Are all sins equal? (Ep. 28)

Are all sins equal? In this episode,  Pastors Chris and Tony explore what the Bible says about whether or not all sins are equal, why every sin deserves God's judgment, and how the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for every sinner. Join them as they separate common misconceptions from biblical truth.

Transcript

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Are all sins really the same? We hear Christians say that, right? They say that all sins are equal. But is that true? Is it the same when a child lies about stealing a cookie from the cookie jar as when a person in full knowledge murders another person? Could that possibly be true? That's something that many Christians struggle with. And today we want to answer that question from a biblical perspective. Are all sins really the same? My name is Chris Flugeft from the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Yorbalinda, California. I'm joined by Pastor Tony Flugeft, also my brother. And he serves at Christ the Vine Lutheran Church in Temecula, California. We're both confessional Lutheran pastors here in Southern California. And this is double portion. Are all sins really the same? How would you answer that? I think it's definitely a worthwhile question to consider because, like you said, people say stuff like this. How could I judge someone? We're all sinners. And there is certainly a kernel, actually, probably more than a kernel of truth in there. There is a lot of legitimacy to this argument that all sins are the same in a sense. And so we'll talk about all sins really being equal in God's eyes. When it comes to the guilt that our sins bring upon us, the damnation that we deserve because of our sinfulness, uh, it doesn't really matter how severe the sin appears to be in my eyes. So you said that that lie or that murder, I mean, at the end of the day, God's standard is perfection. Be perfect as I, your heavenly father, am perfect. And it is missing that standard. So all people are worthy of eternal damnation, whether they have committed just what they think to be small sins or big sins. And so there's a whole host of Bible passages that we could we could go through right now and that talk about this. I think one of them that would be particularly clear would just be Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He's exposing that our sins are more than just the letter of the law. Someone might be able to convince themselves that they are pretty good based upon the fact that they didn't do the quote unquote big sins. I've never murdered someone, I've never committed adultery. And that's where he says, well, if you called your brother Raka, which means fool, then you're a murderer. If you looked at someone with lust in your heart, you're an adulterer. And so Jesus exposes this reality that even our sins of thought and word make us guilty before God, cause us to not hit that standard of perfection, they're therefore make us worthy of damnation and in need of salvation. So, in a sense, yes, in the presence of God, in God's sight, sins are equal in that they earn us damnation. Yeah, I think it's important to think about the very nature and essence of sin. And that helps us understand better what we mean when we say, in a sense, all sins are equal. Because what is sin? Well, sin is something that is opposed to the very nature of God. Sin is when a person rebels against God by not following his good and holy will, and then it separates that person from God. I've probably used this example before. I use it a lot in Bible study, but I think it's really important to think about the Old Testament structure with the temple. The constant communication through the clean and unclean code was to be that sin separates. Sin separates people from God. If you are unclean, you cannot come to the temple where God made his presence amongst the people. So then when you think about the way that sin separates one from God, it's not a big sin or a small sin. It's just the very presence of sin. And I think this is really eye-opening when you think about leprosy. So often when people think about leprosy, they think of that destructive disease that it killed the nerve endings and then led people to be very misformed because they couldn't recognize if their hand was burning. And they think of that disease and how horrible it was, but that's not what was the only thing included in leprosy in the Old Testament. So people who had much smaller skin diseases. So whether you had full-out leprosy or you had a smaller skin disease that made you unclean and it separated you from the community and it separated you from God's presence in the temple. So sin separates people from God, and that's a big sin from our perspective, or a small sin. Yeah. And so when someone's wondering if all sins are are equal or not, and if if their inclination is to assume that sins are not equal, you you kind of wonder what's this coming from? Are they trying to justify themselves, make themselves righteous by convincing themselves that their sins are not that bad? And that's what you said, all sins make us un unworthy of standing in the presence of a holy God. And so this reminds me of Romans chapter 3, and and it begins or it gets going in in verse 9 of Romans chapter 3. What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all. We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin, as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, there's no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless. There's no one who does good, not even one. And so we cannot be righteous on our own. And so, if your idea behind asking this question is to try to somehow convince yourself that you're not as bad, well, that's kind of a fool's errand. What are you trying to accomplish? And then it's maybe misunderstanding the gospel because the righteousness that that makes us worthy to stand in the presence of God is not our own righteousness, it's not about the good that we do, it's it's this righteousness that is declared of us. It is the righteousness of Christ that we are clothed with. So Romans 3, 21 and following. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. So this righteousness is by faith, it's not through the law, it's not about what we do. And so if someone's asking this question because they want to try to convince themselves that they are somehow morally upright, righteous, or worthy of God's love, that will not work. The righteousness that we have, that we can therefore stand in the presence of a holy God, is Christ's righteousness, Christ living for us, and that being given to us, we are clothed with Him. We are sinners, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us are guilty, whether we have committed what the world thinks is the worst sin in the world, or something that seems rather insignificant. We are guilty, we are sinners who need salvation. Yeah. So we recognize how sin separates, sin brings that condemnation of death. And it's not, well, is it big in the eyes of the world or small in the eyes of the world? It's just the very presence of sin, the wages of sin is death. And this is how James can then bring that leveling statement in James chapter 2, verse 10 says, For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. Right? So if you're living a really, really good life, what happens if you commit just one sin? It is as if you've committed all the sins. It is as if you have broken all of the commandments. There's that leveling factor because, in regard to the consequence that sin brings in death and damnation, there is not a difference between the quote unquote greatest sinner the world has ever seen and the person who sins less than than other people in that perception. Yeah, and and see one of the things I wanted to pick up that you were kind of talking about this idea that sinful condition. So at the end of the day, what we're trying to do is not pick out each individual sin and become righteous by confessing each individual sin, but rather understanding our sinful condition. And so a proper understanding of original sin and the sinful flesh that we were born with helps us to understand how deep this corruption actually goes and how desperately we need our salvation. And so, yes, you are a sinner and you were born that way. You were born as a sinner, guilty. That original sin carries guilt. And so to try to play ourselves off as more righteous would be uh again an impossible thing to do because we were born with that sinful condition. We need salvation, and then the law is not given for the purpose of trying to make ourselves righteous. In fact, what we see is oh, you stumbled at one point, you're guilty of breaking all of it. And then uh Galatians 3, verse 10 tells us that if if we're dependent upon the law, we put ourselves underneath a curse. Romans 3.20 tells us that the law is given to make us conscious of our sins. And so, kind of wrapping up that thought, are all sins really the same in the presence of God as for the debt they incur, the damnation they make us worthy of. Yes, all sins are damning. The wages of sin is death. Yeah, exactly. All sins are equal in that regard. Now, there is an opportunity though to talk about some differences and distinctions because the scriptures certainly talk about differences in sin. So we could have categories like you mentioned original sin or inherited sin already, or we would typically go to passages like Psalm 51, surely I have sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Or we go to Ephesians 2.10. Actually, rather, maybe I'm getting that reference incorrect, but that Ephesians 2.1, that you were born dead in your trespasses and sins. Uh, we would look at Isaiah, it talks about all of our uh righteous acts are like filthy rags, and we would talk about this total depravity that is connected to original sin, that innate desire to sin uh that just corrupts everything. Then we could talk about what is theologically called actual sin. And now when I teach about this, I usually say this doesn't mean that original sin isn't actually sinful, yeah. Uh but actual sins, you think of the acts that are done. And these are the sins that you actively do. And then even within the realm of actual sin, we have sins of omission and sins of commission, right? So you have this sins you fail to do, like there's a good thing that you should do, but you don't do it, and then that's an omission, you omit it, and then you have a sin of commission, like you commit it, something that you shouldn't do that you do. And if from our perspective, it's probably easier for us to recognize our sins of commission, right? I did something that I should not do, that is against God's commandments. At times, our sins of omission are easy to identify, but at other times it can be totally like out of ignorance. Well, we we don't recognize that we've done this, and that's why the psalm says, Who can discern their errors? Forgive my hidden faults, because there are times where we have done something sinful