"My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!"
- Horatio G. Spafford, It Is Well With My Soul
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
been doing some thinking on the "all sins are equal in God's eyes" mentality. i've found that since starting seminary, i've been prone to pick a lot more theological nits than before. i think this is both good and bad (which leads me to think about the law of non-contradiction... darn you, christian apologetics.)
anywho... sitting around in Bible studies, a lot of churched people like to say "all sins are equal in God's eyes" because they also say/know that "we (churchy people) are no better than murderers, hitler, etc."
i'm gonna try to split some hairs here, because i believe we have a false dichotomy. it's true that no one is better than anyone else in the sense that no one is righteous (romans 3:10). this means that no one has or can merit their own salvation. ANY sin separates us from God. so yes, all sins have the same effect when it comes to earning us eternal judgment.
but, the phrase "all sins are equal to God" doesn't seem accurate. in exodus 21-23, God lays out the earthly punishments/consequences for different sins/infractions. not all wrongdoing resulted in capital punishment, but some did.
so, does God see all those sins equally and knows we don't, so He allowed for gradations of punishment? OR are there actual gradations to sin in God's eyes EVEN THOUGH the "smallest" of those sins separates us from Him?
thoughts? am i way off? stating the obvious?
i need to come up with a lighthearted survey for you people...
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Comments on "all sins are (not) equal":
2. III
- 04/02/2010 1:08 am CDT
I've had the same weird feeling whenever people say that too. Something just doesn't seem to match up with what the Bible has to say about sin. But I think that the sketchiness of the statement has to do with the context it's used in, or perhaps more specifically, what's being proved.
For instance, the main way I've heard it that kind of makes me want to disagree is when people are talking about judging whether or not someone is a Christian (and just cause I used the word "judging", I don't mean "passing judgement"). It goes something like this: "Since all sins are equal in God's eyes, then a a little pride is just as bad as killing someone, or doing drugs, etc. So you can't say that someone's not a Christian because they live in a habitual sin of incontinence, because you probably live in a habitual sin of pride". The logic sounds good, but the problem is that it seems to contradict nearly every epistle written.
Anyways, that's my two cents. It's a very good question, though--I still don't really have a satisfactory answer. One thing I do know: that God is holy and we are ALL sinful, and thus damned. But God, while we were dead, sent His Son to die for our sins and save us from God's wrath. And that is enough for me. (But don't get me wrong, I LOVE theological nitpicking. It's probably my favorite pastime)
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I feel like sin is sin, because it separates us from God; however, whenever people say that "all sin is the same in God's eyes" it makes it sound like God is an unaware, ignorant being. Obviously, that's not what these people mean :). But God created the order of the world, and with that made natural consequences for certain sins, some worse than others. If that makes sense. In any case - I don't think that all sin is the same in God's eyes, but at the same time, any sin separates us.