Harmartology: a study of sin

I was reading something earlier, and the topic was about God and sex. That's a pretty loaded discussion, and it's something that I want to get into at another time. I agreed with a lot of it. The author made a lot of valid points about the hypocrisy of people going to church on Sundays and getting wild every other day. Basically the author's conclusion is that sex and drinking are two equal sins in God's eyes, and that we all sin but in different ways. Lying, cheating, and stealing are the same as murder, adultery, and idolatry. Sins are sins, and they're all the same.

I don't know who came up with the idea that all sins are equal. It's not explicitly mentioned in a Bible verse. I looked to see where it came from, and the search gave me a list of verses:
James 2:10
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
Matthew 7:1-5
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

James 2:10-11
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

1 John 5:16-17
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

Romans 3:10
As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
Galatians 6:7
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
Matthew 12:31
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Galatians 3:10
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
Matthew 5:27-28
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
1 John 3:15
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

What I can gather from these verses above is that I am in dire need of a savior. That I, left to my own humanity, am going to do something outside of the promise of God. The Good News can be simplified into two words: grace and response. 

Paul writes in 1st Corinthians about a lot of things. There is division in that body of believers. There's people speaking in tongues, eating idol meat, and having sex with their stepmothers. My favorite verse in that book is in chapter 10. "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are good."Christians like to think that freedom means freedom from obligation: that we are not bound to the requirements of the law, we can live how we want, and Christian freedom allows us to do everything and anything. In Romans, Paul writes, should we continue sinning so that grace may abound? 

Yeah, sins in the eyes of God are equal in that Jesus' sacrificial offering covers all sins, the big and the small. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus is being anointed with oil by a sinful woman. The Pharisees with whom he is eating with are confused with this scene. They question Jesus' prophetic ability, so Jesus tells them a story of two debtors, one big and one small. Both debts were forgiven, and Jesus asks which debtor would love the forgiver more. Obviously, the one who had a larger debt would have greater love for the one who forgave the payment. 

We shouldn't continue in our sin if we know that they are sin. That's naive. I remember going to a youth group in middle school, and the youth pastor called it the grace train. So every time I read Romans, I think about riding the grace train. 

A friend of mine once talked about how her grandmother had lived "in sin" before she was saved. She and her husband at the time had sex outside of marriage and didn't think anything of it. But then her grandmother had a radical encounter with God and felt the need to repent of her former life and pledge her present and future life to God. She had no control over what she had done in the past, but she did have a decision to follow God with the rest of her life. 

I think that sins are equal in that they all alienate us from God. In Genesis, after Adam and Eve had sinned, God goes into the garden to find them. Our sin is our choice, and we choose to hide from God. The more we sin, the more we fall into the pit of despair, thanks The Princess Bride.

Here's what I love about divine imperatives, or commands given by God to humanity. God gives us rules and regulations and restrictions, and we get kind of pissed off thinking about it being too legalistic. But the thing is that God gives us these commands knowing very well that we cannot do them on our own. God gives a command and God's Spirit works alongside us as the advocate and helper.