A visitor to our website writes:

“I take part in a bi-weekly study group with some folks at work, and the subject of the equality of sins entered our discussion this week. I somehow have it in mind that in God’s eyes all sins are equal. It seems to me that certain sins are worse than others (e.g., compare Hitler to the “average” sinner), but I feel that this is a human standard and that God does not draw such distinctions. Does this sound right, or is this an over-reaching version of the fact that we are all sinners and therefore the same in that regard? “Taking this to the next logical step, are all saints viewed the same once in heaven? Using the same example as above, assuming that he was truly repentant and accepted Jesus as his Savior – even if just moments before his death, would Hitler be viewed any differently by God once in heaven? Again, my feeling is that any argument that a difference would exist is grounded in human feelings of justice rather than the truth of God’s forgiveness.”

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Dear friend, Ultimately, the questions you are asking have to do with God’s gracious work of justifying a sinner. And in getting to an answer to your questions, it might be good to start there. Justification is a forensic (legal) concept; and in Christian theology, it refers to God’s gracious act of declaring a sinner not only (negatively) “not guilty” but (positively) “righteous” in His sight through the sinner’s faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. In justifying a sinner, God takes all of the guilt of that sinner and credits it to Christ’s account, who willingly died on the cross as the sinner’s substitute. And God also takes all the righteousness of Christ, and credits it to the sinner’s account. The effect of “justification” is that the justified sinner now stands before God 100% righteous in His sight – even though he or she is still progressively growing in practical holiness, and may occasionally commit sins at times. Understood in that sense, justification doesn’t really change the sinner. Rather, it changes the sinner’s standing before God. But having justified the believing sinner, God then progressively “sanctifies” the believer – making him or her increasingly to live like Jesus Christ by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. All sinners that God justifies are also sanctified by Him; but He never sanctifies anyone without having justified them (Rom. 8:30).

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I believe it helps, in approaching your questions, to see them against the backdrop of the whole subject of “justification”. But the question of how justification in Christ relates to the consequences of sin naturally comes up, because we who have trusted Christ are redeemed people who live in a world of actual sins – and the actual consequences of those sins. If I were to paraphrase your first question, I’d put it this way: “Are all sins equal in the eyes of God; or (as we often think of them on a human level) are some sins worse in His eyes than others?” It might help to see sin in terms of its “eternal” consequences and its “temporal” consequences. If we think of sin from strictly an “eternal” standpoint, then we’d say that some sins are NOT worse than others. All sins are equal in that – if unrepented of – they all lead to the same eternal consequence: death. God told our first parents in the garden that the consequence of disobeying His word and eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would be that, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17) – death being not only physical, but also spiritual in the sense of being a separation from God. And so, the Bible tells us, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23); and that “sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:14). The ultimate “wage” for sin is the “second death” (Rev. 20:14). The sin of our first parents didn’t seem, on the surface, like a great one. They simply ate fruit. (For most of my growing-up years, I was told to eat more fruit!) But as relatively harmless on a strictly human level this sin might seem, the consequence was the same as it would be for a much more heinous act. All sin, from the “eternal” standpoint, is equal in that it all leads to the same penalty – death. But it’s also true that all sins are equal, from this “eternal” standpoint, in that they are all equally and fully atoned for by the blood of Jesus Christ – enabling God to fully justify the believing sinner who commits any sin. The righteousness of God (that is, the righteous-standing before God in keeping with His law) is “through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:22-24). There are no degrees of “justification”; it is a legal standing before God in which He declares us 100% righteous in His sight. All particular sins create the same need; and all the guilt of that sin is equally covered under the blood of Jesus unto a 100% righteousness before God. Paul, for example – a murderous opponent to the Gospel – could argue that he truly was the “chief of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15); and yet, he was just as righteous before God in Christ as the most morally upright, church-going victim of his persecution, who also equally believed It may be hard for some to swallow; but it’s true that, if a “Hitler-type” truly believes on the cross of Jesus and truly repents, he stands in God’s eyes as 100% righteous. I think that this was what was behind Jesus’ parable of the workers of the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16. Those who labored all day received the same as those who only labored for an hour. This doesn’t make sense to our human sense of justice; but God’s work of justification through Christ is not the same as man’s idea of justice. He justifies on the basis of His grace; not on the basis of our merit. Praise God for that!

