Steps to a Clean Heart

It has been rightly said that the whole Christian life can be summed up in three “G” words: Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude. We can see these three themes in Psalm 51, written by King David after he repented of his sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the slaughter of her husband Uriah (2 Samuel 11-12).  When I taught a trilogy of messages on Psalm 51 (one, two, three) I split the passage using those three themes.

• Psalm 51: 1-6 – Guilt
• Psalm 51: 7-12 – Grace
• Psalm 51: 13-19 – Gratitude

As Christians, we don’t hide the fact that our deepest need is for a clean heart before a holy God. Even as Christians, we fail and fall short. However, Psalm 51 is an ideal passage for study and meditation concerning the Biblical way to deal with an unclean heart.  In this Psalm we can discern at least eight “steps” for getting our hearts right with God after moral failure.

1.      Approach God, focusing on His character. (v. 1)

Notice that David comes to God focusing on His “steadfast love” and His “abundant mercy.” Unless we work to remind ourselves about God’s revealed character, we will either come to Him in the wrong way, or we will be too afraid to come to Him at all.

2.      Honestly admit the truth about your sin. (v. 2-6)

David denied his sin for at least nine months. He tried to cover it up. He tried to ignore it. David was miserable during that time. In Psalm 32:3-4 David admitted, “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”

Here in Psalm 51, David faced up to his sin. He uses three words for sin. Transgressions means to cross a boundary in rebellion. Iniquity is from words meaning “twist” and “go astray.” It indicated perversity, depravity, and waywardness. Sin means missing the target; failing to do what is right.  

David admitted that he really sinned (v. 3). He admitted the serious nature of his sin—that all of his sin is really against God. Yes, David sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah, but he wrote, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (v. 4). All sin is rebellion against God. David also acknowledged the depth of his sin problem—he sins because He was conceived and born as a sinner (v. 5). He admitted that, at the root, his heart is sinful. Sin is so deeply ingrained in us that only God can scrub it out. And unless we acknowledge the truth about our sin that will never happen.

                             

3.      Appeal for cleansing, depending on the blood of the Lamb of God. (v. 7)

David asks God for cleansing. Literally, he is asking God to “un-sin” his heart. In fact, in verses 7-12 David asks God to grant twelve distinct requests. This is an example for us. Cleaning is there for the asking but it does not come without asking.

As Christians, we might wonder how David could ask for forgiveness apart from Jesus. However, verse 7 says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” If you are wondering why David mentioned the hyssop plant, remember that the most famous use of hyssop in the Old Testament was during the original Passover. The Israelites were told to use hyssop to apply the blood of the sacrificed lamb to the doorframe of their houses so they would be spared from the Destroyer. Hyssop points back to the Passover, and the Passover lamb points ahead to the true Lamb of God. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming he cried, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) If you want cleaning, you must depend on the blood that was spilled in your place by the true Lamb of God.

4.      Desire inward renewal and a cleansed heart. (v. 8-12)

It isn’t enough just to be pardoned of our guilt. David knew that his sins of adultery and murder flowed out of his sinful heart. David knew that unless God would change his heart he would be right back at it like an unreformed criminal set free from prison. Genuine heart change is something only God can do.

Genuine repentance means not wanting to have the desire for that sin anymore. You may still struggle with that desire as a temptation, but you don’t want that desire anymore. We don’t pray, “God forgive me of that, but let me keep the love of that sin in my heart.”

5.      Promise to teach others the lessons you have learned. (v. 13)

Genuine repentance and forgiveness makes us willing to tell others the stories of our sin and the consequences—so that we can warn them and plead with them not to make the same mistakes. We accept that our sins were seriously bad; and we also accept God’s forgiveness which frees our tongues from being paralyzed by guilt. This puts us in the right position to help others from falling into the same pits.           

6.      Praise God for His character and compassion. (v. 14-15)

Psalm 51 was written by a man who was forgiven of adultery and murder. Amazing Grace was written by the former captain of a slave ship. The loudest praise comes from the lips of the largest forgiven sinners.

7.      Continuously keep contrite heart before God. (v. 16-17)

God would rather have us slaughter the pride in our hearts than slaughter animals for sacrifice. We are not forgiven by being sorry for our sins—even by being genuinely sorry. Forgiveness only comes because Christ died for us. But to accept that, we need a broken and contrite heart.

