 | Pastor Bill Emmerling, Jr. is the lead pastor at Grace Place Pittsburg, meeting at the Homer Cole Community Center in Pittsburg. Ordained at Grace Place of Lamar, MO, Bill has a heart to see Godly men together lead their families for the glory of Jesus the Messiah. He has been married to the bride of his youth, Sharri, for 22 years and has two daughters and a son. Bill has earned a B.S. in Physics, a secondary teaching certification and studied Theology/Philosophy at Lincoln Christian Seminary. He may be reached at pittsburg@grace-place.org or by phone at 620-670-4510 |
Religion
2013-04-29 13:28:19
Sins: big & little
Q-Which sins are big and which sins are little? Which sins are serious and grave, mortal and deadly (for the soul), and which sins are not so grave or venial? For example, if one
person believes that pre-marital sex is not a sin or a small sin, and another person believes
it to be a grievous sin: which person is right? If a person really believes something is not a sin or a minor sin, will he/she be held accountable for the sin as if it is a grievous or
serious sin?
A-The true issue at hand is: What does God say about sin? And how does He respond to sin?
We also need to make some assumptions, which we must make by reasonable faith based on the evidence we find:
* That God exists, by definition is all powerful, all knowing, all present,
* That He is not silent, that He has spoken to us that we may understand His will,
* And that all of us are answerable to Him as we are His creation.
What does God say about sin?
Simply put, ‘Sin’ is rebellion against God and His will. It is disbelieving God, and His word, and attempting to take His authority over our lives and/or the lives of others. This is what happened in the Garden through Adam and Eve (see Genesis 3). As a result, we are all sinners by nature, through Adam. It is our nature by birth to rebel against God; by birth, but not by creation.
(Please see Romans 3:23-25 and Romans 5:12-21 for starters)
What is God’s response to sin?
1. As God, He must punish offenses, disobediences, and wickedness in order to be Just.
Any ‘sin’ against an Infinite and Just God deserves infinite punishment. Consider how the punishment of a crime increases based upon the authority and honor of the offended. If you slap your brother, you would be punished differently than if you slapped a police officer, and more severely yet if you slapped the President. Offenses against God, by nature, deserve infinite punishment.
‘Big’ or ‘Little’ each and every sin separates us from God and deserves to be punished accordingly. The ‘Bigness’ of a sin generally speaks to the severity of the ‘immediate’ consequences of an individual’s sin. Consider the following passages in regards to the issue of differences in sins: 1Samuel 15:23; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21; Revelation 21:8, 22:15 just as some examples.
What is God’s response to sin?
2. In His just wrath on ungodliness, he also extends mercy, forgiveness and grace.
In this there seems to be a tension: Wrath is necessary for Justice; yet Mercy is necessary for Forgiveness. In His love for the men and women He has created, He provides a way to be both Just and Merciful.
Someone must die to pay the infinite punishment justice requires. That someone must be infinite by nature to absorb the full penalty of sin. This someone must be God. This person must also by nature be man (to fully identify with the offender), though perfectly sinless. Into this space steps Jesus the Christ (the Anointed One). Jesus accepted our punishment, the penalty, for all men, at all times, for all time. Further, God raised him from the dead to demonstrate Jesus was the acceptable sacrifice and to provide us with a living hope, showing us that we too will live like him in the fullness of time. See Galatians 4:4-7
In accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our substitute, we receive Mercy (i.e. not receiving justly deserved punishment) from God. More than that we receive Grace (blessings we do not deserve) beginning with eternal life and peace with God.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
(John 3:16-18 ESV)
Questioning whether one sin is big and another is little allows us to compare ourselves to others, rather than the Perfect One who died for us. Further, we miss the point that any and all sin separates us from God. Jesus paid for ALL our sins: past, present and future. Our focus now should be to live a godly life FOR HIM, rather than focusing on how little or much we can or have sinned.
