Are all sins equal?

In regards to spiritual damnation, yes. Sin is sin. The tinyest sin condemns a person to Hell.

In regards to repentence and restitution, no. It's easier to repent if the sin is that I borrowed your lawnmower without permission. I just need to return it and replace any gas I used. It's difficult to repent if the sin is that I stole $50,000 from you and snorted it up my nose. I need to get into rehab, repay you the money, and if convicted of a crime, need to accept the sentence.

Even though it's harder to repent of the latter, both the latter and former condemn me equally to Hell.

 

Hello,

In my simple mind I believe man debates about sin because we all do them. However, some sins are more horrible to humankind than others. I believe God makes little distinction.

 

Again, spiritually, there is no such thing as one sin being greater than another. But in the world, yes, some sins have greater consequences than others. See my previous post for an example.

 

God makes no distinction. A sin is a sin is a sin. It is man who "categorizes" them as bad and not-so-bad.

 

Yes. I should have said it that way. He makes no distinction. Thanks.

 

... The answer is yes! Regardless of what we decide or what we desire to be true, God has set the standard and then gave us the ruler in the 613 rules of the Law. The penalty for any one of those laws being broken is eternal death if we fail to seek after His grace.

 

Uh, this is a bit off topic, but a good portion of those 613 no longer apply. For example, we are no longer required to circumcise our males, no longer required to have a tzitzit on the corners of clothing, no longer required to affix a mezuzah to our doorposts, no longer required to recite grace after meals, no longer required to marry the widow of a brother who has died childless, no longer forbidden from castrating the male of any species of animal, no longer forbidden from travelling on the Sabbath, no longer forbidden from eating meat with dairy products, no longer forbidden from tilling the land in a Sabbatical year, and so no, and so on...

 

I believe the answer is yes. 1 John 5:16-17.

I also believe different depths of Hell have been created for different degrees of sin. Mark 12:40.

 

All sin is sin but not all sins are equal. God does consider some worse than others - this is mostly seen in the OT.

 

John 19:11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

​

 

Right, not as far as salvation goes. But there are sins God hates more than others. There are also actions that received greater condemnation (this was said by Jesus).

 

Hello Marica,

You made me think about what you said, "All sin is sin but not all sins are equal. God does consider some worse than others - this is mostly seen in the OT."

Not all sins are equal? Do you mean that a person who kills another is a worse sinner than somebody who steals in the sight of God?

Thanks

 

I would think so. Don't you think killing is worse than stealing? Of course, if a killer trust Christ, he's forgiven but if the robber doesn't, he's not. But we're not talking about that.

There are also rewards and punishments that differ; I think this indicates God viewing sins differently (we've had threads on that topic here before).

Not sure this proves the point, but I think it leans towards it.

 

I believe all sins can equally send us to hell. However, I do not believe all sins are equal.

 

Thanks for the reply. I will think more about what you said and try to wrap my brain around this complicated subject.

 

Okay! :wavey:

This makes some good points:

http://www.carm.org/questions/about-sanctification/are-some-sins-worse-others

 

Marica,

I just read your link and in fact it does seem as if sins are not equal.

This was some good information, thank you.

I do wonder how different sins committed by Christians affect our outcome in Heaven. As you said, murder is a graver sin than stealing. So, if both have faith in Christ than does it even matter? I mean, does somebody who commits "less" or "not-as-bad" sins on earth eventually get ice cream in heaven as opposed to the "grave" sinner? What is the cause for "graver" sin opposed to "lesser" sin when both are believers?

Thank you for your time.