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Having said that, however, we also need to recognize that sin has “temporal” consequences; and those temporal consequences need to be distinguished from sin’s “eternal” aspects. The Bible clearly teaches that, in a temporal sense, sins are not all the same and that some sins are, indeed, worse than others. In John 19:11, for example, Jesus told Pilate, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given to you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” It would be wrong for Pilate to punish an innocent man; but in his capacity as a governor, he had only limited knowledge of Jesus. Judas, however, had known Jesus intimately; and yet delivered Him into the hands of the Jewish authorities; and the Jews, who knew the Scriptures, delivered Him into the hands of Pilate. Their sin was greater than Pilate’s. We’ve already mentioned Paul. He didn’t consider himself to be in the same league as a run-of-the-mill, common, garden-variety sinner. He maintained, as a statement that was faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that he was the “chief of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). He maintained this because he was, formerly, “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man” (v. 13), who said, “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities” (Acts 26:9-11). Clearly, Paul considered that his sinful life before Christ made him worthy of being called worse sinner than others – in fact, the worst of the bunch. The apostle John mentions a particularly dreadful sin in one of his letters. He writes, “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin and there is sin not leading to death” (1 John 5:16-17). Whatever we understand that “sin leading to death” to be, it’s clear that John distinguishes it as a sin that has a much more serious consequence than others – one that should not even be prayed for. Similarly, Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:31-32). Again, whatever we understand “blasphemy against the Spirit” to mean, the point is clear: Jesus presents it to us as a sin that is much worse in its consequences than others. Paul also made distinctions between the consequences of particular sins. He said, “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body” (1 Cor. 6:19). He also wrote that certain sins – if maintained in a persistent way – were enough to keep someone out of heaven: “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Jesus even made a distinction between the guilt of those who sin, and the guilt of those who lead them to sin. He said, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones” (Luke 17:1-2). Clearly, then, the Bible makes a distinction between the singular eternal consequence and the manifold temporal consequences of sins. All sins are the same in their eternal consequence – death; but not all sins are the same in terms of the guilt they may incur because of their temporal consequences. Wayne Grudem, in his Systematic Theology, makes a distinction between the “legal guilt” of sin (that is, the guilt that has to do with our standing before God), and the results of sin in “life and relationship with God”. He gives the following illustration: If someone was to covet his neighbor’s car, he would be guilty before God and would find that his relationship with God was impeded. That would be largely a matter of “legal guilt”; because there little or no visible temporal consequences to coveting in the heart. But if that coveting then led to actually stealing the car, that would be an even more serious sin in terms of its temporal consequence. And then, if in the course of stealing the car, he also assaulted his neighbor and recklessly injured – or perhaps murdered – other people in attempting his get-away, then his sin would be even more serious still. (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine [Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994], p. 503.) In asking your first question, you said that it seemed to you that certain sins were worse than others – although it seemed like that was based on a human standard. Hopefully, making a distinction between eternal and temporal consequences helps to see why this is so. Justification through faith in Christ sets us completely free from the eternal consequences of our sins; but, though God graciously helps us work through them, there’s no promise that He sets us completely free from the temporal consequences of those sins that He forgives. But where sin abounds, His grace abounds more!

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This leads to your follow-up question; which I believe is also related to the matter of justification. I would paraphrase it this way: Once they stand before God in heaven, do all saints have an equal standing in God’s eyes; or is a redeemed saint, who was once a outstandingly notorious sinner, viewed differently by God than a saint who was not? Again, because there are no “degrees” of justification before God through Christ, we can say that all the redeemed will be equally redeemed before God. They all stood guilty and worthy of death apart from Christ; and in Christ, they are all 100% righteous in His sight, and will all be presented before the presence of His glory in heaven as faultless, blameless and filled with exceeding joy (Jude 24). Even the most notorious sinner who believes, and is made by Him into one of His redeemed saints, will share in the glory of Jesus Himself (John 17:22); and all will be presented to Him – along with all the saints – as part of a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but completely holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:27). Again, praise God!! Even a Hitler-type who truly believes is made as much a “new creature” in Christ as anyone else who believes – the old things being gone, and all things having become new (2 Cor. 5:17). But it also seems clear that not all the redeemed saints will enjoy the same eternal rewards. Jesus seems to suggest this to us in His parable of the talents. Each of the servants in this parable were given different amounts of ‘talents’ (a unit of money) to invest according to their abilities. And each were rewarded differently according to the results they brought about (Matthew 25:14-30). To understand this correctly, it helps to think about what Paul once wrote, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:11-15). I think that it’s important to note that the determining factor in this case is not the sinfulness of the man or woman before they came to Christ. What Paul seems to emphasize is how they built upon the foundation of faith in Christ after having trusted Him. This means that even the most notorious sinner can believe and receive great reward in heaven – if he or she then faithfully builds on the foundation of faith. By the same token, a relatively well-behaved church goer who has believed and – for the most part – kept out of trouble, may still be only meagerly rewarded in heaven if he or she fails to build faithfully on the foundation of faith in Christ. I believe this is what Peter was talking about when he wrote, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:5-11).

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So to sum up: The Bible teaches that all sins are equal in their eternal consequence (death); but not in their temporal consequences. And all who are justified by faith in Christ are equal in their prospect (full glorification in Christ); but they will be rewarded differently, based on how they then build upon the foundation of faith in Christ. How crucial, then, that we (1) trust fully in the cross of Christ as the only sacrifice that can fully justify the sinner in God’s sight, and (2) then go on to build faithfully upon that foundation of faith! In Christ’s love, Pastor Greg (All Scripture quotes are taken from the New King James Version.)