• 18:44
  sin. Remember 2 Corinthians 5.21.
• 18:47
  For our sake He made him to be sin.
• 18:49
  Who knew no sin. Christ became the athea in a
• 18:52
  legal, forensic sense. He was counted culpable so that
• 18:56
  we in turn could be counted righteous.
• 18:58
  So Achat describes a legal problem just as much as a moral
• 19:02
  one. It's about where you stand in
• 19:04
  the courtroom. It's about who the king is and
• 19:06
  what your status is in his book. This.
• 19:08
  Is about your status, yeah, and that status dictates your
• 19:11
  destiny, unless there's a radical intervention from the
• 19:14
  king himself. So moving on from there, we see
• 19:16
  that the status of being AI has social implications too.
• 19:19
  We aren't just sinners in a courtroom in isolation.
• 19:21
  We are sinners in a community and the source material lists a
• 19:25
  ton of usages in the wisdom literature, Psalms, and
• 19:27
  Proverbs. It does, and what we see there
• 19:31
  pretty consistently is that the dado is rarely alone.
• 19:34
  They have a community. Let's look at Psalm One.
• 19:37
  I mean, it's the gateway to the entire Book of Songs.
• 19:40
  Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
• 19:43
  nor stands in the way of sinners.
• 19:45
  That's our word. I have them.
• 19:47
  And then later in verse 5 it says the wicked will not stand
• 19:50
  at the judgement nor sinners in the congregation of the
• 19:53
  righteous. The source notes here really
• 19:55
  emphasizes contrast. You have two groups, Sadikim the
• 19:59
  righteous, and they're the sinners. 2 camps, 2 ways.
• 20:03
  But look at the progression in Psalm 1.
• 20:06
  Walking, then standing, then sitting.
• 20:08
  It feels like a settling in the Robin has a way.
• 20:11
  A path. It's a lifestyle, it's a
• 20:13
  trajectory. The Dieter isn't just someone
• 20:15
  who stumbles off the right path occasionally.
• 20:17
  They have their own path. They have a way and notice they
• 20:19
  have a council. A worldview.
• 20:22
  Worldview, A philosophy of life that they share with one
• 20:25
  another. A set of values.
• 20:27
  And Proverbs really picks up on this theme of influence.
• 20:29
  Proverbs 1.10 says, My son, if sinners entice you, do not
• 20:33
  consent. And then Proverbs 23.1 C Do not
• 20:36
  let your heart envy sinners. If sinners entice you, that word
• 20:40
  entice is so crucial. The Vioms are active.
• 20:43
  They're evangelist for their own destruction.
• 20:45
  They want company. Depravity loves company.
• 20:48
  It really does. The Sinner is not neutral.
• 20:51
  I think we sometimes have this idea that people who don't know
• 20:54
  God are just sort of neutral, wandering around harmlessly.
• 20:58
  But Proverbs says no. They entice.
• 21:01
  They are actively pulling you towards their path.
• 21:04
  They want validation for their own rebellion.
• 21:06
  And what about that warning in Proverbs 23 about envy?
• 21:09
  Do not let your heart envy sinners.
• 21:10
  Why would we envy them? If they're the bad guys, why
• 21:13
  would we want to be like them? Because sometimes their path
• 21:15
  looks fun, sometimes it looks profitable.
• 21:18
  They might be winning in the marketplace.
• 21:20
  They might have the power. Remember, in Bathsheba's day,
• 21:23
  the sinners were the ones who are about to take the throne.
• 21:26
  It's easy to envy the winning team, at least in the short
• 21:29
  term. But the wisdom literature is
• 21:31
  constantly reminding us to look at the end of that path.
• 21:34
  The way of the OEM will perish. That is the promise, the warning
• 21:38
  of Psalm One. It is a dead end, literally.
• 21:42
  So we have this really heavy picture.
• 21:44
  We have a word that means missing the mark, but
• 21:47
  grammatically implies an intense, habitual, professional
• 21:50
  nature. We see it applied to Sodom, but
• 21:53
  then, chillingly, to Israel. We see it as a forensic legal
• 21:57
  status of guilt, and we see it as a pathway, a lifestyle that
• 22:01
  tries to pull others in. It's a pretty bleak picture of
• 22:04
  the anthropology of man. If we stop there, it would be
• 22:07
  hopeless. Completely hopeless.
• 22:09
  The diagnosis is terminal. We are theoem.
• 22:11
  We are the sinful Kingdom. We are the brood.
• 22:14
  But, and here's where this whole study gets so interesting, the
• 22:17
  word itself contains a plot twist.
• 22:19
  It does. This is one of those linguistic
• 22:20
  paradoxes that makes Hebrew so rich and, frankly, so beautiful.
• 22:25
  We talked about the root verb Theo, and we've been talking
• 22:28
  about the known OO, but there's another verb form mentioned in
• 22:31
  the source context, the pilo form.
