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Imagine I drew a graph with two extreme points. The lowest point is the morality of Adolph Hitler and the highest point is that of Mother Teresa. Where would you put yourself? For most people, you’d probably put yourself above hitler, but not too high that you hit the extreme point that is defined by Mother Teresa.
It’s interesting to think that not a lot of people consider themselves bad people. Some would say they’re relatively good and have some form of goodness in them. We base this on the moral standard that this world draws up for us. We think “Well, I’m not a serial killer. I don’t judge people based on gender or race and I pay my taxes, so I guess I’m a good person based on how society defines goodness.”
I hate to burst the bubble for you—and I hope you don’t jump right at me right away—but consider this: if you base your goodness and morality on the standards of this world, then you have really low standards.
When one takes a good look at the central message of the gospel, one idea stands out really quickly, and that idea suggests that we are wretched people living in a broken and messed up world. It’s, in many ways, like the movie The Matrix where everyone is born into a world enslaved and they don’t even know it. Ever since the fall of man, we have existed in a fallen world where sin prevails and destroys our very being.
And because we were born into this fallen world ruled by sin and darkness, we think that some sins are minute while some are just terribly wrong. But the Bible makes it clear that there are no such things as small or big sins. There’s just sin, and all sin ultimately leads to eternal separation with the life-giving presence of God.
Society measures good and evil based on a standard that doesn’t measure up to the ultimate standard God gives us, which is complete holiness. We think that littering is not as terrible a sin as rape or murder, but in the eyes of God they’re all the same and they’re all equally dangerous. There is no such thing as harmless sin. Romans 6:23a says it simply: “For the wages of sin is death…” (ESV).
Accepting God’s moral standard, we realise that every sin is terribly dangerous and fatal, but in realising this through the lens of the cross, we now grasp just how powerful the work of Jesus is in us. Jesus didn’t just cancel something minute and insignificant. We’re not talking about an unpaid bill of spare change.
Just like the servant pardoned of his debt by the king of ten thousand talents (Matthew 18:24), our debt to God is an insurmountable amount. We owe God a hefty bill because of the most “minute” of sins, but by Christ we are now forgiven and pardoned. Realising that there is no such thing as a harmless sin and seeing that all sin is fatal and destructive will teach us to value more the ultimate price Jesus paid for all mankind once and for all.
