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Podcast
Are All Sins The Same
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, and today I want to address the question, are all sins the same?
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It seems that whenever we evangelicals deal with someone committing a difficult or devastating
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sin today, before long somebody will come along and say something like, well, you know,
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we're all sinners.
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Jesus paid for all our sins, so sins are all the same.
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This has become such a pat answer that the idea that has entered our casual theology
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and repeatedly repeated.
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First I'll present the case against the idea that all sins are the same.
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Most who write about this have done what I would do if I were writing a paper.
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First they go through the presentation of the gospel, saying all sin is sin, it requires
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the blood of Christ, and it's applied only by receiving of a Savior, followed by a list
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of salvation references.
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Then they go on to point out that both practically and biblically, it's clear that all sins are
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not the same.
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The Bible specifically says some sins are greater.
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It cannot be denied that some sins and judgments for some sins are clearly stated as greater
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than others.
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I'll read a couple of them for you.
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Mark 12 40, beware of the scribes who devour widows' houses and for appearance sake offer
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long prayers.
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Those will receive greater condemnation.
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So here you have scribes getting greater condemnation.
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And Luke 12, at the end of the parable, he says, and that slave who knew his master's
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will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will will receive many lashes.
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But the one who did not know it and committed deeds worthy of a flogging will receive but
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few.
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From everyone who has been given much, much is required.
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And to whom he has entrusted much of him they will ask all the more.
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John 19 11, this is Jesus to Pilate in his trial.
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You would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above.
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For this reason he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.
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There's a judgment sometimes in this life and always in the next of individual sins
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for both believers and unbelievers.
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Judgments for individual sins would make no sense if all sins were the same.
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And the Bible is filled with statements about judgments for individual sins.
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Practical application refills the greater devastation of certain sins.
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Lust and adultery are both sins of the same sort.
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Murder and anger are both sins of the same sort.
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But one is clearly more devastating than the other.
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Someone bullying your daughter and someone raping your daughter are clearly not the same.
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So there's a big gap between the casual theology of many evangelicals who claim all sins are
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the same and the teaching of most of all the Bible-believing theologians, teachers,
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and writers who point out the difference.
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It's actually hard to find a scholarly paper supporting the idea that all sins are the
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same unless they're supporting divorce, remarriage, or homosexuality or something like that.
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So then why do so many evangelicals say all sins are the same?
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Well, it's a bit speculative, but three things come to mind.
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Number one, many evangelicals tend to focus on the gospel and ignore the holiness of God
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and the rest of the Bible for that matter.
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In the many traditional churches, our evangelical sermons, songs, services focus on the gospel.
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Some churches want a presentation of the gospel in every sermon.
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I can remember hearing one speaker say it was wrong to preach anything other than the
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gospel.
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Well, if all you think about is the gospel, then it's reasonable to conclude that all
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sins are the same.
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It's true that Jesus' death paid for all of our sins, and that payment is applied to us
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when we receive him.
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So if all sin is paid for and that's all we talk about, then it sounds reasonable to
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conclude that from God's perspective, all sin is the same.
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Secondly, evangelical preachers are pressured to accommodate today's audiences rather than
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teach the Bible.
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Of course, our pulpits preach the Bible if the audience wants the Bible preached, but
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that's a decreasing crowd.
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The goal of most local churches has changed since, say, the 1950s, from proclaiming the
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Word of God to getting more people to attend meetings.
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And today, most of our churches are increasingly facing an audience of people who are cohabitating,
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gay-friendly, using recreational drugs, committing adultery, using casual blasphemy, and lying
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whenever it seems convenient.
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If we tell them these are sins that the Lord hates or things that are abomination to him,
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they might go somewhere else, might attend a different church, and we can't have that.
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And third, evangelicals often give comfort in counseling, both formal and informal, by
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equating all sins.
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Jesus said anger and sinful-like behavior.
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Counselors like to say murder is no more sinful than anger.
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Jesus said lust was sinful like adultery.
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Counselors say adultery is no more sinful than lust.
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The difference is Jesus was convicting the sinner.
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Our counselors are comforting the sinner.
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Jesus preached repentance because his goal was for us to get right with God, not to stabilize
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our psychological condition.
