Chris' Christian Blog

Degrees of Sin?

"Degrees of Sin?" 

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Over the past few days we have used the Christian blog to look at faith and holiness. Today we are going to take a look at sin. More specifically we are going to look at the one sin that God will not forgive. I do this because the misunderstandings surrounding it have led to a belief that God sees sin in varying degrees. He does not. One is either guilty or one is not guilty. The sin of stealing a penny from somebody's desk is just as serious in His eyes as the sin of stealing a bag of Gold from a mint. However there are those who use Matthew 12: 31 - 32 as a way of proving God sees some sins as different from others. This absolutely is not the case.

Matthew 12: 31-32 is speaking of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. We read "For this reason I tell you;people can be forgiven any sin and any evil thing they say, but whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who says something against the Son of man can be forgiven; but whoever says something against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven - now or ever," Matthew 12: 31 - 32.

At first glance one can see why people would assume that the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is literally saying evil things about the Holy Spirit. However if that were the case then the sin of never converting to Christianity would also be a forgivable sin. Jesus makes it clear however that there is only one sin that can never be forgiven. Therefore if the sin of continued rebellion against God is also an unforgivable sin then a conflict exists in a collection of writings in which there is no conflict. So how do we resolve that conflict?

We resolve it by considering the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation. We read the role of the Holy Spirit in John 6; 44 where Jesus tells us that no man can be saved unless that man is drawn by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit however, being a member of the Godhead, is bound by the same restrictions god chose to places on Himself because the Holy Spirit is God. That restriction is freewill. God will not force anybody to do anything they do not truly wish to do. Therefore when we are called to salvation by Holy Spirit (and I say Holly Spirit because that is His name, not "the" as if a thing) calls us, we can say no and refuse to go to Him. When we do we have committed a sin and as long as we continue in that sin it remains a sin. Therefore the sin that cannot be forgiven is not directly speaking evil of the Holy Spirit, but rather being in a spiritual condition that allows one to speak evil of the Holy Spirit. No believer is ever going to speak evil of the Holy Spirit because the ability to do so is not in them. So there is only one sin that cannot be forgiven and that sin is the sin of continued rebellion against God. All other sin can and is forgiven the moment a sinner becomes a Christian.

Since this is the case we can see that the argument that God sees one sin as worse than another because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is worse holds no water. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit simply means continued rejection of the Holy Spirit and ends when we quit running or resisting Him. Continued resistance is blasphemy against Him.Therefore it is naturally unforgivable. How many of us will pardon our child for doing something we have told them not to do and ignore the fact that they continue to do so? Their resistance is unpardonable just as ours is to God.

Therefore we can see that this argument cannot be used. Now let's look at scripture, which shows that God sees all sin as the same. We read "Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all," James 2: 10.

James is telling us here that God's commandments or God's word is like a drinking glass. If we break one part of it, we've broken it all. If this isn't the case then i ask those who would argue the point to break the top off a quart jar or a drinking glass and use the remaining part to eat or drink out of! Logic tells us not to do so because once we have broken one part, we've broken the whole thing. Man is constantly saying that justice is blind. We do make differences or degrees in crimes however. Here in West Virginia stealing anything valued under $300.00 is a misdemeanor. So let's the sin of stealing was a misdemeanor with God. Does that mean He's going to cast the person guilty of this misdemeanor into hell for thirty days or thirty years? No! It means they have broken the glass of God's word and are therefore guilty of sin. It makes no difference what that sin is. They're guilty. Period.

The Apostle Paul said "...everyone has sinned and is far away from god's saving presence," Romans 3: 23

None of us is perfect and we're all sinners. The difference between Christians and non-Christians is that Christians have been declared "not guilty" by reason of divine pardon. Our sentence was commuted because God sat on the judgment seat, declared us guilty, stood up, took off His judge's robe, came off the bench, and had Himself executed in our place. There are no "degrees of sin"". This is an illusion of Satan to trick Christians into living sinful lives , thus drawing accusations from sinners. How many times have we heard "If that's Christianity, I want no part of it," because the behavior of Christians was worse than that of sinners?

Satan created the doctrine that there are degrees of sin to fool people into thinking a "white lie"is not as bad as an "outright evil lie" but God clearly says "Do not lie".

There is no middle ground, no gray areas: only black sin and white righteousness.