The subject often comes up of whether some sins are worse than others. And the answer must be, “It depends.” Depends on what? Are you talking about God’s justice or man’s? For example, God’s law condemns theft in the Eighth Commandment and coveting in the Tenth Commandment. We would say that coveting my neighbor’s car is not as bad as stealing his car.
And that is because we are talking about sin here as the actions of one sinful creature against another.
However, when we consider that question from God’s perspective, it takes on a very different character. Then we are talking about the sins of a creature against his perfectly holy Creator. From that perspective, every sin becomes not merely an act of theft or coveting, etc., but rather an act of treason.
And that consideration makes every sin equally one act, the act of treason. And what is the judgment for treason against our rightful King? “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:28-32). Look at some of the sins listed here. We see murder, and nod in agreement. Yeah, capital punishment is appropriate for murder. But what about gossips? What about those who disobey their parents? The foolish? Most people would be backing off now.
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Yet, what does God say? “Those who practice such things deserve to die” (verse 32). Paul doesn’t even say, “God says that they should die,” though that would be sufficient reason. Rather, Paul says just that they deserve to die. That is, Paul recognized this fact, and believed that every spiritually-aware person would also believe so.
How far we have fallen from Paul’s time that we question the justice of God, which consigns every sin, no matter how small in the sinner’s eye, to final death, which is Hell (Revelation 20:14-15).