and we are totally unaware of it. So then having scripture talk about sin in these different ways, and then theologians giving these terms and titles to it can be helpful as we think about like categories of sin. Yeah. The categories aren't always helpful, though, uh especially when they are from a theological tradition that has abused the truth of God's word. I think the biggest one that causes a lot of confusion is the distinction between mortal and venial sin. So the Roman Catholic Church would define a mortal sin as something that is tied to a grave matter. It's with done with deliberate consent and full knowledge. Like this is quote unquote a really big deal, and I know I'm doing it, and I choose to do it. Commit murder. Yeah, like they would call that a mortal sin. And then a venial sin would be things that are kind of that don't fall under those categories. Now, the reason I say that these terminologies can be misused or confusing at times is because historically speaking, Lutheran theologians have used the distinctions moral and venial sin. And perhaps we avoid that to an extent now because of the misunderstanding and misuse of it. And we will use different terminology because we recognize that all sin could be mortal sin, right? It could be murder or it could be lying. Like if someone is persisting in that sin, no matter how big it seems to the world, uh that could be destructive to that person's faith. And to kind of review some of these thoughts, remind myself some of these things, I was looking through our seminaries dogmatics notes, kind of like the catechism doctrine plus type class that we take at seminary study and be pastors. And there's the notes that have been compiled over the years of different professors teaching the classes. And and I was kind of highlighting really when we give the categories of of sin, I think the important things, the important, most important category, categorization we'll talk about is kind of this willful versus unwillful, or like maybe you think persistent sins versus sins of weakness. And I I think that's probably where we want to take this is mortal venial can get kind of confusing because we're not talking about a category of certain bad sins, but we're talking about is this sin indicative of rebellion against continued rebellion against God that's not consistent with the faith of a believer. And so Hebrews chapter 10, verse 26 and 27 is maybe one of the clearest places that talks about this. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. If we deliberately keep on sinning, no sacrifice for sins is left. It's pretty serious language. It's a warning. Now, here is just a comfort to people, or maybe an encouragement. We don't find our comfort in the law, and if that terrifies you, it's supposed to. It's a warning. If you find yourself comfortable in sin, this is serious. Jesus talks about this. A good fruit produces, a good tree produces good fruits. Uh, he kind of gives that that parable of the tree that's going to get cut down, and and obviously it's a picture of of Israel, but I think you can apply to the the individual, the Christian, as a fruit-bearing tree, because we hear that elsewhere in scripture of the fruits of faith. And and so it a fruit, a tree produces what it's supposed to produce. A believer is a Christian, Christians do good works, and if the acts are not consistent with the identity, well, that's a problem. And so that's a warning. And so again, if this if this scares you, confess, repent, and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. But for the point of of the learning and teaching the Christian, it is good to talk about this distinction. Because yes, all sin is equal in the eyes of God, but when it comes to I don't know if it's the right way to talk about it. But when it comes to the individual, you could talk about certain sins being maybe more harmful. And again, I don't know if that's exactly the right way to talk about it, but this idea of persistent sin being more dangerous than a sin of weakness. I think it is a legitimate point of conversation. And so, like using using an example, people say all sins are equal, therefore we shall not judge. Well, there is a difference between that Romans 7 struggle. The good I want to do this, I don't do, the evil I don't do, I don't want to do this, I keep on doing. What a wretched man am I, and someone who is believing what Romans 6 is shooting down, that like if God likes to forgive so much and I like to sin so much, we should be free to just keep on doing our thing. And he says, by no means we are dead to sin. So there's a difference between the person who thinks that a gospel the gospel is a license to sin versus the person who is struggling with the reality that we are sinners and saints in this life. And and so the classic example, there's a difference between throwing a parade to celebrate what God calls sin versus perhaps the young man who is struggling with lust and and he goes to the beach or the gym and he can't help but to have lust in his heart, and and he goes home and he repents and he confesses and he strives to do better. Those are different approaches to sin, which say something about the state of the faith of the individual. Yeah. In Romans chapter 7, which you referenced already, the Apostle Paul writes quite clearly that that sin is not his primary identity. That's not who he is, he says, but rather sin living in me. And that's where we have this question with persistent sin, especially when people talk about it in