• 22:33
  OK, we have to go back to our grammar lesson for just a
• 22:35
  second. The peel stem in Hebrew is
• 22:38
  usually intensive or causative. So if you have a word like
• 22:42
  break, the peel form might mean to smash to pieces.
• 22:46
  It ramps it up. So naturally I assume that if
• 22:49
  the root means to sin, the peel form would mean to sin really
• 22:53
  really bad to super SIM. That would be the logical
• 22:57
  assumption. That's what I would think too,
• 22:58
  but in this case it does something technically called
• 23:00
  primitive, which is a fancy way of saying it means to remove the
• 23:04
  thing specified. So it means to unsin to take the
• 23:07
  sin away. Literally, yes.
• 23:08
  It means to cleanse or to purify from sin.
• 23:11
  It means today sin. That is incredible.
• 23:14
  The same root for the disease is used for the cure.
• 23:16
  It's like if the word for cancer also had a verb form that meant
• 23:19
  to cure cancer. That is a great way to put it.
• 23:21
  The sources point is to Leviticus 8.15 and Exodus 29.36.
• 23:27
  This describes the action of purifying the altar in the
• 23:29
  Tabernacle. So when they would make a
• 23:31
  sacrifice, they would take the blood and put it on the horns of
• 23:35
  the altar to purify it, and the word used for that action is
• 23:39
  gaeva in the peel. They would descend the altar.
• 23:43
  And the source emphasizes the cleansing or purifying effect of
• 23:47
  the blood. This is vital.
• 23:49
  Sin contaminates everything. It doesn't just contaminate
• 23:52
  people. In the Old Testament worldview,
• 23:54
  it contaminated the sanctuary. It contaminated the ground.
• 23:57
  It was like spiritual nuclear fallout.
• 24:00
  It made everything radioactive with guilt.
• 24:02
  So the sin offering, which in Hebrew is called the foot, a
• 24:06
  very closely related word, it deals with the sin the.
• 24:09
  Sinner right you have the eh the person bringing of lemon mine to
• 24:12
  be 8 purified sin. That is a tongue twister, but I
• 24:15
  totally see the connection. It's all wrapped up in one
• 24:18
  concept. The problem and the solution are
• 24:20
  linguistically tied together. But there's one verse in
• 24:22
  particular that brings this home to the individual in the most
• 24:25
  personal way imaginable. Psalm 51, verse 7.
• 24:29
  This is David's great prayer of repentance.
• 24:31
  We all know the context. He has slept with Bathsheba.
• 24:34
  He has murdered her husband Uriah.
• 24:36
  He is absolutely crushed. In the Hebrew text, it's verse
• 24:40
  9. He cries out, Purify me with
• 24:42
  hyssop and I shall be clean. Purify me.
• 24:45
  The word there is tookie nigh. It is that peel verb.
• 24:48
  He's pleading dace in me. Unsend me.
• 24:51
  And the source notes a fascinating detail here about
• 24:54
  the hyssop. I had never connected this
• 24:55
  before. It says hyssop was used for two
• 24:58
  very specific, very serious things, corpse contamination in
• 25:02
  numbers 19 and skin disease or leprosy in Leviticus 14.
• 25:06
  It wasn't the standard tool for a standard sin offering.
• 25:09
  This gives us such a window into David's mind, into his spiritual
• 25:13
  state. David isn't just saying God I
• 25:15
  broke a rule. He isn't saying I made a moral
• 25:17
  error. He is viewing himself through
• 25:19
  the lens of extreme ritual contamination.
• 25:21
  He. Feels like a leper, unclean,
• 25:23
  untouchable. He feels like a leper.
• 25:25
  He feels like a corpse. He feels like he has touched
• 25:27
  death itself. His sin has made him so unclean
• 25:30
  that he needs the heavy duty detergent.
• 25:31
  He needs the special cleansing agent.
• 25:33
  He needs the hyssop. That is so powerful he is asking
• 25:36
  for a radical ritual cleansing that he knows only God can
• 25:41
  provide. He knows he can't wash himself.
• 25:44
  He needs God to do the verb Dean to him to change his status as a
• 25:47
  noun Dean. And just to round this all out,
• 25:50
  we should probably look at how this translated into the New
• 25:52
  Testament, because we're Christians reading the Old
• 25:54
  Testament and we want to see the bridge.
• 25:56
  The sources mentioned the Greek Septuagint alignments.
• 25:59
  Yes, the Septuagint or LXX is the Greek translation of the Old
• 26:04
  Testament. It was, for all intents and
• 26:06
  purposes, the Bible of the early church, and the keyword they
• 26:09
  chose to translate the E is Hamartoulis.
• 26:12
  That sounds very familiar to anyone who's done any New
• 26:14
  Testament studies. It should.
• 26:16
  It is the standard New Testament word for Sinner.
• 26:19
  The source list we looked at found it aligning with our
• 26:21
  Hebrew word 12 times. It was their go to translation.
• 26:25
  And they also use words like Espy's which is ungodly and
• 26:28
  animos lawless. Which just confirms that status
• 26:32
  or identity aspect we've been talking about.
