Nena Arias | January 10, 2022
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
(Roman 3:23)
Besides Jesus Christ, there has never been a person that has never sinned. We are all sinners, and we sin continually in some form or other. Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” In Ezekiel 18:4 it clearly says, “…the soul who sins shall die.” Many of us are familiar with Romans 6:23 that says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Thank God the last part of that verse gives us the hope that through Jesus Christ we can be saved from the deadly consequences of sin. Otherwise, why would anyone want to live?
Everyone you have ever met and will ever meet is a sinner. If you are married, you married a sinner and whoever married you married a sinner. If you are blessed to have children, you will have children who are sinners. If you go into a business partnership, you are partnering with a sinner. All the people you admire are sinners. The hardest pill to swallow is to come to the realization I am a sinner. That saddens me because I hate sin.
Sin separates us from God and from one another. So, are we doomed to live under the bondage of sin and is God fair to continue to allow humans to be conceived and born into a life of sin? If we are all sinners, who can be saved?
What sin is the greatest?
When it comes to understanding sin, the Bible is very clear. We humans want to categorize sin in levels of severity and think that some sin is more acceptable than others. We have even invented terms like “little white lie” to make some lying more palatable. We want to empathize with those who are caught by the enticements of the flesh, and so we rationalize and tend to make concessions with sin because we say, “but they are nice people”.
It is true that the level of damage caused to others by our sin varies but for us it will always count as sin before God.
Sin is sin. All sins are equal before God in the sense that if we don’t confess and get rid of them, they will ultimately condemn us before the Lord.
The Bible teaches that a person will live forever. We are eternal beings. Each person will either suffer eternal punishment or experience eternal life in heaven with God.
It all depends on if we accepted our Savior in the forgiveness of our sins and also how we lived. That is the message of Daniel 12:2 “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”
Sin separates us from God. Sin, to any degree, is unacceptable to God. He cannot abide it.
From the time we are born to the time we die physically; we have a battle with sin, but, through our free will and with God’s help we also have the power to resist it and not allow the process of sin to mature in us. See James 1:12-15.
Our willingness alone is not enough. That is why God had to send Jesus to save us from sin and death.
We can be sure that we are exactly like the pre-flood generation when God said, “…the wickedness of man on earth…is every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil” (Genesis 6:5-6). We can be sure that the same thing will happen to us if we don’t take control of sin in our lives.
God does not delight in having to destroy us because of sin so he gives us all the opportunities for us to turn from our wicked ways.
We are layered beings in three parts: spirit, mind/soul, and body. All three parts work together. They must all be regenerated as we live daily by applying God’s principles to every area of our lives.
Can we imagine even a little bit of sin in heaven? No, we can’t because God cannot abide with even a little bit of sin. There is no small sin or greater sin. All sin is an abomination to Him.
So as soon as we discover that we have sinned, we must repent and modify the behavior that now we know will always offend the Lord and others. James 4:17 says, “To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.”
It is a good habit to practice daily repentance for all the sins we have committed before the Lord and to make restitution to those we have wronged. The Bible gives no list that ranks sin or describes a sin that is the “greatest.”
The Bible only mentions one sin that is unpardonable. It is found in Matthew 12:31-32, “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
Rejection of Christ and his forgiveness, without which no one can enter God’s eternal realm can also be considered the “greatest sin”.
All sin defies God. We cannot commune with him when sin is in the way. Never rationalize it, excuse it, or hold on to it once you know it’s there. God will not hold you guiltless.
In every sense all sin is infinitely heinous against God and not just against people.