a prideful way, is has that become your identity? And what does that testify regarding your connection to the Lord? Because as a Christian, the new person created in Christ Jesus is your identity. And the the Christian hates the sin that they commit. But you if you are in a position of boasting in that sin, finding your identity in that sin, then that ends up being a very large red flag of saying what is going on. And that's why you could have some two people who are doing the same thing and but have a different status of heart for those people. And that's why it ends up becoming really difficult as pastors, because uh sometimes uh the pastoral response can seem like almost two faced. Where it's this person did something and now the the elders are working on church discipline and another person did that same thing and the the pastor is working to encourage that person to strengthen them. So that it can be very challenging from our perspective. And we do the best that we can to be discerning and to serve people in the best possible way. Like the loving thing when a brother or sister sins is to approach them in that sin. But when that brother or sister repents to receive them, so it ends up becoming a challenging thing. And for ourselves to have this personal reflection on our sins, always to confess those sins to the Lord, to start every day anew confessing to the Lord, forgive me my sins. And then to if we are in a position to say, like, hey, I keep on doing this thing over and over again, that the faith that's in our heart, the Holy Spirit working in our heart will draw us to say, How can I flee from this thing? How can I avoid this thing rather than saying, well, that's just who I am and that's just what I do. And do you talk about how it almost looks two-faced at times where it's like the different approaches because there is a different heart behind it? One example might be a couple is living together outside of marriage, and one couple is confronted about and they're like, Child times have changed. God would understand. We we need to make sure to see that we're compatible before we get married. This is how the world works. I'm good with God, Pastor. You don't need to harp on this issue. That might be the persistent sin attitude. The sin of weakness attitude, and like again, this is complicated because this is a very conscious decision. But when it came to them, might be like, you know, Pastor, you're you're right. We need to make this better. And they have, let's say they have children together too, and they didn't really completely know God's word. Maybe they're new, relatively new Christians, and they're they're working on untangling their different commitments and responsibilities to make either moving out a possibility or getting married a possibility. And right away, the the action might not look that different. Yeah, there's gonna be certain things it's like of of course, like you're not sleeping together. Um, but like the actions might look a little different as as they work towards showing the proper fruit of faith. And and so that's where like it might look hypocritical, but it's as the pastor's working individually with these people, there's two different attitudes towards sin. One is deliberate, one is all right, we're working to please God with our lives. And uh like again, there's maybe some complications with we have children, so maybe it isn't proper for dad to just move out of the house and and like like yes, we're we're gonna get married, or like again, I can see there's just different complications that might make things slower than what would be ideal. Then it's like, well, let's get married tomorrow. Like, okay, I understand that there might be some things that they're working through and and working to get to a position of strength. Yeah, and when we talk about the the different heart that's in the individual, we're not what we're not saying is like something that you muster up on your own. Yeah. But we're we're talking about the Holy Spirit who's working in that person's heart. Uh so we have the dual nature, we have the same time sinner and saint, but the the saint is there because the Holy Spirit is there working in that person's heart, and the the Holy Spirit's working that person to to flee from from sin and and to despise the sin and to repent of the sin that they commit. Where there could be a person who, although outwardly confesses Jesus is Lord, they are that person, the Lord would say, I never knew you, because that person has rejected his work and that person holds on to that sin. So it's not a uh like a personal difference between the people, but it's the is the spirit working in that person's heart, or has that person rejected the Holy Spirit? So what we don't want to say is like, well, this person's just trying harder, this person just feels worse about their sin, but it's a the presence of the Holy Spirit, or has this person through their persistent sin rejected the Lord and they they are no longer a temple in the Holy Spirit. And so when we talk about this difference, uh a big part of this is the use of the keys. We've been given as a church, as the church, the keys to to bind and to loose, to to lock and and unlock. And and so we have this, Jesus says, Whoever's sins you forgive on earth, they are forgiven. And this is again isn't a merely a reminder of forgiveness, it is Christ speaking to his people through us, uh delivering that forgiveness in time to the uh sin-burned soul. And and so to the one person who says, Doesn't