• 26:35
  Enormous means you are without law.
• 26:37
  It's a state of being, as Sabres means you are ungodly in your
• 26:40
  nature. These are not just descriptions
• 26:42
  of actions, they are descriptions of character.
• 26:45
  But Hamartulis is the big one, because when we get to the
• 26:47
  Gospels, this word becomes a technical term for a whole
• 26:50
  social group. Who does Jesus hang out with?
• 26:54
  Tax collectors and sinners. Hamartuloi.
• 26:56
  He eats with the ovum. This is the beauty of it.
• 26:59
  The Pharisees, the religious elite, they looked at the ovum,
• 27:02
  the people who are habitually unclean, the brood of sinful
• 27:05
  men, and they separated themselves.
• 27:07
  They reference Psalm 1. Do not sit in the seat of
• 27:10
  scoffers. They thought.
• 27:12
  We are the righteous. We cannot be contaminated by
• 27:15
  these people. But Jesus completely flips it.
• 27:18
  Jesus comes for the omen. He comes for the fallible, the
• 27:20
  burdened with guilt. He comes for the people defined
• 27:23
  by this intensive noun. He doesn't avoid the leper, he
• 27:26
  touches the leper. He comes to apply the peel verb
• 27:30
  to purify, to descend. To purify through his own blood,
• 27:34
  just like the altar was purified in the Old Testament, He becomes
• 27:38
  then offering the descend to descend the Sinner, the loyvae.
• 27:43
  So let's bring this all home. What does this all mean for us
• 27:45
  today? Let's try to summarize what
• 27:47
  we've learned, because we've covered a lot of ground here.
• 27:49
  OK, well, first we've learned that the word Loya is an
• 27:52
  intensive form. It describes A habitual Sinner.
• 27:55
  It describes a status of guilt. It describes a nature that
• 27:58
  misses the mark not by accident, but by inclination.
• 28:02
  We are Mark Messers by trade. 2nd, we learned about that legal
• 28:07
  aspect from First Kings 1.21 and the story of Bathsheba.
• 28:11
  We saw that we are counted as offenders.
• 28:14
  It's a forensic standing before the king and we're born into
• 28:16
  this standing. We are born with a guilty
• 28:18
  record. And 3rd we saw the hope.
• 28:21
  The word itself contains the seed of its own solution, the
• 28:24
  verb to purify, to descend. And that purification requires
• 28:27
  blood. It requires an intervention from
• 28:29
  outside of us. We cannot descend ourselves.
• 28:32
  David didn't say I will wash myself with hyssop, He said
• 28:34
  purify me. It is a request for grace.
• 28:37
  That is the Reformed doctrine of grace right there.
• 28:40
  In a nutshell. Total depravity says we are the
• 28:44
  A a unconditional election and irresistible grace say that God
• 28:47
  steps in to do the purifying. He chooses to apply the hyssop.
• 28:52
  And limited Atonement says that the blood is effective for his
• 28:55
  people, even the sinners of his people, who turn to Him in
• 28:58
  faith. Exactly.
• 28:59
  It's a complete salvation for complete corruption.
• 29:02
  It has to be. OK, here's a final provocative
• 29:04
  thought for our listeners to Mull over this week.
• 29:06
  The source defined Birdie as one burdened with guilt.
• 29:10
  We saw in Amos that the sinful Kingdom could not escape
• 29:13
  judgement. We saw in Psalm one that the way
• 29:16
  of sinners perishes. It's a stark reality the Bible
• 29:20
  is not playing games with this word.
• 29:22
  There are internal consequences to this status.
• 29:24
  So if you're listening to this and you view your own sin as
• 29:27
  merely making mistakes, if you think I'm basically a good
• 29:30
  person who just hits the ball into the rough sometimes, you
• 29:33
  might be missing the entire point of the biblical diagnosis.
• 29:36
  You might be severely underestimating your condition,
• 29:38
  and if you underestimate the disease, you will always, always
• 29:41
  undervalue the cure. The challenge is this.
• 29:44
  Do you understand yourself as a Fang?
• 29:47
  As someone whose very nature requires A forensic change of
• 29:51
  status before the king? Because if you don't think you
• 29:54
  are a thumb, you won't think you need the fan.
• 29:56
  You won't think you need the sin offering.
• 29:58
  And only the E gets to sit at the table with Jesus.
• 30:01
  Remember his words. I came not to call the
• 30:04
  righteous, but sinners. That is the great paradox, isn't
• 30:08
  it? The only way to be declared safe
• 30:10
  is to admit you are the Sinner. The only way to be counted as
• 30:14
  righteous is to admit you have no righteousness of your own.
• 30:17
  Amen. It's the beggars who get the
• 30:19
  bread. Well, that's all the time we
• 30:21
  have for this deep dive. We really hope this word study
• 30:23
  has opened up the text for you and maybe change the way you
• 30:26
  read your Old Testament. Keep studying, keep digging, the
• 30:30
  text always has more to give. This has been reformed thinking.
• 30:33
  Thank you for listening.