Tilling and Planting

Category: Sin

  • Degrees of Sin

    Degrees of Sin

    Intro

    I’ve been talking a lot about sin, what it is, how serious it is, and how God chooses to forget it when we receive His salvation and forgiveness. Today I wish to address another question about sin: are all sins equal, or are there different degrees – or levels – to sin? Is it truly worse to murder someone than it is to steal food? The laws of America says “yes”. But what does God say? What does He think? Because ultimately what God thinks is more important than what man thinks. Many churches preach that all sins are equal, and yet no one really lives that way. We shrug our shoulders at a little gossip and look judgmentally down on unmarried people sleeping together. So we have a dissonance going on here. And that’s why I want to address it; I think it’s important that we understand this topic.

    It’s all About Perspective

    I was recently posed with the idea that the Bible supports the notion that not all sins are equal. And in fact there are some sins that are worse than others. My gut reaction was to deny this. After all, I had heard much of my life that God sees all sin as the same. But after thinking about it and talking about it, I realized that there are two ways of looking at this. And which way you think about it determines whether you answer the question “Are all sins equal?” with a “yes” or a “no”.

    When thinking about this concept of differing degrees of sin, there are two main attributes of God that you can stack sin up against in order to answer this question. God’s Holiness and God’s Justice. And when I look at the Bible and think about these two different attributes of God, I come up with two different conclusions. I can confidently say “yes and no” when asked this question. Let me explain.

    God’s Holiness

    I don’t think there’s any argument that God is a holy God. And I mentioned in a previous post that sin cannot enter His presence because of His holiness. And this is why I can confidently say that all sin is equal in the sight of God. Because a single lie disqualifies you from God’s presence for all of eternity just as fast as murdering someone. When you stack sin up against a Holy God, they are all equal. They all sentence you to eternity in the Lake of Fire, separated from God’s Holy presence. Is this supported by Scripture? Let’s take a look.

    For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

    Romans 3:23 (NIV)

    This statement by Paul is universal. Paul doesn’t make any distinction here of any “degrees” of sin. No one person is worse than another when compared to the glory and holiness of God Almighty.

    Perhaps even clearer is James 2:10.

    For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (NIV)

    Here James makes it clear that it doesn’t matter which law you break. Or which sin you commit. You might as well have broken every law and committed every sin. It’s all the same when stacked up against a Holy and Righteous God. A note about the context for James is that believers were showing favoritism based on wealth, status, and power. And James called them out as lawbreakers by doing so. Ouch. Ever been guilty of this? I know I have.

    So now that I’ve established that yes, all sins are indeed equal when stacked up against God’s Holiness and our eternal status, let’s switch gears and see how the Bible indicates that there are degrees of sin.

    God’s Justice

    You can’t go far in Leviticus without realizing that God – in His justice – requires different forms of payment – or consequences – for different sins. Murder carried the death penalty (Leviticus 24:17), while theft required restoration of what was stolen, plus a fifth of its value (Leviticus 6:1-5). I could go on, but I’m not going to. I think you get the idea.

    The severity of the consequence largely depended on the severity of the damage done to the lives of others. I’m going to emphasize that it depends on the lives of others. God wants all to live in harmony and when that harmony is damaged because of sin, there must be some consequence to deal with it. For minor sins – ones that cause short term discomfort or easily fixed problems – restoration in some form is required. For ones that cause irreversible damage – such as murder – a far more severe consequence is required.

    And these degrees of sin extends beyond the Old Testament. The church in Corinth dealt with pride and division, but the only person Paul required them to kick out of the fellowship was the man sleeping with his stepmother (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). In other places we read that for those who are in a place of authority (Pastors, Elders, Deacons, etc.) are held to a higher standard and thus the consequences for their sins – especially ones that harm others – should be more severe – including being removed from their position and even put out of the fellowship. And this makes sense, you want morally upright people in positions of authority. You want people you claim to represent the name of Jesus publicly to be able to honor Him by their actions. And that’s what God wants as well.

    Intentional vs Unintentional

    The degrees of sin goes beyond the type and the level of authority you might have. It even goes into whether you knew what you were doing or not. The Old Testament provides milder consequences and forms of restitution for those who did something unintentionally and then repented the moment the realized it, doing what they could to make amends.

    In the New Testament, Jesus was incredibly hard on the religious leaders. Why? Because in their positions of leadership they were already held to a higher standard and with their knowledge of the Scriptures, they really should have acknowledged their own shortcomings more readily than the common people. But instead they claimed to be effectively perfect and didn’t need God’s forgiveness. Because of this, Jesus called them out again and again. Notice that they fall in both the camp of being in positions of authority and are committing the intentional sin of lying to themselves and others. Doused in pride and judgmental attitudes, I might add.

