Seven deadly sins, one heavenly response

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas formalized a list of what the church long considered the worst possible sins. These have come to be known as the Seven Deadly Sins, and they include Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth. Starting back in December (with a break for Christmas-themed devotions), I have been talking about each of these sins in turn: Sloth, or laziness and apathy; Gluttony, or wasteful overconsumption; Lust, or letting your mind be dominated by the desire for sexual gratification; Wrath, or unforgiving anger; Envy, or an unhealthy obsession to have more than everyone else; Greed, or the desire to fill your life with things in order to feel good; and Pride, the desire to chart your own destiny apart from God.

When cataloguing sin like this, three important points need to be made. First of all, no listing of sin can ever be comprehensive; we human beings are endlessly inventive, and people are continually coming up with new ways to anger God with every year that goes by. Speaking of sinners, Paul wrote: they invent ways of doing evil (Romans 1:30).

Another important point to remember is that whether they are large or small, all sins have an equal result: they all anger God and earn His eternal condemnation. James writes, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10). God’s laws are like links in a chain; if you are on a swing it doesn’t matter which link fails; any break in the chain results in a hard fall.

But the most important point to keep in mind is this: no matter which sins you have committed, and no matter how many times you have committed them, your sins, in their entirety, can be forgiven. It was no mere man who suffered God’s anger on the cross; it was the Son of God Himself who died to offer full compensation for your sins. The Son of God is infinite in love, infinite in power; there is no limit to the sins that His blood can wash away. Jesus died to protect you from hell; He rose on the third day to free you from the grave. And this is His free gift to you; Christ demands nothing from you for the privilege of forgiveness, save that you renounce the love of sinning and cling to Him alone for the rest of your life. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.