Morning Sin Trap
I was in a Bible Study discussing a challenging issue. This discussion brought up another challenging issue about church roles. I don’t want to get into that discussion here because, quite frankly, I’m still trying to get my head around it.
Anyway, another person in the class came up with what I considered an inspired thought that started with Adam and Eve. The gist was that Eve was deceived by the serpent (the Devil) in the garden of Eden while Adam’s sin was listening to Eve instead of God. All true. The implication was that the type of sin mattered to the issue of church roles in a supportive way to the argument. The problem is that whenever I hear of someone comparing one sin to another sin, my first reaction is: balderdash, or horse hockey!
I have believed for a while that all sin, no matter what kind, separates us from God. My looking at someone’s car and wishing it was mine (coveting), is no better of a sin than murdering someone. Sin, any sin, separates us from God and we deserve death. It is only through Christ’s sacrifice that our sins are forgiven and we are returned to communion with God.
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” - Romans 3:21-26
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell…” - Mark 9:42-43, 45, 47
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” - Romans 5:12-21
In that same Bible study, we were talking about different kinds of sin. I made a comment that I was only 61 and still trying to figure out all the times I sin every day. Thank God, Jesus picked me before the creation of the universe to save from my own designs.