matter, it's not actually sin, I don't care. You are not forgiven. You use that that locking key as it's properly to be used. To that other person says, You're right, I'm sorry. Like I confess my sins, then we have that responsibility to proclaim that forgiveness, to deliver that forgiveness. I and and and so we're just doing what we've been called to do. One of the things I I'd be interested in having you work through and us working through a little bit together. What would you say to someone who said, Pastor, I'm worried that I am guilty of that deliberate persistent sin that's worried about Hebrews 10, and that I'm if I died today, I was gonna go to hell. What would you say to that person? I I've heard before people give the answer that the struggle is evidence of the Holy Spirit's work in their heart. I I don't know if I would go there because that that would turn that person inward and say, like, well, am I am I really struggling and then examining their own fruits? I I think it'd be better to point them to the cross. Uh so to to bring them law and gospel. Like, are you struggling with this sin? Do you see this, and are you scared that this is persistent in your in your life? Then to bring the law and talk to that person about the the severity, and they know the severity, and say confess the sin and and point them to Jesus on the cross and say, There is the Son of God who took on flesh to take the whole sins of all the world, every sin, uh no sin too small, no too sin too big for Jesus' death to atone for. And so point that person to Christ Jesus and say, There you have the certainty of the forgiveness of your sins, there you have certainty because Jesus said to telestai, it is finished, that debt is paid in full. There is the confidence for the forgiveness of your sins. So then I think that's where you'd want to start is with the forgiveness that there is in Christ Jesus. And then following that, let's not ask the question, are you persistently uh sinning or is this a sin of weakness that you could keep on falling into? But it's out of thankfulness for what Christ does. Let's get some structures in your life to aid you in fleeing from this temptation. Like, how can we help you uh so that you do not fall into it? How as your brothers and sisters in Christ can we encourage you? Not that the rem that person's actions are gonna save them, but say, like, because you despise this sin, right? Because you don't want this anymore, because the Holy Spirit's working in your heart, how can we put structures in place to help you run from this? Yeah. And and so one of the things that you mentioned is this idea of not pointing to the struggle. In one sense, I could understand why someone would say that. And we do talk about our fruits of faith being evidence of faith. And so we want to be careful not to completely speak against that way of talking because the Bible does talk that way. But I completely agree with you. I wouldn't want to point that person to themselves. Another reason, besides the fact that you're not pointing them to Jesus, the uh the author of our salvation, the one who did everything for us, and and our only source of certainty. Another reason is that struggle might just be contrition and and repentance has two parts contrition and and faith. And that's really the difference between Judas and Peter. Both of them rebelled against Jesus, both of them felt bad about what they did, but Judas didn't trust that he could be forgiven. And so that person who's struggling with that, they might very much be in that position where they understand the wrong of their sin, but they might be thinking, you know, I just can't be forgiven. And that's where you need to preach the gospel to them through which the Holy Spirit will work to strengthen them, to, to bring them to faith, to to strengthen that faith in in Jesus and His forgiveness. And so I would completely agree with that idea that we don't want to point them to their own struggle because that's really uncertain. And then also the other point that you brought up about, okay, what now? I think that is important as well. If the person is struggling with persistent sin, there might be a legitimate point in them saying, like I them asking this question because like maybe they just aren't taking the sin that seriously. And maybe that's why there's this continued struggle. And there isn't this like ongoing desire to serve God and to say thank you. There isn't this willingness to to discipline ourselves and in the proper sense of teaching ourselves to to do that which is good for us. And and so, like you think of the example that Jesus says, like, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. And some people have taken that to say, like, that's just showing like how impossible it is to save ourselves, which I I don't think that's the main point of what Jesus is saying there. I'm saying I think he's saying takes in that seriously. And so, like, if this is someone who's like watching internet pornography and it's like, well, what are you doing to help prevent this? Because there are certain steps that you can do. You can block these apps on your phone so that even like if you have that temptation, you have to like enter in a code. That's at least one step of removing that temptation. You can have an accountability partner who has the access to see what you're using, who's gonna check up on you. Uh, you can put your phone in a different room when you go to bed so that you aren't tempted, because that's probably