Dr Paul Allen

Is There a Sin Spectrum? Are all sins the same in God’s eyes, or are some sins worse than others? All sins are the same in the sense that each renders a person guilty and worthy of God’s wrath. The root of all sin is autonomy and replacement of God with self. However small sin may seem, it is an assertion that the person is acting independently of God. Eating fruit from a tree in a garden, like Adam and Eve did, might not seem immoral and may seem minor compared to other crimes, but it was an act of iniquity that had grave consequences for the human race.  Breaking any command is an assault against the divine Lawgiver. James declared, “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” (James 2:10–11). Grudem is correct that “in terms of our legal standing before God, any one sin, even w

In one of the most dramatic scenes in all of the Bible, Pilate the political leader and Jesus Christ are face-to-face. Having been falsely accused and wrongly arrested, Jesus was in custody and treated like a criminal. As the men spoke, Jesus makes this curious comment in John 19:11, “Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” What in the world does Jesus mean by this? On one hand, all sin is equally sin. When caught in sin, sinners are apt to excuse themselves by comparing themselves to someone else whose behavior is worse. The goal, of course, is to make ourselves look better. But, God does not see a spectrum of people from good to bad.  Instead, God has two categories of people – perfect and imperfect, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This is because obedience to God’s Law is not graded on a curve but rather a pass/fail scale where perfection is a passing grade and anything else is a failing grade: “whoeve