Why Sin Isn't Equal in God's Eyes

Are some sins worse than others in God's eyes? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

We'd love to hear from you. Our phone lines will be open for the next 25 minutes. Here's the phone number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Now we also have a YouTube channel, and you can watch Adriel right now on YouTube and send him your question that way. Just go look for the Core Christianity YouTube channel, and you can email us anytime at questions-at-core-christianity.com. We have a voicemail from one of our listeners to start off with today. This is David.

I'm in my 60s. I got a 23-year-old son, told me the last year he's been taking hormones to become a woman, and asked me what I thought. He said he lost all his friends because of what he's doing. Being a Christian, I hate to hit him with both barrels and drive him away, so I'm not sure how to go about speaking to my son. He wants to get his name changed legally, and this trans stuff seems to have happened in the last 10 years with Bruce Jenner becoming Woman of the Year, and I really don't know how to handle this.

So if you got any advice, I'd appreciate it. Or maybe a book, I could read. Thank you. Well, brothers and sisters, let's take a moment to pray for David first, and just ask God to grant him wisdom. I mean, certainly pray for his son's repentance and just coming to recognize the error here. But let's pray for our brother and for his 23-year-old son. Our Father in heaven, we come before you right now as the God who sees and knows everything and is able to help us in our time of need. And Lord, in this situation, this grave situation, we want to lift our brother to you and ask that you would grant him wisdom. Pray that you would give him courage, boldness, and also great love, Lord, for his son and the ability to communicate your word, your truth in a manner that is faithful and full of compassion, and that you would be with David's son, that you would soften his heart, Lord, that you would help him to realize the confusion, the error that he's bought into, and that he would come to repentance, Lord, that he would acknowledge his need of you, and that he would turn to you. And so I pray, Lord, that you would be at work in this situation, and Father, that you would be with our brother, strengthening him and filling him with wisdom. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Our hearts do go out to you, David, and this is a question that's coming up more and more, especially from family members who are thinking, you know, how do I come alongside of this person who I love, but who's making this decision that I can't agree with, that I can't just, you know, say, well, this is okay, this is fine. There is really a deception, a strong delusion that's out there that's being peddled by the culture with regard to sexuality, and it's the idea that you are what you feel, right, that your feelings determine your sex, essentially. You know, I have these desires, or I have these feelings, and that's determinative. And the guy who's done a ton of work on this, in terms of, you know, how do we get here as a society, is a historian named Karl Truman. He's written a couple of books, the bigger one, and the one that's a little bit more academic, I guess, you know, it's a pretty weighty book, is called The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. And then he also wrote kind of a condensed version of that, which I think is really helpful, and we've even offered it on the broadcast before, called Strange New World. Again, his name is Karl Truman, and that would be helpful just in terms of sort of peeling back the layers of the onion and answering that question, the historical question of how do we get here as a society where this, you know, has become such a thing.

And so I recommend that resource. And then with regard to your own relationship with your son, of course you're called as a Christian to live in that tension of not affirming or condoning sin while pursuing your son and loving him. And so I think communicating clearly with him as his father, but also as a Christian man, as a believer in Jesus Christ, that you're grieved by these decisions and that they're contrary to who he is and what God calls him to, but that you love him and that the door is open for conversation, for relationship, and that you can have that, you know, even if he's unwilling to agree with you. Now, of course, I might add, Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 makes it very clear, you know, when we're thinking about believers, people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, we sort of handle these situations a little bit differently. So I think one of the questions I would have for you is, you know, does your son profess faith in Christ or does he not believe?

And that should also help guide the conversation. If he says, I'm a believer in Jesus, I do believe in Jesus, well then I think you need to talk about the fact that there's a great disconnect here between his faith, what he claims to believe, and his actions, his behavior. If he denies the gospel, if he doesn't believe in Jesus, then I think maybe focusing your conversations there on who Christ is and what Christ has done, and the fact that we all need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we can't really understand who we are until we understand who we are in light of God's word. And so may God grant you wisdom and be with you and continue to pray for your son and to pursue that relationship with him without compromising your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your convictions according to the word of God. And may God grant you grace, and may God open your son's heart as well.

Man, my heart just breaks for David and that whole situation. And as you said, this is becoming more and more common with parents who have teenagers or young adult children who are now saying, I'm going to transition. I've realized I'm not the sex I was born with and I need to change. And man, it's becoming an epidemic in our culture, it seems like. Yeah, it really is. And I think there are all sorts of factors, and Carl Truman does a good job at sort of tracing where this is rooted in or where it comes from, these ideas.

It's the waters that we're swimming in culturally right now, but part of the issue too is young people on social media and seeing these ideas reinforced again and again and again, it really is, like you said, an epidemic of sorts. And so we need to go back to the word of God and what God says about us, who the Lord says that you are. And when we lose sight of that, we try to recreate ourselves in ways that are not good. And so, Bill, appreciate your wisdom on this and we'll continue to keep our brother David in our prayers. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, something going on in your family life, just like David mentioned, or perhaps something happening at your church that you're concerned about. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Angel calling in from the Bronx. Angel, what's your question for Adriel? Well, praise the Lord.