when temptation hits for a lot of people, and you use an alarm clock instead of your phone as your alarm. And so it's like, are you doing very simple things to flee from temptation or not? And if you're not doing that, like that that could be part of the problem. And that might that might just show that we've gotten a little too comfortable with sin. And that's why I think it's helpful to go back to uh James 2.10 and the verses that are Romans 6.23, the verses that like level out sin and to recognize like each and every sin that I commit could be that quote unquote mortal sin, could be that sin that destroys my saving faith. So each and every sin is a big deal. So then that would draw us to oh through the Holy Spirit working in our heart, say, how can I flee from this? And you you gave really good examples, and I think it's important for us to give good examples about how to flee from temptation on a phone because it's just such a big thing, and it so quickly became a big part of the life of every single Christian. And and maybe we didn't have a quick enough response to it to say, how can we walk alongside you on this? And to come with these very practical examples of like delete the app, block the app, don't use the phone at this time, make sure you're not alone when you're using your phone or your screen, like all of these very practical and easy things. Find an accountability partner. Well, but it can be other sins as well to say, like recognizing that even my fits of rage are a big deal. Like I can blow up at someone and then move on and think, oh, I'm okay, like it's over. But to say, like, no, that's a big deal. Like, this is not who I am, and I don't want this to be something I continue to fall into. So to you know put in structures, put things in place, uh, think about how I can strive to live that life, to glorify God in everything I do, recognizing how big of a deal sin is. Can I do a quick kind of just tangential thought before we talk a little bit more about sin? I think this is the beauty of the Lutheran confession, and this is why we want to do something like this and put it online, because we have the clear confession of what God's word says about these things about law and gospel, that we're not gonna fall into the trap of some Christian confessions that belittle sin and say, Oh, sins of thought aren't really that big of a deal. And we're not going to fall into other traps that tell people, like, you need to do something to make up for it. Now, we're not gonna fall into the trap that points people to their feelings and how they feel about these things, but to go to the word of God through which the spirit works. I think that's so important. I was doing an audiobook, I was listening to a while I was working out at the gym, and it's worship by A.W. Tozer, and he was talking in the negative sense about how some Christians don't rely on their feelings enough. And I just thought, I'm like, I'm so thankful that we are not in a tradition that tells people to rely on their feelings. Like, do I feel on fire enough for God? Do I feel forgiven enough that we can point people to the confidence that there is? Like the God's word that says so clearly how destructive sin is, and God's word that says so clearly how much Jesus loved us and gave for us. And that's the beauty of the Lutheran confession. And then we can talk about how God comes to us, that he comes to us through the means of grace. So then that person who's struggling with this sin can hear from their pastor or any other Christian, but from their pastor, you are forgiven. I, as I called and ordained server of Christ, forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that that person can receive from the hand of their pastor the bread and wine, which contains Jesus' body and blood in with and under for the forgiveness of their sins. A person can receive that forgiveness, that that person can be reminded of the facts that they were baptized and say, well, remember, this is who you are. So this confidence outside of themselves, apart from their feelings, and how important that is for us as people who struggle with sin, to have this confidence in the forgiveness of sins and how God delivers it to us. Excellent. I think we could maybe move on to just two other points with sin and answering this question. Are all sins really the same? Where we could highlight two differences that are are maybe in less of less, I don't know if spiritual sense is the right way, but in a in more of a practical sense, how all sins are not equal. All sins are not equal in their consequences, and in one sense the consequences of the impact on others, and another sense the consequences of their earthly impact for us. But the sin of murder harms my neighbor in a far more significant way than calling my my brother a mean name. One would end their time of grace, their time here on earth, the other would not. And so, in that sense, you could speak of one sin being worse and in its impact on others. You can go all sorts of different ways with this. But some sins do have a they carry more damage and in whom they are against. And so we do want to be sensitive not to flatten it out, because there are people who have been legitimately harmed in very traumatic and and damaging ways. And well, we're all sinners. And so here's an example. When you see online a church worker who abused a child, and in the comments, you'll see someone who'll say, like, we're all sinners, or something like that. That sin of abusing a child in the position of