Key Life Network

Matthew: Is all sin equal? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Life's hard for everyone, so grace is for all of us. But there's a lot of confusion about how grace applies to real life. Here's seminary professor and author Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson from Forge Truth to answer your questions.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hey, Pete.

Pete Alwinson: Amen. Happy Friday. Here we go.

Steve Brown: My sins are not equal.

Pete Alwinson: No. It's going to be a good conversation, I think.

Steve Brown: It really is. That's a good question and it's asked and believed in different ways by a whole lot of people. But we'll get to that.

By the way, check out forgetruth.com. There are groups meeting in other places around the country, but there are three or four of these Forge groups that meet in the mornings here. If you are a guy and you go to forgetruth.com, you can find out where they are if you live in central Florida and be involved.

As you know, Pete comes in and we answer questions on Friday. We do love your questions. You can ask a question by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 539-5433. You ask your question and sometimes we put your voice on the air.

Or you can send your question to Key Life Network, Post Office Box 5000, Maitland, Florida, 32794. If you live in Canada, it's Key Life Canada, Post Office Box 28060, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 6J8. If you'd like, you can email your question to steve@keylife.org.

If you can help us financially, please do. We'll be faithful and squeeze every dime for the glory of God. If you can't, we understand. Say a prayer. But if you can, be generous and we'll make sure that it's placed in a ministry that changes lives. Pete, lead us in prayer and we'll get to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson: All right. Our Father, we come to you at the end of this week and we pause for a moment to give you great thanks and praise for who you are and for all that you have done. Lord, we know that we are created to bring honor and glory to you and we delight in doing that.

We lift up the fact that you are the creator, you are the sustainer. You cause the rain to come and the sun to shine on the just and the unjust. You take care of your creation. And yet you have called us as your children to be born again and to have the trespasses wiped away from our life.

Thank you for the reality of heaven and the goal of seeing you face to face. We honor you for your wisdom and your holiness, your majesty, and your kindness. Lord, we lift up your name and pray that even now at the end of this week, our hearts could be touched by how great you are.

Help us to enjoy family this weekend and help us to enjoy time worshipping with your people who are our family as well in Christ. We ask for our pastors, teachers, leaders, worship directors, all those that will lead us into your presence, Father, to have your grace in a special way that we might hear your gospel.

Father, thank you for Key Life. Thank you for all that you've done in your people and your listeners and we commit this time to you now as we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Steve Brown: Amen. Pete, this is an email: Does God see all sin as equal?

Pete Alwinson: That's a good question.

Steve Brown: It really is. It has implications that are pretty deep.

Pete Alwinson: They are pretty deep. Why would this potentially be a controversial question theologically?

Steve Brown: I think a part of it is a need to be self-righteous. I'm a sinner, but you're a bigger sinner than I am. I'm nicer than you are and I'm more faithful. That's nothing but self-righteousness.

The Bible at its very heart takes sin very seriously. Little sins, big sins, ones that hurt others, ones that hurt us. All of those are the same in that they are that which separates us from God.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. And therefore send us to hell.

Steve Brown: Exactly.

Pete Alwinson: Where this becomes real is if you're a murderer and I just don't like to forgive people, I'm holding a grudge and I say, "Wow, what's the greater sin here? You killed somebody, I didn't."

Steve Brown: That's true, but if you're a biblical Christian, you won't make a big deal out of that because you know you're a sinner too and that you don't have a prayer either. But to say that there's no difference between telling a white lie and murdering somebody, of course there is, in repercussions and what it costs and the damage they cause.

My late mentor, Fred Smith, had a favorite story about two guys that went to jail at the same time. One had killed somebody and the other was a thief. They both became Christians while they were in prison.

They got out about the same time and they joined a Baptist church. One of them was elected a deacon in the Baptist church. They were having dinner one night and he said, "You know, Sam..." One of them had gotten a divorce and one of them had killed somebody.

The guy who killed somebody was elected a deacon. They're having dinner and discussing and he said, "You know, if you had killed her and not divorced her, you'd be a deacon today."

Pete Alwinson: It's crazy when we think of how we try to justify certain behaviors. I think that's why some denominations have said there's different levels of sin. Some are venial in that they're bad but they're not that bad and we can forgive you, and some sins are so bad that they actually kill your salvation.

I think that we would not agree with that structure. We would say all sin is breaking the law of God and damaging. That's why Christ had to pay for all of our sins, past, present, and future, and makes no distinction.

Steve Brown: I'll tell you something, Pete, this effort to say my sins are not as bad as yours is crazy. Jack Miller used to say you're a lot worse than you think you are and God's grace is a lot bigger than you think it is.

The more the first of that statement is said, the more reality in the second statement. The more we see what I'm capable of, what I've done, the people I've hurt, the places I've gone that I'm so ashamed of—the more I see that, the bigger God's grace gets.

When somebody says, "I just told a white lie, that's all," and one time I forgot to floss, that kind of person is never going to understand the depth and the reality of God's grace.

Pete Alwinson: In one way, just to put a bow on this, I would say don't go down that path in trying to say which sin is worse than another. Of course, murder has more ramifications, obviously. It does.

But when you go down that line, you justify sin and you don't allow the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to take place in your heart. It's a horrible thing to have an unforgiving heart. It shapes your whole life to become an angry person. You may not kill somebody with a gun or a knife, but you could kill them by stabbing them in the back by words or other ways.

Steve Brown: And thereby violate the commandment.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. So don't go down that line.

Steve Brown: Okay, good question. What does the Bible teach about gambling? Another email.

Pete Alwinson: Nothing.

Steve Brown: I'll tell you what my wife teaches about gambling.

Pete Alwinson: Don't do it! You ain't doing it. We went through Las Vegas once on our honeymoon and I said, "I gotta gamble some." She goes, "Five bucks." We had nothing. I gambled five bucks, lost five bucks, and we laughed.

Steve Brown: One time, this was outside of Washington D.C., and I don't even know why there was a slot machine there. But we were driving an old Volkswagen with a baby in the back and we stopped to get some water because that's all we could afford. There was a lady sitting at a slot machine and she was putting quarters in it.

She backed off and sat down and I walked by and I went, "I can do that." So I put a quarter in it and that slot machine emptied out. It was pouring on the floor. I couldn't get it in my pockets. This lady took the cigarette out of her mouth and said, "Son, leave."

Pete Alwinson: She was angry. Now, this is actually a really big issue these days with the predictions market now. The young men particularly, but young women too, are really getting into this. This is a humongous problem.

Steve Brown: I know. And an addiction that'll eat you alive.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. I would say what we used to say about it before is the Bible doesn't say anything about it, but all things are lawful but not all things are profitable. I will be mastered by nothing.

Young men, you have to be careful, and older men too. You're trying to get more out of less and people are gambling on what dress so-and-so is going to wear at a special gala or something. They're gambling and predicting on all kinds of things.

Steve Brown: Gambling has all kinds of biblical implications: something for nothing, get rich quick, a lot of stuff that is violent. Specifically—and by the way, I'm not sure the stock market isn't a form of that too. Don't send me letters; I'm just talking out loud. I'm not trying to be critical. But I'm better than you; I don't have stock.

Pete Alwinson: I would say you need to know your temperament. If you have an addictive personality, I would stay away from all manner of gambling. It'll ruin your life, young men.

Steve Brown: I agree with that. Well, having solved the major problems of the universe, it's time for us to go. Don't gamble. Don't have friends who gamble or you're going to get really, really in trouble. Amen. We have to go.

Matthew: Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.