False repentance is merely being sorry about consequences. Genuine repentance means being deeply grieved about offended the King we realize we should never rebel against. A contrite heart isn’t just something for the start of the Christian life. For all of our Christian life we need to stay humble and contrite before God. It is a part of gratitude.

8.      Pray for others. Move your focus outside of yourself—to others and the glory of God. (v. 18-19)

David concludes Psalm 51 by praying for the good of Zion and for God to delight in burnt offerings given to Him. The last “step” of going to God for a clean heart is to move our focus from ourselves to others. This is spiritually and emotionally healthy. A heart bent by sin is twisted back and looks only at itself. A cleaned heart looks outward and upward.

Footnote: My thinking on these steps was spurred by James Boice’s commentary on Psalm 51. I used his wording for what I call step five. 

Designed by an Idiot

If you look carefully at the car in this picture you will notice that it contains major design flaws. There are several. You might not be an engineer, so I will point them out to you:

• Notice the front, driver-side wheel. The way that it is bent down on an angle is a major design flaw. That is going to be terrible for gas mileage. It will also affect handling and give uneven wear on the tire. Ideally, all wheels should be straight. 

• The windshield on this car will provide terrible visibility. It will also provide less protection than if the windshield had been designed as one piece of solid glass.   

• The driver-side door also has major problems. The concave design is bad for wind resistance. It is also makes it difficult for the driver to get in and out of the car easily. 

Okay, enough pretending. Obviously this car has been in an accident. However, if somehow I actually thought that this car rolled off the assembly line in this condition, I could only conclude that the car was designed by an idiot.

There are people who make this same mistake when they look at the world we live in. The look around and they see sickness, and earthquakes, and violence. They conclude that there simply can’t be a perfect God who designed this world.

We live in a world of conflicting data. When we look at the world, it is obvious that there are things that point to its design. Even looking at the crashed car, a person can tell that certain parts were designed to fulfill certain purposes. The car was in an accident, but it wasn’t the result of an accident. It wasn’t put together by a tornado in a junkyard. There might even be some parts of the car that still work.

In our world we see a combination of design and disaster. There is beauty and there is ugliness. The world is finely tuned to support life. Statistically, we should be shocked that there is even one planet in the universe that is able to support life. When we think of our bodies, we should be amazed that they work even half as good as they do. But other people look at the world and see all of the things that are badly bent out of shape and ask why would God do that? 

Why do I have this sickness? Why did my family fall apart? Why are there birth defects and diseases if there is a God? Why did my friend die? Many people look at the disorder in the world and conclude that there simply can’t be a God. It just would not make sense. 

In fact, this was one of the motivating factors that caused Charles Darwin reject God and develop his theory of evolution. Nature was red in tooth and claw. In a letter, Darwin wrote:

“There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designed and created the Ichneumonidae [parasidic wasp] with the expressed intention of their [larva] feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that the cat should play with mice.”

Darwin saw too much pain and misery in the world to believe that it was designed by a good and all-powerful God.

There were many people in Darwin’s day who argued for the existence of God based on design. If you walk along the beach and find a watch, you can look at its parts and conclude that it was designed and thus that there was a Designer. But Darwin and others saw the flaws and reached the opposite conclusion. Darwin looked at the pain and suffering in the world and concluded that it could not be the work of a competent Designer. 

The problem was that people had forgotten the Biblical storyline. Creation, Fall, Redemption…

Deistic arguments from design failed because they didn’t take into account the Biblical narrative. And because of that failure there were unable to explain the real world that confronts us. We exist in a world that appears to contain both unfathomable design as well as unexplainable chaos.  Biblical Christianity is able to explain what other worldviews cannot. In fact, this world is exactly the one we would expect if Biblical Christianity is true. 

According to the Biblical story this world was designed and created by God. God is perfect in goodness and unlimited in power and wisdom. When the world that God created rolled off of the assembly line, it was in pristine condition. God inspected His handiwork and certified it as “good” (Genesis 1:31). 

Yet as soon as God handed over the keys of creation we proceeded to drive it directly into a tree. 

Our first parents rebelled against God and in doing so plunged God’s good creation into ruin. This is what we call “the fall.” Since the event of the fall in Genesis 3, this world has been a different place. There is still evidence of design, but the creation is horribly damaged. Romans 5 tells us that because of one man’s sin, death spread to all men. Romans 8:19-21 describes the created order as now being “subjected to frustration” and in “bondage to decay” because of the fall. Although God had created the world as "very good" things are no longer the way they were. 