Well, this is a very concerning question I want to ask both of you, not just you, Adriel, but you, Pastor Bill, as well. But before that, let me say that this past Saturday, I had the pleasure of reuniting virtually with a friend who was from Baldwin, Long Island. Is that okay if I could say her name? Maybe don't share her name on the radio, but I'm glad you got to hang out with a friend, Angel.

What's your question? Well, she is a Jehovah's Witness and she told me that she goes into the Keenum Hall. And my question is not just for her, but I think it's for Christians, because she, in my opinion, does not know Jesus Christ as the personal Lord and Savior. So my question is, how shall we Christians minister the gospel to Jehovah's Witnesses, whether they are visually impaired or not? God bless you. God bless you.

Well, Angel, thank you for that question, and I love your heart. You know, you have this friend who is religious, but differs from you on a fundamental question, who is Jesus? And for those who don't know the Jehovah's Witnesses, I mean, you've seen them around, no doubt. They've probably knocked on your door.

You see them, you know, on the street corner or at the mall or wherever, you know, with the booth set up. And they're very zealous for their religious beliefs. But, and this is the great tragedy, they're not zealous according to the Word of God, especially when we're talking about Jesus, the eternal Son of God. This is where there's a lot of confusion, and Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus is a created being.

In other words, that he's not equal with the Father. They reject the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. And so I think the first thing, Angels, and you recognize this, but for those who don't realize this, is just being able to say, okay, look, we're talking about two different religions here. This isn't, you know, two different Christian denominations. I'd say the same thing with regard to Mormonism as well, by the way. We're talking about two different religions that teach two different things about who God is and how we're saved. And when you deny the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity or the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, you put yourself outside of the bounds of core Christianity.

You are in a very precarious place spiritually, a dangerous place spiritually, because if you reject Jesus, the true Jesus of Scripture, well, then you don't have the Gospel according to Scripture, and you don't have salvation or the forgiveness of sins. And in my conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses, I think, you know, one thing that we can commend and say is, okay, they desire to use Scripture to talk about the Bible. Well, that's where we go.

That's the playing field. We go to Scripture, Angel, and I would encourage you to come alongside of your friend on the basis of Scripture and make an appeal to this person saying, your church does not teach what the Bible teaches according to the person and work of Jesus Christ. And I'll just give you one passage that I think is really clear and effective and one which I've brought up to Jehovah's Witnesses many times before, and they, you know, they don't really have an answer for it. Of course, there are many that we could go to, but the one that I like to go to is in Hebrews chapter 1, where the author to the Hebrews is talking about Jesus, the Son of God, and he says in verse 8, to the Son, or of the Son, He, that is, the Father, says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And, this is, he's continuing here, this is to the Son, and you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain.

They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed, but you are the same, and your years have no end. Now, what's amazing here is the author of the Hebrews is applying this text of scripture from the Old Testament, in particular from the book of Psalms, Psalm 102, he's applying this passage, Psalm 102, that's all about Jehovah God to Jesus, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And, and so what he's saying is, Jesus is Jehovah, he is the eternal God, and yet he's the Son of God. This is where you get the Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, from passages like this. And so, I think we have to use the Word of God, Angel, and we always pray, because it's the work of the Holy Spirit in this individual's life. And so you pray for them and say, Lord, use your Word to open, open this person's heart to reveal your Son to them so that they might experience the forgiveness of sins in the true Gospel, which they don't have in the Kingdom Hall or in Jehovah's Witness teaching. And so God bless you and be with you and guide those conversations.

Good counsel. Thanks for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, our phone lines will be open for the next 10 minutes or so. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 833-843-2673. You know, at some point, you are likely to have a conversation with someone in your life who doesn't believe in Christianity and asks you some tough questions about your faith. And we want to help you to be ready to respond with a resource that we prepared just for you. Yeah, one of the things we try to do on the broadcast every single day is answer tough questions live about the Christian faith, whatever those questions are. But we want to give you other resources that are going to allow you to go a little bit deeper with some of the most common questions that we get. And that's why we created this resource called Tough Questions Answered. And I hope that you'll get a hold of it over at corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Some great information about the relationship between faith and science, the Bible, morality, some of the things we've already begun to talk about today on the broadcast. And so get a hold of this resource. Once again, it's called Tough Questions Answered. You can find it at corechristianity.com. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the Core.

And here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Kerry. My question is about sin. Like in God's eyes, sin is equal to that, like all of us. But the people worldly, if somebody sins, they think if they killed somebody or did something, then they're better than them because their sin is worse. But I feel like in God's eyes, sin is sin. And that's my question. Is it equal in God's eyes?

Thank you. Excellent question. And we do oftentimes hear people say things, right, like sin is sin. All sin is equal in God's eyes.

