 | The Reverend Amy Baumgartner is the Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, 525 N. Broadway, Wichita, KS. Amy was ordained at First Presbyterian Church of Wichita, Kansas in June 2008. She earned a Masters of Divinity from Denver Seminary. Before attending seminary, Amy graduated from Ball State University with a degree in Landscape Architecture and worked several years for an architectural firm in Indianapolis, Indiana. You may contact Rev. Baumgartner by email AssociatePastor@firstpresbywichita.org, or by phone at (316) 263-0248.
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Religion
2013-04-29 13:35:05
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-Human beings were created in the “image of God” yet often humans behave in a way that is contrary to God’s design of us. The human life is marked by attitudes and actions that are a distortion of the image of God in which we were created. The Bible names this disconnect between who we were created to be and how we truly are as sin. It causes us as humans to treat God, others and ourselves in ways that are not loving and just. Sin causes a breakdown in relationship; it causes alienation from God by breaking the relationship of love and trust God seeks to have with humans. The Bible likens sin to being a prisoner in a prison camp who needs liberation. The Bible portrays the human race as enslaved to and imprisoned by the power of sin.
Sin is, in the words of Reformer John Calvin, “inherited corruption.” He wrote in Institutes of the Christian Religion that “all of us, who have descended from impure seed, are born infected with the contagion of sin” (II.1.5). Sin affects our nature and our actions. For instance, sin can self-delude us into believing that some sins are not as bad as others while in fact, all sin in reality causes a separation between humans and God. And sin affects our relationships with each other, the earth, and even within ourselves. So, to answer your first question simply, all sins are sins, there are no big or little sins. They all cause alienation and result in consequences. The varying consequences may lead some to believe that some sins are “little.” For example, one may ask, is my speeding on the highway really as bad as murdering someone? The consequences resulting in the damage to the family of the slain person are more substantial; however, all violations of God’s ways and design will result in separation from the Holy God. And one day, all humans will stand before God the Judge to give an account of our actions and attitudes—the good ones that reflect us being created in the image of God and the bad ones that cause separation (sins).
While this may sound like bad news, there is hope. Sin is a corruption of the human race that can only be restored by the radical action of God. And God’s radical action was in the giving of the one who will “save God’s people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21): Jesus Christ.