The car was designed well, but it was in an accident. That’s the world we live in. 

If you don’t realize that, you might say to yourself, Why is my body such a disappointment if I am designed by God? How can there be a God when my aunt or uncle died of cancer? How can there be a God when my family fights so much? If there is a God and things are designed this way, why aren’t my parents together? Why did the person I love die? Why do tsunamis kill thousands? Why is there so much hurt? Why is there so much pain? Why do I struggle with these temptations? Why would God design me with desires that I’m not supposed to have?  

The Bible explains why there are things that are beautiful. It explains why there are so many things that work wonderfully. It explains why we can even be here. The Biblical story also explains why there is disorder and death and cruelty and suffering. It explains the order as well as the disorder. 

God has made a way to fix this broken world. He did this by coming into this messed up world and fixing it from the inside out. By Christ’s perfect and life and death, He is able to make all things new.  

Born to Die

The last TV show I saw that tried to proclaim the “real meaning of Christmas” was a typical failure. Someone stammered, “Getting the family together, that’s what Christmas is all about.” You would think that the first six letters in the word Christmas would be a big hint, but apparently not.

In my opinion the best verse on the real meaning of Christmas is 1 Timothy 1:15. This verse is tragically underused. But here the Apostle Paul absolutely nails what Christmas is all about. He writes:

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”

Christmas is about Christ. But even more, Christmas is when we celebrate the Son of God coming into this world and becoming a genuine human being—without ceasing to be fully God. Jesus did this in order to glorify Himself by saving sinners, and to do that He had to live the perfect human life that none of us lived and then die the death that we deserved, in our place.

The reason for Christmas is that Jesus came into this world to save sinners like you and me. The reason for Christmas is Good Friday and Easter. Jesus was born to die.

It is amazing that God would come into this world.

Think about this verse. We should be amazed even if it just said, “Jesus Christ came into the world…” and stopped right there. Think about who this was who came. The person who came into this world was the eternal God, the Creator of all things, and the One for whom all things were created. (See Colossians 1:15-16) He is the One who came into this world with all of its problems, and sickness, and suffering. And He didn’t even come to modern America. He came to the Near East two thousand years ago—when there was no modern indoor plumbing, or air-conditioning, or aspirin.

It is amazing that God would come into this world to die for sinners.  

What if this verse didn’t tell us why Jesus came into the world? A lot of people know that Christmas has something to do with Jesus, but that’s about it. I think a lot of people assume that Jesus wanted to come into this world to tell us how wonderful we are. It’s like He is stopping by with a pan of brownies because he just likes us so much. You see, we are very deluded about how wonderful we are. The reality is that we are all sinners. (Romans 3:23) We are born with hearts that are in open rebellion to God. That is what sin is at its core: rebellion against God. That is what makes it so terrible. It isn’t like we just accidently broke a few technical rules. Sin is not insignificant. You can tell how significant a crime is by the penalty attached to it. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is eternal death. That is not insignificant.

It is amazing that God would come into this world to die for really bad sinners!

Even the “smallest” sin is a sin against an infinitely holy God. Therefore, in a sense, even the “smallest” sin is infinitely terrible. Paul realized this. He described himself as the worst of all sinners, or as the KJV puts it, the “chief” of all sinners. Paul realized that Jesus didn’t come into this world to save “nice” people. There are none. Sure, we may be nice to one another, but we’re not nice to God. But Jesus came to save even the worst of sinners. As the Reformer Martin Luther said, Christ saves even “hard-boiled” sinners. If you think that you are too big of a sinner for Jesus to save, you’re not. Paul used to hunt down Christians to have them killed. The blood of Christ is valuable enough to save Paul, and it is valuable enough to save you. In the very next verse Paul writes:

But for this very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of all sinners, Christ Jesus might display His immense patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life.

This is why Christ came. Believe on Him and have eternal life. 

The Rollie Fingers Tragedy

My son Luke broke my Rollie Fingers glass. I had this glass since I was seven years old. I couldn't tell you a thing about baseball today, but I can still remember the starting lineup for the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers. That was the year they went to the World Series, and as a boy living in Wisconsin that was a big deal. This glass featured catcher Ted Simmons and legendary relief pitcher Rollie Fingers, the man with the sweetest handlebar mustache since the 1920's.