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Christian psychologists and friends tend to comfort by downgrading the sin rather than
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facing it with the need for repentance.
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They play the all-sin-is-the-same card not because they have done a study and come to
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that conclusion, but because it offers comfort.
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Of course, such comfort is only a temporary fix that requires repeated visits to the counselor.
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If all sins are not the same, what makes bad sins worse?
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Here's another interesting thing I discovered about this subject.
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Remember, most credible teachers do not claim that all sins are the same, but many of them
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have focused on the sin's impact on people rather than the offense of God.
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This is especially true in Reformed theology.
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J.I.
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Packer wrote, quote,
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Scripture shows that in God's testament some sins are worse and bring greater guilt than
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others and that some sins do more damage, close quote.
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So J.I.
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Packer believes sins are greater or lesser depending on the guilt they cause the sinner
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and the damage they cause others.
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It's not that Reformed theology denies the offense to God.
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The offense to God is acknowledged, but the emphasis is on the human impact to ourselves
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and others.
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The idea seems to be this.
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Since Jesus paid for our sins, the gauge for more serious sin is not primarily their effect
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on God, since he's already taken care of that on the cross.
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The difference in sin is focused on the efforts of us and those around us.
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Well, I want to suggest that sin is worse when it's more contrary to the character of
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God.
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By definition, sin is anything contrary to the character of God, so I suggest the more
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contrary it is, the worse it is.
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If we look to Scripture, not only are some sins worse than others, it seems the differences
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are because of their violation of the character of God.
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The Bible does not give us a list of sins in the order of least to worst.
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That's impossible because circumstances, attitudes of the hearts, and intentions all play a part
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in determining the greatness of the sin.
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But we can determine from Jesus that sins directly against God are worse.
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A lawyer once asked Jesus the question,
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Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?
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Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
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soul, with all your mind.
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This is the great and foremost commandment.
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The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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Jesus gave two basic categories for commandments.
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That would seem to be breaking the commandments of love the Lord your God is greater than
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breaking the love your neighbor wants.
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But we also know that the reason the love your neighbor wants are sinful is because
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they offend God.
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After David committed adultery and murder, he prayed against you and you only I have
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sinned and done what's evil in your sight so that you're justified when you speak and
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blameless when you judge.
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Let's go back to Jesus' great and foremost commandment.
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In both Testaments, the worst sin is idolatry.
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The Bible was consistent, constant, repeatedly warnings about idolatry, calling it not just
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a sin but a great sin.
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And remember, although David was an adulterer and a murderer, he was not an idolater.
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Here's a couple of references to this from the Ten Commandments, you shall have no other
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God before me for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting iniquity on the fathers
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and children of the third and fourth generation to those who hate me.
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Here's from Deuteronomy 16.22, you should not set up for yourself a sacred pillar which
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the Lord your God hates.
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Second Kings 17.21, then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them
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commit a great sin.
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Remember Jeroboam was the king that set up the golden calves.
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First Corinthians 8.4, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world and
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there's no God but one.
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First Corinthians 10.14, therefore my beloved flee from idolatry.
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But idolatry does not usually bring immediate guilt to the idolater or damage to the others.
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Sins that increase the damage to others are violations of love your neighbor.
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Or they do offend God, but sins against God do not necessarily observably damage people
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although they're the worst sins.
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So we must conclude that the seriousness of sins cannot be determined by how they impact
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people.
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The coexist bumper sticker, for example, sanctions idolatry and worship of false gods and it
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does no observable damage to people.
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As a conclusion, all sin is sin, all sins violate the holy character of God, all sin
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separates us from God, all sin was paid for by Christ on the cross.
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But the severity of sin can only be determined by what God says about the sin.
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There are those called greater sin, those God says he hates, those that are called abomination,
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those in the Mosaic law requiring the death penalty, those we're told to flee from, and
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anything resembling the tolerance of other gods should be a warning that we are approaching
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a great sin.
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Solomon said the conclusion when all has been heard is fear God and keep his commandments
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because this applies to every person for God will bring every act into judgment, everything
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which is hidden, whether it's good or evil.
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Well thanks for listening.
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If you'd like to read my paper on the subject, you can get it at relationalconcepts.org our
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website.
