It is our tendency to think that some sins are worse than others. God doesn’t see it that way.
There are many lists of sins in the New Testament, many of them by Paul. He brought the gospel to a culture that was out of control morally. We may look at one of his lists and think I’m not this or I’m not that. It doesn’t matter. All of us are in there somewhere because all of us have sinned.
We may look at any list of sins and see sins that offend us more than others. We may even think some sins are worse than others. That’s not how God sees it. All individual sins offend God because all of them represent human selfish rebellion against His rule.
There is a common thread in any list of sins. It is SIN with capital letters. It is the principle of sin that shows up in many individual ways. It is isolation from God and living to please ourselves without living in a right relationship with the God who created us. Isaiah captured this idea. He wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). That’s the problem with sin. We each have our own way of displaying it.
My way may not be your way but all ways are wrong because all of them come from the one root—the principle of sin. They are all expressions of our selfish refusal to yield to the God who created us.
One of Paul’s lists of sins is in his first letter to the Corinthian believers. Corinth was a town where corrupt morals prevailed. There were flagrant sexually immoral practices and various other sins on display there. Paul lists some of them.
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
You may not be on this list, but everyone is on a list just like it somewhere. From sexual sin to greed and slandering, everything on this list is sin. When I read this, or check the Ten Commandments again, I realize that I haven’t lived the perfect life God requires of me. No one has but Jesus.
Thankfully, Paul didn’t stop there. He continued to write and that is where God’s amazing grace offers the best news anyone will ever hear:
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
Three passive verbs tell the story of God’s grace. They are passive because they describe something done to us that we couldn’t do for ourselves. Every believer has come from a list like Paul’s. That, though, isn’t what we are; it is what we were. We have been washed by the blood of Jesus, we have been made holy or set apart by God and we have been justified or declared righteous by God Himself.
When John the Baptist came on the scene in Israel his main purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus. That included identifying Him to the public so He could begin His ministry. This is how he introduced Jesus “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
He came to take away the SIN (singular). Jesus came to take away every sin on every list because He dealt with the principle behind every individual sin ever committed. That means that His grace covers all my sins and yours.
Grace means that no matter what you have done to offend Him, God has washed you, made you holy and declared you to be righteous in His Son. That’s what He has done for everyone, now believe and receive all that He’s done for you.
Wally | GG Team