But Luke wanted something quick, reached in front of his brother's plate, and broke my glass.

All things considered, I did an "okay" job of not exploding at my son. After all, he is just five and these things happen. We explained to him that this glass meant a lot to me and Luke quickly said he was sorry. But what really bothered me—almost more than the glass being broken—was that it never really sunk in to him that he had wrecked something I valued.

Later on it struck me that this is what our sin is usually like. What I mean is, when we sin, we hardly ever grasp the reality that we have badly damaged something that God deeply values. Even though we say we're sorry, it doesn't sink in what a big deal sin is. When we sin, not only do we hurt people and fracture the wellness of God's creation, but even more—much more—we trample God's glory. We shatter it by declaring to the universe at that moment that sin is more valuable than God. We devalue God's renown.

This isn't a big deal to us, but it is to Him. It is right for His glory to be a big deal to God. His glory is that valuable. It's valuable, not only to Him but for us as well. For human beings, nothing can bring more ultimate happiness than delighting in God's glory. When we sin, we break that. But God values this so much that He went to the cross to fix the problem. This is love, that Christ would die for those who trample His glory so that we can spend eternity delighting in the One we were made for.

That is a bigger deal than a broken glass from McDonald's.

P.S. By the way, no, you don't need to go on Ebay and find me a replacement. It really isn't that big of a deal. And besides, my Paul Molitor & Pete Vuckovich glass is still fine.

Sharing is Caring

Superman v. Superman

The fight scenes in the new Superman movie could have used more creativity. There were basically only two fight moves: (a) ramming the other guy into a building, and (b) throwing the other guy into a building. Don’t get me wrong, the effects in Man of Steel were spectacular, but the older Superman movies had an epic quality that is hard to top. Remember in Superman 2 when Zod makes Superman kneel down to him and take his hand, then Superman crushes it? Brilliant.

Superman 3 was my favorite, but that was because I was 8. I thought the movie was hilarious, but again, that was because I was 8. Thirty years later… not so much. However, even today there is one part of that movie that remains truly epic. More than that, this scene moves me as a Christian. I am not kidding.

What happens is that Superman gets exposed to some synthetic kryptonite, but because the formula is wrong it doesn’t kill him. Instead, it makes Superman turn evil. He turns into a jerk who punches holes in oil tankers, messes up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, gets drunk and hits on sleazy women. Finally, evil Superman lands in a junkyard. He goes through an internal crisis and splits into two halves.

Now, there is Clark Kent, in a suit and tie, who represents his good side and there is five-o’clock-shadow Superman who embodies his evil side. The epic fight begins. Superman fights himself. At first, evil Superman pummels Clark Kent who barely puts up a fight. Finally, Clark Kent starts fighting back, but evil Superman fights dirty. The fight drags on and eventually evil Superman puts unconscious Clark Kent into a metal crusher. We hear him scream, but then he rips through the side of the machine in a rage, grabs evil Superman by the throat and chokes the living daylights out of him until he is dead.

This is what the Christian life is like. There is a battle inside every believer between good and evil. The Bible refers to these two sides as the Spirit and the flesh. For example, Galatians 5:17 states:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

These two sides are sometimes spoken of as the “old man” and the “new man” (Eph. 4:22-24). In Romans 7:13-25 the Apostle Paul describes this battle in his own heart. You see, when a sinner trusts Christ as his Savior, he becomes something new. God’s Spirit comes inside him and starts to change him from the inside out. The new man is our new true identity, but there is always the old sinful part of us that remains and tries to stay in control. The old man fights dirty. This is a grueling fight that will rage on and on until our dying day.

The problem is that we often don’t put up the fight that we should. We play defense and let the old self take cheap shot after cheap shot. We don’t get aggressive in our fight against sin. We need to remember that the Bible actually calls us to murder the old man. For example, Romans 8:13 and Colossians 3:5 tell us to “put to death” or “mortify” (KJV) the old sinful self. These are violent images.

That’s why I like Superman 3. It is a picture of what I feel going on in my heart. It is a fight. This movie reminds us that there comes a time to stop being kicked around by the old man. There comes a time to get angry, and with God’s help and power, to use all our strength to strangle the daylights out of the old man. 

Bowling and Heaven

Bowling can help us understand the Bible’s message about salvation. A perfect score in bowling is 300. To get this you need to throw a strike in all ten frames plus the two extra balls at the end. If you leave any pins standing, your hope of a perfect game is shot.

