All Sin Is Sin? (Episode # 36 Testing the Spirits Podcast)

Hello, and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about the statement that you hear often, at least I hear it often, people say, all sin is sin.

And what they mean is all sin is equal. Let me start out this way. If someone told you that a car is a car, what do they mean by that? Well, obviously a car is a car. A car is not a boat. So they're not really telling you that a car is a car because everybody knows that.

They're saying that, hey, I don't really care about one car over another. A car is a car. All cars are equal. So if you went to a rental car place and they gave you an option between a blue Honda sedan and a red Toyota sedan and a silver Ford sedan, and they're all the basic models, yeah, a car is a car, they're all pretty much the same, whatever, give me either one, doesn't really make a difference.

But if they offered you a Cadillac for the same price, you're still going to say a car is a car? No, you're going to take the Cadillac because you know very well, not all cars are equal. Same with sin.

People say all sin is sin, all sin is equally sinful, but is that true? I know it's repeated again and again, pastors and Christians will just keep repeating it. So it seems like it's true since everyone's saying that, but what does the Bible say?

Greater and Lesser Sins in Scripture

Well, here's what Jesus said in John 1911, Jesus told the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. So according to Jesus, there are some sins that are greater or worse than others.

I mean, that should be obvious, but still people say, no, no, no, all sin is equally sinful. Another example, in the old Testament, according to the law of Moses, some sins require the death penalty, others did not.

Some required a sacrifice, others, there were no real, you know, earthly penalties. Nobody in Israel ever thought that all sin was equally sinful. Here's another example, the unpardonable sin or the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said in Matthew 12, 31 and 32, therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the son of man, it will be forgiven him.

But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come. So clearly the unpardonable sin is worse than other sins.

And everybody agrees with that. I've never heard anyone disagree. And yet those same people will say, no, no, you know, it's totally inconsistent, but they'll still claim, no, all sin is sin. All sin is equally sinful.

So clearly there's a disconnect there. Now it's true. Any one sin, I will grant you this, any one sin is enough to make a person a sinner. Adam eating a piece of fruit doesn't seem like it's, you know, the worst thing in the world.

But what did it do? It casts the entire human race into darkness. So any one sin is enough to make someone a sinner. And that one sin was enough to disrupt the fellowship between man and God. Another example, in the book of Revelation, you have those who take the mark of the beast.

If you take the mark, sure seems like you're done, right? You have no hope. Sin can be forgiven taking the mark. I don't think so. Then you have 1 John 5, which speaks about a sin that leads to death and a sin that does not lead to death.

And I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Not all sin is equally sinful. Just because a pastor says it, just because a group of Christians repeat it again and again and again, that doesn't make it true.

Now to be clear, and I want to make this point, make it again, make it again and again, because we don't want to water down sin and disobedience and say, well, this isn't as bad because this is what we are tempted to do, right?

To look at our own sin and determine that our sin really isn't that bad. It's not like those people, you know, and that is something you don't want to get into because you need to take your own sin seriously.

Just as Paul said, I am the chief of sinners. Was that true?

No.

There were worse sinners than Paul, but that's how we have to look at ourselves. So don't use this as an excuse. That's not what we're doing. But this idea that has entrenched itself within evangelical Christianity, that all sin is equal, it's simply not biblical.

Why Evangelicals Flatten Sin and Catholics Distinguish Mortal and Venial Sin

But why do people say this? Why is this a teaching? I think it's probably a response or an overcorrection to the Catholic Church, which makes the distinction between venial sins and mortal sins. Now, that's unbiblical as well.

So I think that's probably why evangelicals try to just level it all out that all sin is the same. But the Catholic Church will say that if you commit a mortal sin, that causes you to lose salvation. Venial sins do not cause one to lose salvation.

So they see that distinction. I don't believe that distinction is biblical. But again, with evangelicals saying all sin is the same, that's not biblical either. There's another teaching along these same lines that I heard when I was younger.

I was told, and I don't believe this, but this is what I was taught when I was younger. I was taught that all the sin of the whole world, every person on earth, Jesus died for everybody's sin, therefore all sin is covered.

So when Jesus died on the cross, all sin is taken care of except one, and that's whether or not a person accepts Jesus as their Savior. So the idea Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, which is what the Bible says, but some interpreted that to mean, well, some people say that, well, that means everyone goes to heaven, but then there is this other group who said, well, that means that at the judgment, and right now, at the judgment, nobody will be held accountable for any sin.

Sin is all dealt with except this one sin, this one condition, acceptance or rejection of the Son of God. That's an interesting theory, but I don't believe the Bible teaches that either. There is a spectrum of sin, and some sins are much, much worse than others.

Here's another thing people used to believe. So if you're my age or older, I'm 45, so if you're my age or older, you've heard this, that in the past, it was understood, taught, believed that homosexuality was one of the more serious sins.

You don't really hear that anymore, right? And what do you hear? People now are starting to tolerate this, and even evangelical churches, they don't agree with it, but, well, you're a sinner, too, and they don't preach on it.

