Please help me understand this about Christian view of sin?

Question

Before starting: I'm not Christian, but a Deist, I believe in God.
Back to my question:
I understand that ALL sins are equal according to Christianity, and thinking about doing one is a sin itself. So is picturing sexual fantasies in your head, without actually doing them, is on the same level of sin with (For example) being a sadistic raper and serial killer? How fair!

Answer 1

All sins are are not equal before God.

There is an objective difference in severity with stealing $50 and killing 50 people.

If God is omniscient, He sees things as they really are, so He would see that as truth as we would rightly see it.

But the gradations of His judgment would be infinitely finer and infinitely more precise than ours.


He certainly wouldn't flatten all things out to one level.

That would be ridiculous.





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Answer 2

How can any of those who have become sadistic rapers or serial killers have done so without first having pictured sexual fantasies in their heads?
I'm not a Christian either, but I understand the dogma as being that indulging in sin is a 'slippery slope', and if it can be 'nipped in the bud', things like serial killers can be prevented.

This view does have some validity.

Answer 3

All sins are not equal. They are equal only in that they receive the same punishment, death, but it is clear from scripture that God hates some sins more than others.

Being tempted is not a sin in itself, and whether or not thinking about a doing something wrong is a sin depends on whether or not you entertain these thoughts. Satan is responsible for putting evil thoughts in our head; we are responsible for what we do with those thoughts.

But sin is really just unbelief. All of the things we call sin are just the symptom of that unbelief.

Have you ever wondered why so many of the sins "outlined" in the Bible result in so much pain and sorrow?

Lying can have dire consequences, and often does.
Killing has obvious consequences.
Sexual promiscuity (including but not limited to homosexuality) can result in incurable disease.
"Defiling your body" (smoking, drinking etc.) are extremely harmful to your health.

You could go on and on. It's no wonder that the Bible said "The wages of sin is death."

Answer 4

The misunderstanding is over the Law of God. He gave the Law through Moses for the purpose of showing ALL that they are not perfect or better than anyone else. The Law was never intended as a way of salvation....unless a person could be perfect from birth and throughout their lives.

So, to break ANY law of God simply means that a person has broken God's Law and cannot be with Him eternally because Hi IS perfect and all with Him must be perfect.

Christianity is NOT a moral or ethical system. God has revealed Himself to us and revealed His desire that ALL people become righteous and able to survive being with Him in eternity.

The vicarious atonement of His Son for us is His way of giving Jesus' perfect righteousness to all who will receive Him.

We are not diminishing the gravity of sin by saying "sin is sin". We are only saying that the least sin is still subject to God's justice...which calls for eternal death.


The world can rate and classify sins all they want and attach different punishments of varying degrees on how they view the severity of the sin. People like that type of system because then they can say "At least I'm not as bad as that person".

God has only one judgement on sin: "Death". And no one can use the excuse that they are "better" than another.

Answer 5

"In ALL things give glory to God". If you do anything that isn't in mind to glorify God in it THAT is sin. Whether it is seen by man to be a "good" act or "bad". Sin in God's eyes are the same, EVIL. One sin is an act against the eternal almighty and is justly condemned for eternity because of the one whom is sinned against is eternal. In that way sin is equal. Sin has different consequences on earth because as man we can only judge the by product of the sin which is it's effect on the PERSON the sin has effected. In this we judge different levels of coincidence according to the degree that has been defined by the judiciary.

Snowman - "God is not like you - though you make him to be." The Protasis of your syllogism is faulty. You assume your logic is correct and this of course can be faulty at best when comparing it to God's ways.

Answer 6

Apparently you are referencing the passage from Matt. 5 where Jesus goes beyond the physical act of sin to the thought life and intentions of the heart. What Jesus was saying is that sin begins in the mind, then is acted upon. So if you hate someone and want to murder them, should you go ahead and do it since it is sin anyway? No. Any thought or act that is an offense to God is a sin. We have all sinned and in God's economy, sin once and you are guilty of breaking the whole law. There is only one way out, Christ. He took the punishment for our sins upon Himself. He received the penalty that was due us. He laid down His life for His sheep, His Church. When you die, either you will be in Christ and God will not impute the punishment due you for your sins since Christ took it for you, or you will die outside of Christ and your works will be judged. If that be the case, one sin will be enough to condemn and find you guilty.

Answer 7

Christians have an inordinate fascination with what OTHER PEOPLE do in their bedrooms and doctors' offices.

Perhaps they at some time actually found a guy who had never done any of the "bad" things they call sins - and so they had to "up the ante" by asking if he had ever THOUGHT about it, which then became the measuring-rod, since it's pretty hard NOT to at least THINK about something morally improper from time to time, even if it's only a knee-jerk emotional response that you immediately quash.

Answer 8

Isn't sin really a conceptual modality of command and control invented by patriarchal institutions to keep women and slaves happily downtrodden? How can it be fair to punish the thought of sin equal to the commission of sin? Wouldn't Ted Bundy be alive and well if he had only thought about murder and rape instead of actually doing it? Finally, isn't abandoning the archaic and irrational beliefs of religion the first step towards real personal freedom?

Answer 9

You must boil it all down to it's basic premise. God says don't kill. So if you kill, you are being disobedient to God. God says do read your Bible, and if you don't, you are being disobedient to God. Every sin of commission and every sin of omission falls under the umbrella of being disobedient to God. God will not look upon any sin. He won't tolerate any sin. So not matter how big or how small the sin is, it's abhorent to God. Man puts sin into categories, God doesn't. He sent His Son to die for the guy who murders and the guy who tells a little white lie. And God is being more than fair with us. Anyone who accepts Christ's sacrifice gets to go to heaven, and anyone who rejects has chosen to go to hell. It doesn't matter how big or how small you sin is, He will cover it if you will only ask. Now that's more than fair. To put it plainly.........
Justice is getting what we deserved.
Mercy is not getting what we deserved.
Grace is getting what we never deserved.

Answer 10

Hi, the definition of serious sin is this,
1. you have to have the set intention to commit the act,
2. you must be aware of the seriousness of the act,
3. after these considerations you then freely commit the act.
these together constitute very grave sin indeed, as for sexual thoughts these are a natural product of being human and it would be a lie to deny having these, of itself there is no real sin,however even these must not be allowed to control you in any detrimental way.

Answer 11

it's not a matter of sins being equal, the point is that God absolutely hates sin and won't look upon someone sinful (sinful meaning anyone that hasn't asked for Jesus' forgiveness).

I'm not sure that thinking about swearing is a sin, I may be wrong, but i think that mainly applies to lust. When you picture a sexual fantasy in your head thats lust.