Now, imagine that you’re in a bowling contest and the prize for bowling a perfect 300 in one game is a million dollars. If you find yourself in the middle of the game with several open frames and gutter balls, you have no hope of a 300. At that point it won’t help to get serious and bowl perfectly from then on out. You can improve your score, but your chance of winning the prize is totally gone.

Many people treat their lives like a bowling game they are trying to salvage. We look back on our lives and realize that we have thrown a lot of gutter balls and left a lot of pins standing. We get convicted and realize that this isn’t a score that we would want to bring before God one day. So we decide that from here on out were going to turn over a new leaf. We think that if we can get very serious and try for perfection from this time forward, we can salvage the final score and please God in the end.

We can’t.

The truth is, God demands perfection. Jesus actually said this. He didn’t say, “Try your best and it will be okay.” Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). James 2:10 states, "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it all." Only perfect is perfect. Yet, we have not been perfect. We’ve sinned, and trying hard from here on out can never erase the gutter balls in the frames of life we’ve already played. 

Think of it another way. What if each of the ten frames were one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).  If that were the case, would you have a 300 game going? I know I don’t. In fact, when I really think about God’s commands, I don’t think I’ve had a strike in any of them. Have you? Have you consistently kept God number one in your life (commandment #1)? Have you always honored Him with your words (#3) and your time (#4)? Have you ever told a lie, even a small one (#8)?  

Maybe you’re proud because you have a few strikes because you have never murdered someone (#6) or committed adultery (#7).  Okay, but Jesus taught that if you hate someone you have murdered them in your heart (Matthew 5:21-22). As far as adultery, Jesus also said, “everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). There go those strikes.

This is bad news because not only does our score fail to win the prize, but it also earns us a penalty. The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). What we earn—what we deserve—from our life of sin is spiritual death—eternal punishment and separation from God.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that Romans 6:23 goes on to say, “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God demands perfection, but he knows that we’re not going to be able to give it. We come into this life with a bad score from the first frame. To be right with God, He needed to make another way. That is why God came into this world.

Jesus Christ is the only human being to ever throw strikes in all ten frames. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He always knocked down every pin and never left any standing. Jesus, the Son of God, was the only person to ever get the perfect 300. He is the only one to win the prize rather than the penalty.

When we look at the score board, we see our gutter balls and Christ’s perfect game. The amazing thing is what Jesus offers to do for us. Jesus offers to switch scores.

The Bible states, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:20b-21). In effect, Jesus offers to erase His name from His score and to put your name there. In exchange, He agrees to claim your failed score. You get His prize. He takes your penalty. That is what the sinless Son of God was doing on the cross. The Lord died on the cross in the place of everyone who will trust Him as their substitute. Because of what Christ did, God is willing to look at you and see Christ’s 300 rather than what you threw.

Will you turn to Him and accept Christ’s offer? Or will you keep trying to get your own perfect score?

Flavel on Keeping a Clean Conscience

John Flavel (1628?-1691) was an English Puritan who John Piper once refered to as one of the Redwoods of the Christian faith. In his work A Practical Treatisie of Fear, Flavel offers six rules for keeping a clean conscious. Salvation is by Christ alone, but our consciences often plague us because of unresolved sins. The best way for a Christian to keep a clear conscience is to be mindful to avoid the sins that would splatter it. Flavel's wisdom is worth meditating upon, especially at the start of a new year.

1. “Over-awe your hearts every day, and in every place with the eye of God.”  Speak and live as someone who knows that God always sees him.

2. Do no action that you dare not preface with prayer. Touch not that you dare not pray for a blessing upon; if you dare not pray, dare not to engage; if you cannot spend your prayers before, be confident, shame and guilt will follow after."

3. “Be more afraid of grieving God, or wounding conscience, than of displeasing or losing all the friends you have in the world.” Remember that sinning to avoid danger is like sinking your ship to avoid pirates.

4. Consider the clear council that you would give another person in the same situation. We're too prone to adjust the standards when our own interests are at stake.  On the other hand, King David's judgment was upright when he unknowingly judged himself in Nathan's parable.

5. Be willing to bear faithful reproofs from men as if they were from God.

6. “Be mindful daily of your dying-day, and your great audit-day, and do all with respect to them.”

All quotes from John Flavel, Works, 3:306. Text not in quotation marks is my paraphrase.

