Monday, November 08, 2004
Updated, Sunday, November 14
Are all sins the same? Common sense would tell us that running a red light in the middle of the night when no cars are in sight is not as bad as killing your mother-in-law. But Christians have a desire to follow Scripture and are sometimes wary of common sense, with some justification.
Charles Finney taught a perfectionism of the will, advocating a "simplicity of moral action." When a person acted in a godly way, he was godly through and through, but when he acted in an ungodly way, he was ungodly through and through. I don't know if Longfellow was thinking of Finney, but he captured the idea when he wrote:
"When she was good, she was very, very good;
And when she was bad, she was horrid."
This is unbiblical, of course. A Christian has two principles or laws in his being, one called the flesh, the other called the spirit in Galatians 5. The principles have different desires, pulling against each other. The flesh derives from our first father Adam, because of the curse of original sin; the spirit derives from the Holy Spirit in regeneration or the new birth.
This means that the Christian cannot do anything perfectly good, nor can he do anything perfectly horrid. There is a war going on in his soul. There is no similar war in the non-Christian.
This means that the Christian must walk in faith, trusting Christ alone for his righteousness and justification.
In everyday life, this means that there is a hierarchy of values; simply stated, some things that a Christians does may be better than other things. For an excellent examination of this biblical doctrine see the Westminster Larger Catechism which may be found everywhere on the net.
Of course, the same is true of the ungodly. There is a hierarchy of values, but for different reasons. The common grace of God restrains the ungodly so that the world is not destroyed.
That is why under the law, punishment was to be according to the humane principle "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." This is one of the fundamental principles of American law, the punishment should fit the crime. Jesus said that he that is guilty of much will receive many stripes; he that is guilty of a little of little would receive few stripes. He condemned the perfectionists of his day by saying, "Ye strain at gnats and swallow camels." The perfectionist cannot see the difference between gnats and camels. This is the wisdom of fools. Pefectionism of all stripes ends up in foolishness.
Such people cannot be trusted. A girl that I taught in school once was infected with these ideas. "All sins are the same," she would say. "Sin is sin." It is certainly true that sin is sin and will be judged by God, but that does not mean that every sin is equally horrendous before God. I remember asking her once, "Is it a sin to break the rules of the school by chewing gum?" She said it was, even though she was a great gum-chewer. "You are a dangerous person to have in school," I said. "You think that murder is equal to gum-chewing. You chew gum all the time in school; I will remember not to turn my back on you."
People think that by making all sins the same, they will create in people a horror for all sin. The contrary is true. By making all sins the same, the perfectionist trivializes sins. This is always the result.
God's people should be able to tell the difference between a hawk and a handsaw, as Hamlet put it.
Those who cannot tell the difference will think that those who would destroy those who use children as bombs are the same as those who seek to destroy those who use children as bombs. Can't reason with such people for they have no reasoning ability. If gnats are camels, thinking has ceased.
Are all sins the same? Common sense would tell us that running a red light in the middle of the night when no cars are in sight is not as bad as killing your mother-in-law. But Christians have a desire to follow Scripture and are sometimes wary of common sense, with some justification.
Charles Finney taught a perfectionism of the will, advocating a "simplicity of moral action." When a person acted in a godly way, he was godly through and through, but when he acted in an ungodly way, he was ungodly through and through. I don't know if Longfellow was thinking of Finney, but he captured the idea when he wrote:
"When she was good, she was very, very good;
And when she was bad, she was horrid."
This is unbiblical, of course. A Christian has two principles or laws in his being, one called the flesh, the other called the spirit in Galatians 5. The principles have different desires, pulling against each other. The flesh derives from our first father Adam, because of the curse of original sin; the spirit derives from the Holy Spirit in regeneration or the new birth.
This means that the Christian cannot do anything perfectly good, nor can he do anything perfectly horrid. There is a war going on in his soul. There is no similar war in the non-Christian.
This means that the Christian must walk in faith, trusting Christ alone for his righteousness and justification.
In everyday life, this means that there is a hierarchy of values; simply stated, some things that a Christians does may be better than other things. For an excellent examination of this biblical doctrine see the Westminster Larger Catechism which may be found everywhere on the net.
Of course, the same is true of the ungodly. There is a hierarchy of values, but for different reasons. The common grace of God restrains the ungodly so that the world is not destroyed.
That is why under the law, punishment was to be according to the humane principle "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." This is one of the fundamental principles of American law, the punishment should fit the crime. Jesus said that he that is guilty of much will receive many stripes; he that is guilty of a little of little would receive few stripes. He condemned the perfectionists of his day by saying, "Ye strain at gnats and swallow camels." The perfectionist cannot see the difference between gnats and camels. This is the wisdom of fools. Pefectionism of all stripes ends up in foolishness.
Such people cannot be trusted. A girl that I taught in school once was infected with these ideas. "All sins are the same," she would say. "Sin is sin." It is certainly true that sin is sin and will be judged by God, but that does not mean that every sin is equally horrendous before God. I remember asking her once, "Is it a sin to break the rules of the school by chewing gum?" She said it was, even though she was a great gum-chewer. "You are a dangerous person to have in school," I said. "You think that murder is equal to gum-chewing. You chew gum all the time in school; I will remember not to turn my back on you."
People think that by making all sins the same, they will create in people a horror for all sin. The contrary is true. By making all sins the same, the perfectionist trivializes sins. This is always the result.
God's people should be able to tell the difference between a hawk and a handsaw, as Hamlet put it.
Those who cannot tell the difference will think that those who would destroy those who use children as bombs are the same as those who seek to destroy those who use children as bombs. Can't reason with such people for they have no reasoning ability. If gnats are camels, thinking has ceased.
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