Now that's one of those those statements or those mantras that's repeated but isn't taught in the Bible. What is taught in the Bible is that all sin is deserving of God's wrath and curse. And so, yeah, all sin does condemn us, but not all sins are necessarily equal in God's sight. Some sins in and of themselves or by reason of several aggravations, you know, being repeated over and over again, are more heinous in God's sight than other sins. Additionally, you think about who's committing the sin here.

Is this a person in authority, especially spiritual authority, or is this someone maybe who's ignorant, who's doing something they're not really fully aware of? All of those things need to be taken into consideration when we're wrestling through this question about sin and its nature. And so I think we can say as believers in Jesus Christ, yeah, I mean, even though Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, if you look at someone with contempt or anger in your heart, it's as if you've murdered them, you've murdered them, it's actually worse in God's sight still for you to go ahead and kill them, to follow through with that thought of your heart.

And so, and this is just true across the board. And so while all sin, again, is under God's wrath and curse, some sins are worse than others. And I already mentioned just, you know, some of the reasons for this, but you do see this in scripture.

You think about what Jesus said to Pilate, you would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. In the book of Ezekiel, when God is rebuking the priests in the temple, he's highlighting the fact that they're just getting worse and worse and worse with their idolatry and with their abominations, bringing it into the very temple of God.

It's a sort of progression, this downward spiral. And part of the reason why that sin was even more heinous was because of the fact that it was committed by the priests and the prophets and those who were supposed to be examples of religion, of holiness. And so, you know, I just want to clear that up, that there is confusion about this, that actually some sins are worse than others, and all sin does indeed condemn us. This is why we desperately need the grace of God and the forgiveness of our sins. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Love to hear from you if you've got a question about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine, or theology. Here's our number.

It's 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Peter calling in from Tennessee. Peter, what's your question for Adriel?

Uh, yes. How you guys doing? And I just wanted to thank you for your ministry.

Well, thank you, Peter. We're doing well. How are you, brother?

I'm doing pretty good. I got a question about repentance. So, you know, once you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you confess your sins, you repent of your sins, do you continue to, do you have to continue to repent after you become a believer in Christ?

Peter, excellent question. You know, sometimes we talk about repentance unto life, that initial repentance, turning away from ourselves and from our sin and to God, laying hold of Jesus Christ by faith to be justified, to be, you know, experience his grace. It's conversion, becoming a Christian. Well, do we do that again and again and again?

Well, no, we don't, you know, get reborn or born again and again and again, but the Christian life is characterized by repentance and daily repentance, frankly. Every single day, Peter, we sin against God in thought and in word and in deed. We need to come before the Lord and ask him for forgiveness, which is precisely why Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, when he taught us to pray the Lord's Prayer included in that prayer, right, this prayer that we're praying daily, hopefully multiple times a day, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. God, forgive me for my sins.

I need to ask you that once again today. And you think also about what John says in 1 John chapters 1 and 2, but really throughout the whole book. He says, if we walk in the light, this is 1 John chapter 1 verse 7, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and we are in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. There's that call to frequent confession, to confessing to the Lord that we might walk in the light and have fellowship with one another. And then he says at the beginning of chapter 2, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so let me just encourage you, Peter, and all of you listening right now, as quickly as you fall into sin or struggle with sin, bring that to the Lord in confession and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, and know that as you come to the Lord, you have an advocate in heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation, not just for your sins but also for the sins of the whole world, as John goes on to say in that text. And so we can come to God's throne of grace with great boldness to receive his grace and mercy every day through Jesus Christ. Thank you for your question. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to Gregory in Oklahoma. Gregory, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, I was going to ask for some clarity on the Old Testament prophecy about Jesus's body not being broken and when he presents the bread in the Last Supper and says, this is my body broken for you. Yeah, hey, well, thank you for that question.

So there are a couple of places that I think you might be alluding to. One, you have the institution of the Passover. You think of what's said in Numbers chapter 9 verse 12 relating to the Passover meal. They shall leave none of it until the morning nor break any of its bones according to all the all the statute for the Passover, they shall keep it. You also have that word in the book of Psalms in Psalm chapter 34 verse 20.

Here's another prophecy. He keeps all his bones and not one of them is broken. And of course this is picked up in the New Testament in particular when our Lord Jesus is being crucified on the cross and what happens, he's suspended on the cross and typically what they would do is they would break the legs of the person who was being crucified and they would die essentially of suffocation there on the cross unable to hold themselves up. But when they got to Jesus what happened? He was already dead and so they didn't break his bones and so that's where you have essentially the way in which the New Testament picks up on that imagery or those prophecies in the Old Testament highlighting the fact that none of his bones were broken while he was on the cross. Now when he speaks of his body being given for us or we talk about the body of the Lord being broken for us in the breaking of the bread, we're not talking about his bones literally being broken but the fact that he gave himself up for us and for our sins, that he offered his body up as a perfect sacrifice to make atonement for our sins so that we can stand before God forgiven and justified.

And so there's no contradiction with regard to those prophecies and the language of the body of Christ being given or broken as we find in some places and I think instead what's just being highlighted is the free gift of salvation and the fact that the blood of Christ is ever flowing for those who trust in him to forgive our sins. Thanks. God bless. God bless.