Why Do You Want to be Like Jesus?

Never underestimate the diabolical dexterity of the human heart. We have an amazing ability to contort virtue into sin—all the while believing that we are doing what is noble. We have the ability to climb onto God’s throne while simultaneously believing that we are humbly beneath it.  

I read a sharp description of this in H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture as he was describing the views of Christians similar to Martin Luther. When we realize the depth of human sin, we start to see the wide variety of ways that we subtly try to replace God as God. Niebuhr writes:

The will to live as gods, hence without God, appears in man’s noblest endeavors, that is, those that are noblest according to human standards. Man whose business it is to reason exalts reason to the position of judge and ruler of all things; they call it the divine element in man. Those who have the vocation of maintaining order in society deify law itself—and partly themselves. The independent, democratic citizen has a little god inside himself in an authoritative conscience that is not under authority.

Thinkers believe the power of their thinking is King. Rule keepers think rules are King. Individualists think their opinions are King. But it is not only the rest of the world that plays these games inside their hearts.  Some people who desperately want to be Christ-like want that for the wrong reasons. Niebuhr continues:

As Christians we want to be the forgivers of sins, the lovers of men, new incarnations of Christ, saviors rather than the saved; secure in our own possession of the true religion, rather than dependent on a Lord who possesses us, chooses us, forgives us. If we do not try to have God under our control, then at least we try to give ourselves the assurance that we are on His side facing the rest of the world; not with the world facing Him in infinite dependence, with no security save in Him (155).   

Do you want to be kind because you realize that God has been kind to you, or is it because you desperately want to feel that you are a kind person? Or is it because you want other people to believe you are a kind person? It is ironic that many Christians—who think they are supremely loving—end up causing damage because they would rather be thought well of than to tell the truth in love. You can’t out-love God without distorting love.

Why do you want to be Christ-like? Is it so that you can be the merciful hero who heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds? For many of us, we try to live that way because we see that as a more attractive self-image than the reality that we are pitiful and helpless from the self-inflicted wounds of our sin. 

The paradox is that we should try to be like Him but we should not try to be like Him. Seek to be Christ-like, but do not seek to be Christ. 

Christian Urban Legend: All Sins are Equal

For some reason this idea has ingrained itself in the thinking of most American Christians. When the topic of sin is brought up, you will quickly hear someone say one of these lines:

"Sin is sin."
"All sins are equal."
"There is no gradation of sin."
or "All sins are the same in God's eyes."

This is said with such confidence and conviction that you would assume there is a clear Bible verse that bluntly states this.  But the truth is, there is not. Now, James 2:8-11 teaches us that any sin makes one a lawbreaker--either we keep the law perfectly, or we do not.  No one should think they can stand before a holy God and claim that they are okay in His sight because they only committed the "ligher" sins.  This passage teaches that all sins have the equal effect of separating us from God, but it is not teaching that all sins are equal in every way. 

The truth is that Jesus Himself taught that not all sins are equal.  Jesus spoke of a "greater sin." 

"Jesus answered him, 'You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.'" -John 19:11

However you interpret this, it cannot mean that Jesus believed that no sins are greater than any other sins.  There are other passages that teach this as well (such as Ezek. 8:6,13,15; Matt. 5:19; 23:23) but I believe this statement by Jesus in John 19:11 is enough to close the case. 

I've had people get very mad at me for even suggesting this.  One person clearly jumped to the conclusion that if you believed this you would immediately start judging everyone around you.  So, if this concept is new to you, please consider all three points I am about to make before passing judgment on me for being a judgmental person.  I believe this because it is what Jesus teaches, not because I like the idea that I am better than everyone else.  In fact, the opposite is true.  I think that many of my sins are far worse than those of many others people because I know full well what I'm doing. 

Let me give a few key points.

1. There is a sense in which all sins are infinitely terrible.

I realize that this goes against what I am arguing, but I believe this is true as well.  Every sin, even those we consider light, are sins against an infinitely holy God.  This means that even the "smallest" sin is infinitely terrible.  Every sin is spitting on God with our heart.  Every sin is saying to God and the world, "God, you are worth less than this other thing I choose instead of you."  Every sin is infinitely worthy of punishment and this is why none of us could ever finish paying off the penalty for even the "smallest" sin.

