For some reason there is a tendency in Evangelicalism to flatten sin. Too often I hear people say that all sin is sin and it is all equally bad. It is true that even the least sin is infinitely heinous in the eyes of God and can keep you from entering heaven. Yet Scripture tells us that there are some sins that are more heinous in the eyes of God. The Bible tells us that some sins are by nature worse than others. For instance, there are certain sins that God calls an "abomination." These are designated with this term because they are particularly offensive nature, superseding the level of other sins. In the book of Ezekiel we can even see that God differentiates between abominations. In Ezekiel 8:6-15 the Lord shows Ezekiel a series of particularly wicked acts that the Jews are committing. After viewing each the Lord says to Ezekiel, "But I will show you greater abominations that they do." In other words, "Ezekiel, you think that was bad? You haven't seen anything yet! Just wait till you get a load of this!" Another way of looking at sin is by way of what we call increased aggravation. When you have a cut on your lip, that can hurt. But you can increase the pain if you eat something salty. In other words, you aggravate the cut, thus making it more sore. The same is true when it comes to our sin. We can make our sins more aggravating to God in several different ways. For instance, the book of Galatians tells us that there was a time when Jewish Christians would not eat or socialize with the Gentile Christians. This was bad. But when Peter joined in the segregation, it is said that Paul denounced Peter to his face. In other words, Peter's sin was particularly egregious because he was an apostle and leader within the church. He not only should have known better, he set a terrible example for the people to follow. We could think of several other examples of of how we can increase the aggravation of our sin. It is enough for now to simply understand that the wickedness of sin may increase with a given circumstance.
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