This is from John 9:39-41 ESV.
When I was a child, one of the clever things I did was to make it a point to not ask my mom for permission to do something, if what I wanted to do was in question of right or wrong. That way, when I did something without her permission, and if it would have been something that she would have said 'no' to, I would reason that I just didn't know it was wrong. In a sense, I would not be accountable for the wrong action. I would have played ignorance in it. I would have been blind in my wrong doing and therefore not accountable.
It would be like my saying to my mom "Well, you didn't say I couldn't do this" because she didn't say I couldn't do that particular thing, because I never asked.
I think sometimes we play that game with God. Some of us would rather not know what God says about His boundaries, simply because we don't want to give account of those things we want to hold onto.
But, regardless of our intentions, we are still accountable. If there is a question of what we want to do as being right or wrong, then we know the possibility of it being wrong is there. If we can carry out an activity and are 100% sure that it is ok with God to do this, then we are probably on safe ground. But deep down inside all of us is a conscience, and our conscience works 24/7. There are some things we intuitively know whether they are right or wrong.
As soon as I blamed my baby brother for the spilled milk that I poured onto the floor, I knew I had done wrong. My conscience told me that I was overstepping my boundaries. And I was only 3 at the time.
We will not be able to play the ignorance game with God. We can shun His word and reject His rules, but we all know some things concerning right and wrong, and we know we have violated them at times.
That's why we need a Savior.