2. There is another sense in which some sins are greater than others.

Jesus spoke of a "greater sin."  Some sins are judged differently in the Bible.  It also makes sense.  All other things being equal, it is worse to murder a child someone than to speed.  This doesn't mean than either are "okay" but one is obviously worse.   

All sins being equal in weight would lead to ridiculous conclusions.  Is it really better to kill a child than to speed twice?  If all sins were equal in weight, then speeding twice would be worse because it is two sins, while the murder is only one sin.  Come on? 

Points one and two seem like they contradict each other, but here is how I explain it.  In one sense they are the same but in another sense they are different.  All sins are infinitely bad, but some are like an infinitely tall stack of pennies or dimes and others are like an infinitely tall stack of quarters.  Both are infinite, but there is a difference in magnitude.

3. God does not give us the complete formula for judgment.

It is not a good idea to start ranking sins.  God does not give us the formula, or the ability, to calculate the weight of sins.  There is no logarithm in Scripture where we can fill in all the variables and crank out a total adjusted value for each sin.  We have no way of knowing one sin is a 65 but another sin comes out as a 489.  God knows the full weight.  We do not.  Only God can search the heart of each person to take into account their motives and attitudes.  Only He knows how much a person is aware of what they are doing and total circumstances that might mitigate or magnify the rebellion. 

This is incredibly important to grasp.  It means that you and I are not responsible to be the final judges.  It also means that just because someone believes that sins have different weight does not mean that he or she intends to judge everyone else like some sort of spiritual accountant. 

Having said that, there are some things we can know which make some sins heavier than others.  Many of these factors are internal.  Also please note the critical importance of the phrase "all else being equal."

• All else being equal, a "high handed" sin is greater than a less intentional sin.  (Numbers 15:30)
• All else being equal, it is a greater sin to sin against greater light than to sin against weaker light.  (See for example Matthew 11:20-24.)  The more we are aware of God and the seriousness of sin, the greater the weight of the sin.  (Yet no one sins in complete darkness.) 
• All else being equal, the more responsibility and authority being abused, the greater the sin.
• All else being equal, the greater our influence, the greater the sin.  (See for example James 3:1)
• All else being equal, a sin that is acted upon is a greater than a sin that is just in the heart.  (Yet both are sin and neither is okay.)
• All else being equal, a sin with a greater scope of damage is greater than a sin with a lesser scope of damage.
• All else being equal, a sin that does eternal damage is greater than a sin that only has temporary consequences. 
• All else being equal, sins of greater unbelief are worse than sins of less unbelief.
• All else being equal, some sins are greater depending on the mixture of motives.  The list goes on...

Many of the sins we think are small and actually big.  The "small" sins of a mature Christian might be more serious to God than the "bigger" sin of someone else.  Perhaps this is why Paul thought of himself as the chief of all sinners (1 Tim. 1:15-16).  Again, before you try to decide who is worse, the preacher or the prostitute, please remember that only God knows how all of these factors work together. 

Although we can't judge sin perfectly on this earth, Church elders are called upon to use Biblical wisdom in matters of church discipline (1 Cor. 5:1-13; Heb. 13:17).  As Kevin DeYoung has pointed out, we can't let church leadership become paralyzed so that "the elder who battles the temptation to take a second look at the racy section of the Lands’ End catalog shouldn't dare exercise church discipline on the 20-year old fornicating with every co-ed that moves."

Still, the best use of this knowledge is not for others, but for ourselves.  All Christians are a mixed bag.  None of this is meant to excuse any sin, in others or ourselves.  We all need to repent of any known sin, and we need to ask the Spirit to search our hearts to show us the sins hiding in the deep cracks.

Where did this myth come from?

I think there have been good motives and bad motives to see all sins as equal.  Some of this originated in response to the Roman Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sins.  All sin makes us worth of condemnation apart from Jesus.  In addition, other good motives include the need for humility, the need to avoid wrongheaded judgmentalism, and the need to remember that no sin in the Christian life should be tolerated. 

On the other hand, I believe there are also unhealthy reasons why this belief is so rampant.  Some people want all sins to be equal so that they can think their own sins are less serious than they really are.  "Hey, all sins are equal. Therefore my illicit sex is no worse than speeding."  Others know the skeletons they have in their closets.  And in today's climate, many Christians are petrified at the idea of being thought of as judgmental.  For many, the flattening of all sin makes it much easier to feel good about one's self as a warm and non-judgmental person.

All sin is grievous, and some especially so. God will judge everything perfectly in the end.