The 4-minute video in this post provides some explanations regarding ‘distinctions’ for sin in terms of punishment and rewards:
Highlight points from their discussion [bracketed statements are mine]:
- There will be a judgment of your sin by God
- We are heaping up wrath via sinning
- There are degrees of sinning against God from lesser to greater
- Matthew 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell….
- Regarding the above verse, R C Sproul commented that to say to yourself, “I have already committed adultery via my thoughts, so I might as well go ahead with the act;” is to commit an error that leads you into more grievous sin
- What Jesus was doing in such verses, was to expanding the implications, repercussions and consequences of ‘sin,’ [and showing that sin began in ones thoughts; it does not begin in the actions, those are the fruit of sinful thinking]
- Jesus was also showing that the Pharisees had a very simplistic definition of adultery, and sin in general [they had a system that enabled them to earn righteousness before God, they erroneously believed, per Jesus]
- Steve Lawson mentioned the following verses and said that via Moses laws there were over 20 sins that warranted the death penalty:
- Heb 2:2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
The following narrative and links accompanied the above video at the Ligonier YouTube site:
Is everyone punished equally in hell? Or are there distinctions of punishment? From Ligonier’s 2016 National Conference, R.C. Sproul, Steven Lawson, and Albert Mohler explain that more heinous sins receive greater condemnation. Get answers to your biblical and theological questions online as they arise at https://ask.ligonier.org/
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