A perhaps inadequate answer.
Nancy asked:
"This may sound stupid but... "But somewhere in the Word, it says that all sins are alike in God's eyes.".... Really?? So God sees my Gluttony (That's a big sin right?) as "bad" as all the 'worst' ones in my mind, like killing people ?"
I'm glad you challenged me on this because, well, I was being lazy yesterday by not looking up the verse. I really try not to do that, because I think if we're going to claim that something is in the Word, we really need to show that it's in there.
But before doing that, I want to respond to this from what I know to be true, which is the rationale behind the verse.
See, here's the thing about sin. If we do even the slightest thing wrong ONCE in our lives, it means that we aren't perfect. God, however, is. Therefore, to be accepted into His presence, we need to be made to be perfect. In the past, this was achieved through the sacrifice of animals or of grain or a burnt offering (see Exodus 29 or basically all of Leviticus). I'll be honest - I'm not Jewish. I don't really understand how that can work, but I understand the concept that we need some sort of cleansing. There is a disparity between our imperfection and God's perfection - the two cannot mesh.
Because of this - that one teeny-tiny thing that you've done wrong - you need a sacrifice to make you acceptable before God. We think about this in terms of heaven, that we cannot get into heaven on our own merit. Really, no matter how Good you've been in your life, it can't be Good enough, because we're not perfect. Even if it's that one teeny-tiny thing, it's still not perfection.
That is the essence of Christianity, that God sent a piece of Himself, a part of the Trinity, His Son - flawless and perfect - to be the Ultimate sacrifice so that our imperfection can be reconciled in order for us to abide in His presence.
This is why gluttony, murder, a lie - all are alike in God's eyes - because each and every thing we do wrong just confirms our imperfection.
Does that make sense?
I just spent about ten minutes looking for the verse and didn't come across it, but I'll continue looking. In the meantime, Romans is a fantastic book of the Bible to read for explanations of all of this stuff, in greater detail than I just began to.
"This may sound stupid but... "But somewhere in the Word, it says that all sins are alike in God's eyes.".... Really?? So God sees my Gluttony (That's a big sin right?) as "bad" as all the 'worst' ones in my mind, like killing people ?"
I'm glad you challenged me on this because, well, I was being lazy yesterday by not looking up the verse. I really try not to do that, because I think if we're going to claim that something is in the Word, we really need to show that it's in there.
But before doing that, I want to respond to this from what I know to be true, which is the rationale behind the verse.
See, here's the thing about sin. If we do even the slightest thing wrong ONCE in our lives, it means that we aren't perfect. God, however, is. Therefore, to be accepted into His presence, we need to be made to be perfect. In the past, this was achieved through the sacrifice of animals or of grain or a burnt offering (see Exodus 29 or basically all of Leviticus). I'll be honest - I'm not Jewish. I don't really understand how that can work, but I understand the concept that we need some sort of cleansing. There is a disparity between our imperfection and God's perfection - the two cannot mesh.
Because of this - that one teeny-tiny thing that you've done wrong - you need a sacrifice to make you acceptable before God. We think about this in terms of heaven, that we cannot get into heaven on our own merit. Really, no matter how Good you've been in your life, it can't be Good enough, because we're not perfect. Even if it's that one teeny-tiny thing, it's still not perfection.
That is the essence of Christianity, that God sent a piece of Himself, a part of the Trinity, His Son - flawless and perfect - to be the Ultimate sacrifice so that our imperfection can be reconciled in order for us to abide in His presence.
This is why gluttony, murder, a lie - all are alike in God's eyes - because each and every thing we do wrong just confirms our imperfection.
Does that make sense?
I just spent about ten minutes looking for the verse and didn't come across it, but I'll continue looking. In the meantime, Romans is a fantastic book of the Bible to read for explanations of all of this stuff, in greater detail than I just began to.
posted by Heather at 9:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home