    And it gets worse when we get to the plot to kill Jesus. They know Jesus is an innocent man. Nicodemus told Jesus that they knew He was sent by God. And yet they decided to kill Him anyway. So now the religious leaders are guilty of murder (they even told Pilate that Jesus’ blood be upon them and their children). And to top it off, because of their knowledge of Scripture, at least some of them recognized that Jesus was fulfilling some of the prophecies for the Messiah. Jesus called them out for this very thing – knowing the Scriptures and yet being willfully ignorant and denying the truth. So that’s why Jesus could tell Pilate “the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin” (John 19:11).

    The Unforgivable Sin

    I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the unforgivable sin in a post about differing degrees of sin. People have long debated what this mysterious sin is. Many have been worried that they’ve committed it and have disqualified themselves from Heaven. First of all, let me assure you that if you are worried about having committed it, I can guarantee you haven’t. But what is it?

    In Matthew 12 and Mark 3, Jesus declares that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit to be unpardonable. So what does it mean to blaspheme Holy Spirit? Blasphemy is defiant irreverence of something – or someone – Holy. Notice the word “defiant”. Blasphemy is active, not passive, and willful, not ignorant. Therefore you cannot accidentally commit blasphemy of Holy Spirit. The context in which Jesus said this was when the religious leaders claimed Jesus was demon-possessed and that’s why He could perform miracles. Remember my comments about the religious leaders having greater knowledge? Yeah, they watched Jesus perform miracles and knew He fulfilled Scripture right before their eyes. And yet, they still claimed that Jesus was possessed.

    In the immediate context, blasphemy of Holy Spirit looks to be having evidence of Holy Spirit working and yet willfully denying it and attributing it to something else. This also plays out today in continued unbelief in Jesus despite Holy Spirit calling out to someone and God giving them opportunity to repent and come to Him in faith. People who choose to deny God in spite of all the evidence around them and in spite of Holy Spirit working in their lives are the ones guilty of the unforgivable sin. Though you’ll never truly know if someone commits it until they die without having repented. Because up until their last breath, there’s a chance.

    Hardness of Heart

    Really what Jesus called out in the religious leaders was their hardness of heart. This wasn’t the first nor would be the last time He does this. And other New Testament writers give similar warnings about a hardness of heart and lack of repentance and forgiveness. A hard heart is the only thing that can keep God’s love away over and over again when Holy Spirit comes calling.

    Wrapping Up

    In this post I desired to make clear where our sin stands eternally before God and yet show that there are consequences – of varying degrees – to our sins. This is important to understand especially for anyone in leadership positions. And even for us who happily proclaim to be Christians and follow God. The more we declare our faith to the unbeliever, the more we need to be cognizant of our actions and speech. If we commit a sin in the sight of all these unbelievers who are well aware of our faith, that hurts our message. The weight of responsibility is greater the more vocal we are. And there’s little I need to say for those who are in high leadership positions – especially when they are megachurch pastors. I think we’ve all heard of a few scandals over the years.

    So be aware of your level of responsibility. God holds us believers to higher standards than the unbeliever. And our willful sin is serious indeed. God has already forgiven it and won’t punish it, but there are consequences to sin. And they are often worse for believers than for the unbeliever.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Forgetful God?

    Forgetful God?

    Intro

    Is God capable of forgetting anything? The Bible says that God knows the beginning to end. He knows the number of hairs on my head. And He knows everything about everything. But the Bible also says that there is one area where God is forgetful. If this sounds ridiculous or impossible to you, then you’ve come to the right place. (Also if you haven’t heard this before and don’t know where I’m going, then you too have come to the right place.)

    Can God Actually Forget Anything?

    In all technicality, no, God can’t forget things in the same way we might forget to buy something or forget the name of that neighbor from 30 years ago. But it is still Biblically and dictionary accurate to say God is forgetful. No seriously. Like many words in the English language, to forget means more than just an accidental “Oops. I didn’t mean to forget about your birthday”. Think about a time when you’ve said something like, “Oh forget about it”. More often than not, in these situations you aren’t asking the person to accidentally forget that it happened, but rather intentionally overlook something. And this is the dictionary definition that we can apply to God’s forgetfulness. Intentionally overlooking something. The question now becomes, what does the Bible say God intentionally chooses to forget or overlook?

    Forgive and Forget

    Here’s a big clue: have you ever said or heard the phrase “forgive and forget”? If so, then you’ve got a handle on what it is that God is forgetful about. And that thing is sin. God chooses to forget the sins that He has forgiven. To be sure, those who do not turn to God and receive His forgiveness will still have their sins counted against them when they are cast into Hell and then the Lake of Fire at the final judgment. However, for those who turn to God and receive His forgiveness, God chooses to forget their sins.