And we talked about this in our last video. It goes from tolerance to acceptance to affirmation and then full-blown celebration. So most churches, they used to think that, yeah, that was one of the more serious sins, but that's all changed in the past 20 or 30 years.

They don't believe that anymore. So I would just throw in the fact that Paul in 1 Corinthians 6 does say about sexual sin in general, that it is unique since that it is different from other sin because you're sinning against your own body.

And that was always understood to mean that it was more serious. But today, whether it's homosexuality or adultery or fornication, today you have pastors like Tim Keller and J .D. Greer and others who say, no, the Bible only whispers about sexual sin.

The Bible only whispers about homosexuality. Like, it's not that big of a deal with God. Of course, I don't know what you do with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the point is churches have changed and now the play or the teaching and what people are believing is that all sin is basically the same.

I mean, do you really believe that lying to someone is as bad as murdering them? Oh, you know, it's basically the same. One isn't worse than the other. Nobody really believes that.

Okay.

Sin as Lawbreaking and the Old Testament Spectrum of Offenses

So this should just be plain old common sense. But going back to God's law, 1 John 3, 4, it defines sin as a transgression of God's.

Law.

So that's what sin is, breaking the law of God. So in the Old Testament, the Lord made this very plain. Not all sin was equally sinful. If an Israelite coveted his neighbor's goods, his neighbor's wife, his neighbor's possessions, that was a bad thing.

It was sinful. But you couldn't really know it. You're not a mind reader. Sometimes that would come out. Sometimes it wouldn't. But that was not as serious as profaning the worship at the tabernacle. I mean, not paying your tithes and offerings.

That was bad, but it's not as bad as worshiping Baal or sacrificing your children to Molech. And so it is today for that person who still thinks to themselves, they said, Pastor, I hear what you're saying, but I still think all sin is equal.

No, you don't. No, you don't.

You don't really believe that. Case in point, if your child came home and said, Mom, Dad, you know, I got caught cheating on my math test, you'd be upset. You'd be disappointed. But if they came home and they said, Mom, Dad, I just murdered my teacher and the cops are probably going to show up at any moment, so I'm just here to say goodbye.

That would be worse, and you know it. There's no way you would ever say, well, it's equally sinful. Sin is sin. It's all the same.

Come on.

The Sermon on the Mount and the Difference Between Lust and Adultery

So why the confusion then? Perhaps, and like I said, it's the venial sin, mortal sin, overreaction to the Catholic.

Church.

I think that's a big part of it. Also, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapters 5 through 7, what's Jesus.

Doing?

He was trying to show the Israelites that nobody could keep the Mosaic Law. But when people read the words of Christ today, they have a wrong understanding of what Jesus is trying to communicate. Let me just give an example.

Matthew 5, 27 and 28, Jesus said, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

So people have read that, and they think that, well, Jesus is just teaching that lust and adultery, it's equally as bad. One is just as bad as the other. That's not what Jesus is saying. That is not his point.

His point was, number one, just because you haven't committed the act, if you've wanted to, that lust is sin as well, even if you didn't follow through or act on it. And this is where sin starts, number two, right?

Sin is a heart problem. It's not just what you do. It's part of our nature. So Jesus was trying to convince the Jews, number three, Jesus was trying to teach them that all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

They needed to know that bad news before they recognized their need for the good news, because the Jews thought they were righteous because, well, I'm circumcised, I'm a Jew, we have Moses and the law.

The Jews thought they were righteous. Jesus is showing them in the Sermon on the Mount that, no, you're not. The Sermon on the Mount is really Jesus laying out an impossible standard. So that was never his point to say that lust and adultery are equally as bad.

And again, common sense should tell you that. Also, adultery was grounds for divorce. If lust is equally as bad, well, I guess every person on earth has grounds for divorce then. Again, that's just dumb.

Conclusion: Test Traditions by Scripture

So in conclusion, hopefully, and I know if you've been taught this and you've probably, listen, I've probably said this, so please don't be offended that I say, hey, this is just a really dumb thing to think and say, hey, I believe that.

So have I. But when I study the Scripture, I realize that this is just not true. And this is an important lesson that those things that people say, pastors repeat certain things, even if you've heard it repeated a thousand times, you still need to test it over and against what the Bible says.

So don't let stuff like that slip through. So hopefully, in conclusion, I hope this helps to clear some things up. I'll just end with this point, something that all Christians should be able to agree on.

When Jesus made those comments to Pilate about the Jews having the greater sin, or when he made the comments about the unpardonable sin, or the teachings about taking the mark of the beast, those things all have one thing in common.

They all include a total rejection, or they really are a total rejection of Jesus as the Son of God. That is one sin that is absolutely worse than all the others. So if you have never accepted Christ, the Scripture says in Romans 10 .9, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

And if you have done that, the next step is to find a good, local, Bible-believing church, get baptized, start growing, read your Bible, pray, find a way to serve the Lord. And until next time, thanks for listening.

May the Lord be with you.

Have a great day.