Or is it equal depravity and unequal sin? Michael Patton posts on this topic.
However, I don’t believe that all sin is equal in God’s sight. I also believe that telling people that it is does great damage to the character of God and the seriousness of certain sins. There are many reasons for this, but let me start with a reductio ad absurdum and them move to a biblical argument.
I often ask people who say that all sin is equal in the sight of God if they live according to their theology. Think about this. If all sin is really equal in the sight of God, and one really believes this, then God’s consternation and anger will be equal for whatever sin we commit. Equally important is the fact that our relational disposition before God should suffer from the conviction of the Holy Spirit for all sins equally. Most Christians understand what it means to have a conscience weighed down by unrepentant sin. But this weighing down normally only comes from those sins that we perceive to be more severe. However, if it is true that all sin is equal in the sight of God and one actually lived according to that theology, they should be just as troubled spiritually and just as repentant before God when they break the speed limit as when they commit adultery. After all, breaking the speed limit, even by 1mph, is breaking the law and breaking the law is sin (Rom 13).
What I’ve said before is that all sin is equal – in that the wage is the same – death, (Romans 6:23). However, earthly consequences differ. This is an interesting post and I’m looking forward to your interesting comments! Agree, disagree, confused? I’d like to hear from you!
I agree with the writer on the level about the levels of sin varying in their severity. I think the Torah is key to this – we see that some sins have less punishment and some with more punishment (ie: death). I think it would be fair to say sin does carry with it various levels of ‘death’.
For example, one could cheat on their wife and then find the result of the action is them being left – thus they are broken by it. Now that is not what we would call ‘life’ or ‘living’ – rather we would call that ‘broken-ness’ or ‘pain’. But after a while that problem can be worked and possibly even see the cheated come back and allow full redemption to the perp.
Now someone can commit a more serious crime – like murder – and the resultant action will be someone is dead – which cause for some too much pain to bear – so they develop serious problems in life. That’s not exactly living either – that’s dying on some level. Some even go so far as to ‘off themselves’ for the amount of guilt they uncover in themselves. There is not really a true way to find forgiveness for this act – since the other party is gone from the scene and cannot answer back. And from there we see the true depth of the pain that results in one (also they see the family and what not).
Sin does lead to death – of this I am so sure I can literally bet on the effects certain sins will have on people – since I have seen it so many times. To me, death is a consequence of sin and it happens in the here and now on some level (if not altogether).