    Here’s just a couple of verses to back this up.

    I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

    Isaiah 43:25 (NIV)

    For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

    Jeremiah 31:34b (NIV)

    But wait, these are both from the Old Testament and the context is forgiving the Israelites and bring them back from captivity. Absolutely. But Malachi 3:6 says “I the Lord do not change” and Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”. So I see no problem in using these Old Testament verses to extract a piece of the nature of God – that is, how He forgives – to apply to us today. Besides take a look at Hebrews 8:12.

    For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

    Gee that looks familiar. The author actually quotes a big chunk of Jeremiah 31 here in Hebrews 8 when arguing the necessity of the new covenant and how the Old Testament actually refers to it. So that passage in Jeremiah applies to us as Christians today! God is forgetful of all of your sins and mine and everyone who comes to faith in Jesus. That’s incredible news! But in the words of all the informercial narrators, “But wait, there’s more!”

    Sea of Forgetfulness

    Ever here the concept of God’s sea of forgetfulness? And that’s where all of our sins go? And that He puts up a “No Fishing” sign? Is that actually Biblical? Well, yes and no. The idea of the sea of forgetfulness comes from Micah but it doesn’t actually use this phrase.

    You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

    Micah 7:19 (NIV)

    From this came Jewish traditions of throwing bread into the sea to represent God removing their sin. And from that the idea of a “sea of forgetfulness” comes down. But frankly, I kind of like the picture in Micah a little bit better. The picture is that our sins are thrown into the deepest parts of the sea from which we can’t retrieve them. They are gone forever. We cannot resurrect them and God chooses to leave them there. I really want to emphasize God’s choice in this. He is a holy God and cannot be touched by sin and sin cannot enter His presence. But because God is love and He loves us so much, He makes a conscious choice to cover over our sins and pretend like they don’t exist – when we accept His offer of forgiveness.

    This is mind blowing. That He would love us that much. And it gets better, I’ve got one more verse for you that I’m sure you’re familiar with.

    East is From the West

    As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

    Psalm 103:12 (NIV)

    Many of you might be singing Casting Crowns right now, and I don’t blame you. It’s a good song. But I want to turn to the source here in Psalm 103. The Psalmist says that God removes our transgressions (also known as sins, see my last post) as far as the east is from the west. That’s an infinite distance. How is that infinite? Look at a globe and place your finger on it and start moving it west. At what point does it start moving east? Never. You can move that finger around and around in a circle going west and never reach a point where suddenly you are going east. And if you start going east, you get the same thing. Unlike north and south which meet at the poles, east and west don’t have such a restriction and thus there is infinite distance between them.

    This is incredible news for us because that means that God has cast our sins an infinite distance away so we literally can’t reach them anymore.

    Rabbit Trail

    My pastor says that rabbit trails are okay if you announce them in advance, so I’m announcing a rabbit trail here.

    This verse in Psalm 103 has far less impact if the earth were flat. Because in that model, there is a finite distance between east and west. You go so far east and hit the end. Turn around go west until you hit the other end. Take a measurement. Now you know just how far God will actually cast your sins. And that doesn’t jive very well with everything else the Bible has been saying (that I’ve quoted here – or not) about how God actively chooses to be forgetful about your sins. My pastor says that this verse alone is a very strong argument against the idea that the Bible teaches a flat earth model.

    “But the seas have a finite depth!” Yes they do. But they are also of the type of environment where anything you cast down there will more than likely be lost forever. Seriously, the bottoms of oceans, seas, and even lakes are nigh impossible to retrieve things from. The larger the body of water, the harder it is.

    Compared to the oceans, Lake Superior is pretty small in its depths and they are just now rediscovering shipwrecks from 200 years ago. People have searched for specific shipwrecks for decades in various lakes, rivers, etc. before finding it even though they knew roughly where it went down. The bottoms of the seas and oceans are the most unexplored places. Only God knows what’s all truly down there. And that’s the point. He knows all that we’ve done and He chooses to forget.

    But I still Sin

    But wait, if God has cast all our sins away so we can’t reach them anymore, then why do I still struggle with sin? Because the sin has become a habit. We all know what habits are and how hard it is to change them or break them. And the power of that sin has been broken and forgiven by Jesus and the Cross, but the daily (or weekly, or whatever) habit of performing the act is oftentimes still something we will have to work through with the power of Holy Spirit to strengthen us.

