There are a lot of tough questions floating around out there concerning just how much God loves humanity and how He could pass judgment on certain people in certain situations if He is as loving as we say He is. Many of these questions are rather challenging, and they all revolve around the issue of sin. Does God send people in remote places who have never heard the gospel into eternal damnation? What happens to babies when they die before ever being able to come to know Christ? What happens to mentally handicapped individuals who may never make a decision for Christ? Is all sin, no matter how big or small, enough to condemn someone? Why is the unpardonable sin unpardonable? Is the salvation of Christ simply the salvation from guilt, or is it, rather, the salvation from the dominion and the power of sin? And if it is the latter, what implications does that carry for our lives? Can we be condemned for our sins of infirmity (ignorance), those sins that we are clueless that we've committed? This is just a random post on some of my random thoughts concerning these troubling questions.
First, I want to address this idea that “sin is sin is sin.” Many people have been raised with this idea that all sin is equal in God’s eyes. Ironically, this teaching is only about a century old. The idea that there are levels and degrees of sin is as old as humanity itself. Different sins in the Old Testament had various punishments according to the severity of the sin. Paul even treats various sins differently. In Galatians 5:7-12, Paul seems livid about false doctrine leading others astray, and because of this he offers no thanksgiving in the letter for the Galatian church. The Corinthians, though, who were wrapped in all kinds of sin including sexual immorality, Paul still offers them a thanksgiving. And James 3:1, James clearly states, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers and sisters, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” There’s no way around that. And does anyone out there really believe that God views murder as seriously as he views shoplifting? I don’t think anyone can honestly say that they believe that. And when we step back and look, for those of us who are Wesleyans, we can see that our theology and hamartiology in the Wesleyan denomination states that prevenient grace covers original sin. So all men are freed from the guilt, though not the taint or bent, of original sin. If there are no levels and degrees of sin, why would God freely grant everyone the grace to abolish the guilt of original sin, but not freely forgive the guilt of sexual promiscuity? Wesley breaks the types of sins down into three main sections, and I agree to that point. But I think we ought to look at a few more particular types of sin according to their severity as I perceive it.
The least severe of all sins, as I see/interpret, is original sin. As I explained earlier, this is because God freely grants us the grace to be free from the guilt carried by original sin. The next would be sins of ignorance/infirmity. Wesley barely considers these sins. He refers to them as “sins improperly so-called.” The next would be “overtaking sins.” These are those which catch us completely off-guard. Wesley might call these “sins of surprise.” Galatians 6:1 describes what this might look like. The fourth on my list of severity (least to greatest) would be what Romans 14:23 describes as faithless acts. We can sin by doing things while doubting whether or not they are right. Next would be sins of the mind. Christ describes these sins when he talks about thinking about another woman sexually and how it is like actually having an affair with the woman. This next one is a sin that some professors of mine place lower on the range of severity. I place it relatively high. That is the sin of omission. This is described in James 4:17. It is the good we know that we should do, but choose not to do. It’s like the notoriously well known story of the woman who was raped while jogging in a very public area. People stood by and watched and even cheered as a crowd formed around her. Which is worse? The one who was blindsided by the event and somewhat disoriented and does nothing because of it? Or is it worse to stand and watch knowing full-well what is taking place and that you ought to do something to stop it, even if it means risking your own life? I argue the latter is far worse. The indifference of good men is an evil unmatched by many other evils.
Next would be a succession of sinful stages. The first in these last four sins is the intentional sin that is a decision to break a known law of God. The sinner still recognizes it as sin and even feels guilt afterwards. The next would be a rebellious sin. It is a sin that is committed by one who recognizes it as sin but still sins as an act of defiance against God. Third is lawlessness. This is a sinful state where one has hardened their hearts so many times to the grace and love of God that the gift of a moral conscience which is provided by grace is stripped from them. They no longer recognize their acts as sinful. They are completely depraved. And finally, there is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This is, as I interpret it, a state where one has repeatedly hardened themselves to their own consciences that they no longer just believe that their way of doing life is better than the way the Holy Spirit leads us to act, but they lose their consciences and openly defy the Lord in rebellion and cross the line of verbally denouncing or offending the Holy Spirit and feeling no guilt because of it.
This is a basic outline of my views on sin, but don’t be depressed! For my next post will be on the topic of grace. And it is much more uplifting far beyond the level of pessimism that is included in the post on sin. Sadly, everyone has to address their views on sin somewhere in the development of their theology. This is my addressing my hamartiology so that I can move on to something much much more optimistic.
Ryan, I commend these well thought-out ideas! Thank you for sharing your well-developed theological system of sins' classification! I look forward to reading your thoughts on how grace is handled differently in relation to different degrees of sin. BTW, I agree about sins of omission being relatively serious among sins lacking a specific willful act. Actually, I think I agree with everything but wish to note that—even to you yourself—this isn't the only way of classifying that could be considered correct, as it, for example, fails to show how shoplifting and murder for material gain are seen differently by God, as you (& I) seem to believe that they are. That's not a weakness though; the strength of your classification is in its generality and its consideration of elements that go into the commission of sin, not the mode of its manifestation.
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