authority as a pastor or teacher or different church worker is far more damaging to that child than, let's say, the the teacher who got angry and kind of spoke too harshly with a child once. That sin of abusing that child is more impactful, more damaging to that child. And that's where we don't want to, it would be insensitive and and inaccurate to just flatten out those as though those are the same. Connecting with that, when you talk about like the sins damaging others and and then the consequences of sin for ourselves, when a pastor or teacher publicly sins, that can certainly disqualify them from the ministry. And that's where a lot of people will say things like, Oh, we're all sinners. And then they'll talk about these sections of scripture that talk about the qualifications for the ministry. And I've even heard it preached this way like, oh, none of us can attain to this. And I really don't think that Paul, God through Paul, was intending for that to primarily be convicting law. He was saying, no, these are the qualifications of the ministry. And if you are not this, you're not qualified for the ministry. And again, no one's perfect. I'm not saying that I'm perfect, I'm not saying that I don't fail in any of those ways, but there is legitimate points of saying it's like you don't handle your household. You can't be a pastor. Like Paul says that. And so it's different sins, drunkenness. If he's a drunkard, he can't be a pastor. Like, so there are earthly consequences. So the maybe the pastor is guilty of like occasionally struggling with lustful thoughts or something like that. That doesn't necessarily disqualify him from the ministry, but if he's having an affair on his wife, that does. And so there are different consequences and different impact on others. And then look with the pastor, when they have open public sin like that, that's really damaging to the people that go to their church. Yeah, think about the different impact on others and how it harms others is such an important thing because we see as Christians, we are called to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. So then as we strive to love God, By loving others, the sins that hurt others would particularly grieve us. And that's hurting people in their their physical bodies as well as their spiritual welfare, right? Sometimes it's leveled that Christians are so heavenly minded they're no earthly good, but that's just not true at all because Christians are so heavenly minded that they're the most earthly good because they recognize that God cares for people here and now with an intention of uh of delivering them to that eternal reality. So we as Christians care about that. So if something I do uh hurts another person, that should grieve me to a different extent. If something I do would harm someone's spiritual welfare and potentially be the thing that leads them to disconnect from the Lord, to reject the Lord, that should really grieve me. If you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and cast in the depths of the sea. Like this is how Jesus thinks of this. So uh I wrote my senior thesis at the end of seminary on protecting children in ministries and how important this is for us to recognize. On one hand, yes, it is true that a person who commits such a grievous sin is forgiven of that sin because all sins are, all sins were forgiven on the cross by Christ Jesus. He is the atoning sacrifice for each and every sin. I already said it. No sin too small, no sin too big to be covered by the blood of Jesus. On the other hand, when it comes to our response in this life and in this world, we should recognize the particular issue of a sin that physically harms a child and then see the potential ramifications that has for their spiritual well-being as well. So the studies say it's been a while since I've done this study, right? I wrote my senior thesis five years ago over that. But the studies say that if a child is harmed sexually or physically by someone that works for the church, their likelihood of rejecting the church and rejecting their Lord unfortunately increases significantly. So our response to a person who has done something like this should be a response that, if they are repentant, shows them their forgiveness, but a response that also testifies to that child, to their family, to everyone else that we care about them and we recognize how that person's sin could have horrible ramifications in their life. Yeah. And so I think that is important to highlight that yes, all sins are really the same in that sins damn. But some sins do impact and harm others differently, more severely. Some sins impact and harm people spiritually very, very it brings great damage with it. And then we also need to learn to deal with different earthly consequences of our sins. And so maybe a different tangent there, but uh it's really at home this point. As a pastor who kind of counsels people in different ways, that's one place that Christians can really struggle with is dealing with the consequences of their actions and and feeling like, well, it's forgiven, we should just be able to move on. The reality is sometimes you can't just move on and act like nothing happened. Sometimes you can they called you a mean name, whatever. It is what it is. You're forgiven. Everyone bursts out in anger every once in a while. Let's move forward. But when your sin harmed people, we're not we can't just act like it didn't happen. And and so I that's one of the things it's like dealing with the uh counseling