    It’s not easy and it’s not fun, but by the grace of God and our own perseverance, we will overcome. Hang in there.

    Wrapping Up

    Praise the Lord that He chooses to be a forgetful God when it comes to our sins! I hope this encourages you in those times when the enemy tells you that your sins are too great, too much for God to forgive. Or that He could never truly forget what you did 2 years ago and will remind you of that and punish you for it someday. Just remember these verses that I’ve shared today from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Hebrews, and Psalms. And also remember that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1).

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Sin: What’s the Big Deal?

    Sin: What’s the Big Deal?

    Intro

    Everyone knows what the church preaches against. Sin. Traditional churches especially have this reputation of talking more about the “don’ts” of the Bible than anything else. They make sin out to be this really big deal. And you know something, they’re right. It is a big deal. And while I don’t think the church should be known more for what it’s against than what it’s for, we also need to remind people that sin is sin and it really is a big deal to God.

    That being said, we probably need a good definition of what sin is and why it’s such a big deal.

    Sin Defined

    To understand why sin is such a big deal, we first need to have a good, working definition of sin. People will frivolously throw out a really simple, basic definition of “whatever the Bible says don’t do” or “bad things you’ve done” or “anything that displeases God” or even “disobeying the laws of the land”. And while these are all technically true, they still don’t tell you much. After all, what defines “bad things”? And different countries have different laws that might actually contradict each other, so that’s a problem. And how do you know what “displeases God”? Ultimately, we need to come back to the Bible’s definition of sin. So that’s where we’ll start.

    The Biblical Definition

    There are a couple of good passages that define sin as rebellion against God (see Deuteronomy 9:7) and lawlessness.

    Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.

    1 John 3:4

    So, sin is equivalent to lawlessness. What is lawlessness? Lawlessness is continually breaking the law without any regard for it. However, this begs the question, who’s law? The answer is God’s law. For the Jews that meant the Mosaic law. And while we as Christians do not need to follow all the religious laws (the purity rituals and sacrifices to name a couple), there are plenty of moral laws found in the Mosaic law that we are still to follow, such as the Ten Commandments.

    So, yes, the definition of “whatever the Bible defines as sin” is true. But it’s a matter of knowing where to look. The letters of Paul are really good for calling out different kinds of sin and showing what parts of the Mosaic law are not necessary for the Christian. In addition, the Sermon on the Mount also contains teachings on the standard of living God calls us to (Matthew 5-7 can also read my posts all about these chapters here).

    To dig a little bit deeper, the Greek word for sin is “harmatia” and means “to miss the mark”, that mark being perfection. So, sin is breaking God’s law and not reaching His standards of perfection. That’s a pretty tall order. And in a later section I’ll discuss just how serious sin is in God’s eyes. But first – to clear up any potential confusion that might be out there – I want to address a couple of synonyms the Bible uses for sin and how they are similar, while also being distinct.

    Some Other Words

    The Bible doesn’t just use the word “sin” when talking about sin. You’ll also see words like “trespass”, “transgress”, and “iniquity” – along with different forms of these words. So to provide a bit of clarity, trespass and transgress are equivalent in their meaning. I think most of us know what it means to trespass (hint: ever see a “No Trespassing” sign?) and to transgress means the same thing. They’re crossing a boundary you are not supposed to cross. Iniquity is making a premeditated choice to sin and then continue in that sin without repentance. For this one you can think of a serial killer. Just over and over choosing to commit the same sin (murder in this case) without remorse and without repentance.

    Different for Different People

    Now all this is great, but doesn’t constitute a list of all possible sins. And it’s not supposed to. My intention is not to tell you what all possible sins are. Because frankly, that’s not possible for me to do (especially in a roughly 2,000 word blog!). I already mentioned the letters of Paul are really good for these since he constantly had to deal with sin in the Church. And to make it more interesting, James and Paul both have some fascinating things to say about what constitutes sin. And spoiler alert, it can be different for different people.

    If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

    James 4:17

    In this passage, James challenges believers that if they know they should be doing something good, and they don’t do it, then it is sin for them. I want to point out the phrase “sin for them”. This means that James is not talking about blanket “do good deeds” for all people. He’s referring to specific deeds that Christians feel called to do. He’s saying if God tells you (specifically you) to do this good deed, and you do not do it, that is sin. Because that is in direct disobedience to what God has told you to do. This passage comes at the tail end of rebuking people for arrogantly going about doing things without consulting the Lord and trying to live life on their own terms. James also calls this out as wrong. Now let’s turn to Paul’s statement in Romans.

    Eating Food?

    Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.

    One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

    Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.

    Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

    So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

    Romans 14:1-2, 5-6, 13-15, 20-23

    Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here. First off, Paul is addressing Jewish believers who say that because of Christ, there is no unclean food and they can eat it all. And even Paul says that he is of that mindset. However, there were Jewish believers who still believed that they couldn’t (shouldn’t) eat unclean foods. And Paul tells those who are okay with eating anything that they should not condemn or judge those who refuse to eat them. Everyone is in a different place and Paul tells those that are okay with it that it would be sinful for those who aren’t to eat unclean food while they still struggle with the idea of eating it. Notice that it’s not sinful for those who think it’s okay, just for those who think it’s not okay.

    For us today, that would be like Christians drinking alcohol. Is it sinful? That depends on who you ask. I know plenty of Christians who have no problem with drinking a beer every now and again. They don’t get drunk, because the Bible explicitly calls that out as sinful. However, there are also Christians (myself included) who won’t touch it at all because for them it would be wrong.

    Notice what is wrong for those who are okay with it. I already referenced the judging and condemning – which are wrong – but Paul also says that being a stumbling block is wrong. To be a stumbling block would be to cause another believer to sin. In Paul’s day that would be pressuring others to eat unclean food, for today it would be pressuring someone into trying a beer when they are convicted that they shouldn’t.

    From Faith

    Paul also says that anything not done from faith is sin. What does that mean? Well without faith it is impossible to please God. And I’ve already defined sin as anything that breaks God’s law – which displeases him. So breaking God’s law is equivalent to doing anything not done from faith.

    Oof. That was a lot. Now let’s turn to the seriousness of sin and why it’s such a big deal.

    Seriousness of Sin

    So now that I’ve defined sin, what’s the big deal? Let me go back to my statement that sin breaks God’s law. As well as my statement that sin is missing the mark of perfection. Why is that a problem? Well, the only way to be in God’s presence is to be perfect. Sin cannot enter His presence. In fact, Jesus commands us to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NIV).

    Okay, so sin is big deal because we can’t live with God for all of eternity because of it. Well, yes, but it’s goes further in that we can’t even have a relationship with God because of sin. The Bible indicates that sin creates a barrier between God and humans (Isaiah 59:2). It’s kind of like when someone you trust lies to you and breaks that trust. It damages the relationship and can be difficult to mend it again. In a similar way, the sin of Adam and Eve broke the relationship between God and mankind. And all mankind has inherited that tendency toward sin ever since. Consequently, our sin dooms us to Hell and the Lake of Fire for all of eternity – totally separated from God. It’s pretty messed up. So what can be done?

    The Solution

    Hebrews 9:22 says that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”. That’s why the animal sacrifices were instituted in the Old Testament. The shedding of the blood of animals temporarily covered and forgave the people’s sin. It was a brutal, bloody, way to receive forgiveness, but it was what God required of them. However, if you read through the entirety of Hebrews 9, you’ll see that while those could cover the sin temporarily, it could do nothing for the guilty conscience or give people the strength to overcome their natural tendencies to sin. And God knew that. That’s why the entire Old Testament points to a newer and better covenant where God would totally forgive all sins and cleanse people’s hearts and minds of sin.

    The Old Covenant was sealed in blood sacrifices. A lot of them. The New Covenant was also sealed in a blood sacrifice. Notice I made that singular? Because only one was needed. Because the one who sacrificed Himself was Jesus Christ – God in the flesh. Jesus never sinned and never inherited the sinful nature from Adam. Therefore, He had no sin of His own to die for. God actually took all the sins of all the people for all time (past, present, and future) and laid them upon Jesus when He hung on the cross. And Jesus bore the sins and then bore the wrath of God so that you and I don’t have to experience God’s judgment upon our sin (I cover this more in one of my Easter Posts).

    How Serious?

    So how serious is sin to God? Serious enough to send His only Son, Jesus, down to die the most brutal type of death found in human history and bear the weight of all sins from all time and bear the entirety of God’s wrath and judgment upon sin – all so you and I can have a relationship with God. Wow. That’s intense. So, yes, sin is a very big deal to God. However, if you are saved and have a relationship with Him, He no longer sees your sin, He sees the righteousness of Jesus which covers your sin. Now that’s incredible. God transferred your sin to Jesus, in order to transfer Jesus’ righteousness to you.

    Wrapping Up

    I hope this post gave you a bit of clarity when it comes to sin and what it is. As well as why God sees it as such a big deal. God longs for us to be in relationship with Him and He fought for us to be able to have the opportunity to be in right standing with Him. And He still fights for us today. Let us praise and worship our God who loves us so unconditionally even when we mess up. All He asks is for us to come to Him and repent and He will restore our relationship with Him.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!