No, All Sins Are NOT Equal Or The Same

You probably have heard that all sin is equal in the eyes of God or that He weighs every sin the same. Christians like to say this to make themselves feel better about themselves. It’s a lie. If you believe this you’ve been tricked.

I think the idea builds on Scriptures like, “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23) Sure, every sin will lead us to hell if we don’t have the grace and forgiveness of Jesus.

>But it is wrong to assume God weighs every sin the same from this.

And believe it or not, it is important to understand this.

When contrasting the hypocritical permissiveness of the religious people (and their justification of it) Jesus said;

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” -Matthew 23:23–24

And then there was the time Jesus’ seemed to want to ease the conscience of Pilate. Pilate wanted to release Jesus but the mob demanded his death. Jesus said:

“The one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin” -John 19:11

The apostle Paul emphasizes over and over themes like:

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” -1 Corinthians 6:18

And let’s not forget the Old Testament. There were more costly sacrifices required depending on the severity of sin.

>Let me also make it clear, God does not love or value anyone any less based how more or less severe an individual’s sin is.

I believe He loves everyone equally. That is true. Perhaps this where the ‘all sin is equal’ idea comes from, but they are not the same.

Why is this all important? I’m not legalistic or some sinner basher or truth detector. We face danger, however, in attempting to justify our sins by their size.

>We suffer from what I like to call God is my buddy and Jesus is my pal syndrome.

All sins deserve God’s judgment, but not all receive the same judgment. We need to remember that God is holy.

Forgiveness is immediate and brings life, but the measure of consequence is different. It has different affects. My wife is going to treat me cheating on my taxes quite a bit differently than if I cheat on her.

We will fall into greater and greater sin if we think what we are doing is not so bad or not as bad as what so and so is doing.

Ultimately, sin will lead us away from God. That’s the bottom line. That’s why this is important. We need to look at it for what it is.

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