people. It's um there's there's always this desire to just move forward. But a fruit of faith, a fruit of repentance is accepting that earthly consequence and saying, I brought this upon myself. This is necessary, this is maybe not fun, maybe not comfortable, I don't like it, but this is a consequence of of my own actions. And and I know Christians can can really struggle with that. And I I think that sometimes stems back to this idea that we're all we're all sinners. So then there's like, well, other people did something and and they don't have consequences like this. Well, some of those sins became public in a different way and were directly harming someone in a different way, that it has different earthly consequences, and we need to learn to deal with it. And that's one reason why we can't just flatten it out and act like everything's the same, because in the impact on others, they they aren't. Yeah, I think that's important for us to recognize because our temptation can be to just say, like, everyone's a sinner, I'm forgiven, let's just move on. And on one hand, yes, let's move on. The only person who brings up past sins often in the Bible is the devil, right? He's the accuser, he's the one who wants you to remember what God has forgotten. However, in the the kingdom of this world that that God operates, the the government or just other societal structures might need to bring on punishment to that person as a testimony to others, or there are other ramifications that you you need to think of. So we use the horrible scenario of abuse within the church. That person, whether if they confess their sins and recognize they're forgiven, then they can hold on to the confidence of Christ Jesus. And then you can also tell them, like, hey, be a witness in jail because you're gonna accept this consequence that needs to come your way. Like it, and there's going to be other aspects of like you can't go around other children. Maybe when you are released from prison, you need to find the church that has a Thursday night service so that you are spending less time in the presence of other people because of the great scandal to others that your actions have caused. Then think about earthly consequences as well. Like maybe in what seems like a less severe action, as someone commits adultery and they have broken the marriage bond. And in that situation, their spouse is free to forgive them, or if they if they feel that the trust has been destroyed, they are free also to move away from that marriage. And then that person will have to recognize like I need to bear up under the now consequences of my action, that I have destroyed my marriage. And if if my spouse now feels that they cannot move forward in this relationship, like I need to move forward in a way that glorifies God in the circumstance that I am now in. We can't help but be reminded of our own sinfulness and our own failures, our the reality that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed, that we deserve eternal death and damnation. And that can be a heavy burden. It should be a heavy burden outside of Christ, knowing what we deserve. But we are to cast our cares on him. His his burden is easy, his yoke is light. He suffered the pain of hell in our places. He cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then he also lived that perfect life on the way to the cross, and we are granted his righteousness. And so we have the certainty of the forgiveness of sins, this objective justification outside of ourselves. Christ died for every single sin that has ever been committed. And now we have the confidence of personally receiving that as the word is proclaimed, as the gospel is preached, as the sacraments are administered, as we receive that host on the tongue, as as we receive the blood of Christ in with and under the wine of communion, as we remember this, the water sprinkled on our heads in baptism, that we were adopted into God's family, that we were clothed with Christ and His righteousness. And so we are certain of our forgiveness, we are certain of our salvation. And so as we consider a really a heavy topic like sin, we cannot forget the forgiveness that we have in Christ. That is our only sense of confidence. We are not confident, we are not confident in our justification by downplaying the severity of our sin or by flattening out all sins as though they're they're just okay and they're all really not that bad. They are all serious. But we have a God who seriously loves us and sent his son to die for us, and we know that we now have the hope of life everlasting because of him and what he has done. And so in the face of our sins, we look to Jesus and Jesus alone. Yeah. Let my sins be great so that I can see how great my Savior is. Well, one final thought from me here, as we begin uh in talking about how sin separates. And unfortunately, the devil could misuse that thought to lead someone to, in recognition of their sin, separate themselves from God and the his body, the body of Christ of believers. But what we are what we're saying is uh Jesus took on those sins. Uh so that Jesus is the mediator between God and man, Christ. Jesus' blood testifies for you. Uh so if you recognize your sin, that should not lead you to say, oh no, I need to run from God, but instead to run to him, to his open embrace, the forgiveness that he has given to you. So lastly, asking that question are all sins really the same? In the sense that they are forgiven by Christ Jesus. Yes, they are. God bless, and you have a great day.