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Transcript“Sin is sin.” That’s a common phrase that we hear in church life. Often times, it’s tossed around as if to say, “Well, nothing is really worse than something else. No person is really worse than another.” Is this true? Yes and no, as unfulfilling is that may sound. There are quite a few questions like this where the answer is yes and no. Yes, it’s all the same. All sin is the same. No, it’s not all the same.

In the same way, “does God love everyone?” Yes. Does God hate some people? Yes, but He loves everyone. How does this work? These aren’t necessarily things that can't co-exist together but they take some teasing out. We’ll address the loving-hating question in the future.

Is All Sin Just Sin?

Yes, It’s All The Same

Let’s address the way that it is all equal. All sin is equal in that it’s deserving of punishment and deserving of death. The easiest way to look at this is Romans 6:23 which says, “For the wages of sin is death.” Not some sins, not just this type over here, no, all sin. This is the consistent testimony of the Bible. Just because all sin warns death, that doesn’t mean all sin is the same. All sin is not equal. We’re going to look at quite a few Biblical passages to make this point.

No, It’s Not

Exodus 32:21, “Moses asked Aaron, what did these people do to you that you brought such a great sin upon them?”

Why would you need a qualifier - “great” - if sin wasn’t understood to be something that had different levels to it? Just because Moses asked this question to Aaron, that doesn’t mean his assumption is correct. Scripture records that he said this, but that doesn’t mean that his assumption is correct. Yet, there are many other passages that will make this point.

Since we’re in the Old Testament with Exodus, it’s worth pointing out that the Old Testament Levitical law had different punishments for different types of moral law breaking. The punishment for sexual crimes was much higher than that of theft. The punishment fits the crime. It does in society, it does in our intuition and it does in scripture also. The fact that all punishment is not the same would mean that all crimes are not the same. All moral crimes are not the same.

Let’s look at some New Testament passages. This is Jesus speaking in Matthew 11:23, where He says,

“And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven? No. You will be thrown down to Hades, for if the miracles done among you had been done in Sodom, it would have continue to this day. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

Here, Jesus is putting a contrast between Capernaum and Sodom and Gomorrah. We know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. He's saying they got off easy compared to Capernaum. What does that mean? There's a difference in the crime because there's a difference in judgment, a difference in punishment.

Then, we see in a parable in Luke 12:47, where Jesus says,

“That servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or do what his master asks will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know his master’s will and did things worthy of punishment will receive a light beating. For everyone who has been given much, much will be required. And from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.”

Once again, we see that the punishment that is meted out fits the responsibility that the person had who has being punished. Implicit in scripture is the idea that you're responsible for how much you know, for how much revelation you’ve been given. Let’s say, you're in a region and you’ve never heard about Jesus, is it just for God to punish you and send you to hell? Yes.

The Bible says everyone is in rebellion against God. Just because you hav…