The Magnitude of Sin

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). What is interesting about this verse is that it says EVERYONE has sinned against God. It doesn’t say, “for some fall short of the glory of God more than others,” yet people are living in a way that compares their own sins to others’ sins. What we as Christians fail to realize is that everyone, regardless of the dominant sin in our lives, has a dire need for a Savior. People are minimizing the magnitude of sin.

The cost of sin is great. The first part of Romans 6:13 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” Every sin leads to separation from God, which leads to death. The Savior that we all ought to hunger for, Jesus Christ, paid the punishment of death for all in order to restore the relationship between God and man. It only took one sin to cause the world to fall and for God to become separated from His creation, which He loved (and loves) so dearly. When Jesus died on the cross, there wasn’t just a physical suffering. He had great emotional suffering during and leading up to the crucifixion. In Luke 22:45 Jesus was in such agony He began to sweat blood shortly before He was arrested to be hung on the cross. (“And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of falling blood falling to the ground.”) Imagine how God felt as He heard this prayer from Jesus. God was listening to His son cry out to save Him from the death that was about to occur as He sweat blood, and God had to tell Jesus that it was His will for Jesus to be crushed. God’s one and only innocent son had been separated from Him to be brought to Earth to die the worst death imaginable in order to save all the sinners (which is everyone). Sin caused Jesus’s suffering and death. Lately, people’s focus hasn’t been on that. Their focus is on if their sin was “less than” another person’s sin, as if their “lesser sin” didn’t contribute to Jesus’s suffering.

Since our relationship has been restored with God and the cost of sin has been paid for, we are now able to walk with Jesus. Some see this as a free pass to continue to live in sin, but Romans 6:1-2 clearly states, “what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” We can’t use God’s grace as an excuse to continue living in sin. Do we still sin? Yes, but now we don’t have to live in it, and we can live in Christ. He can help us through our sin. Sin is not to be taken lightly. Sin is shameful and has caused Jesus to suffer, but there is good news. We don’t have to live in shame anymore, because Jesus covered our sins! The second part of Romans 6:23 says, “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.” Jesus broke the chains of death! Instead of comparing our sins to one another, we need to be working through our sins with CHRIST, no matter how small the sin may seem. There is no such thing as a small sin.