Do Christians Take Sin More Seriously than Grace?

Jesus took sin seriously, too.
But His response was to draw close to sinners, not to turn them away.

Dennis Moles

I’ve been a Christian for as long as I can remember. I was raised in a Christian home. I went to church three times a week, attended a mission school, and dated only Christian girls, and even got a degree from a Christian university.

I was “born and raised” inside the Christian subculture, and since becoming an adult I’ve worked and been educated exclusively inside that same subculture. And I have to confess: it’s comfortable for me inside “the bubble”. I know the rule. I know the language. I know what’s expected of me. And I know what’s “sin” and what’s not. Or, maybe, I should say that I know what sins are acceptable within the subculture, and what sins are not.

Because of this, I feel particularly qualified to make the following statement—we Christian-types often take “sin” more seriously than we do grace and mercy.

Christians take sin seriously. So seriously, in fact, that many of us have instituted extra rules and regulations to govern our beliefs and behaviour, and to keep us from accidentally wandering into sin or associating with people who might lead us astray.

We set up expectations for where we go, what we consume, with whom we associate, for whom we vote, and what theological assertions are up for interpretation and which ones are not.

Most of these regulations are couched in terms of doctrinal purity, personal holiness, and Christ-like character. But I wonder … would Jesus take “sin” as seriously as we do?

Luke 15 houses three of the most well-known stories in the Bible: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Most of us have heard these stories. A shepherd leaves the 99 “found” to search for the lost one. A woman lights a lamp and searches all over the house until she finds the lost coin, and a father welcomes home and celebrates when his wayward and rebellious son returns.

These stories come within a particular cultural context—a religious context that took sin VERY seriously. It’s not too much of a stretch to assert that Jesus told these three stories to answer the unasked but insinuated question: “Jesus, don’t you take sin seriously?”

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1–2)

Jesus’ original audience contained both religious outsiders (tax collectors and sinners) and religious insiders (Pharisees and teachers of the law)—the lost and the found. He was telling His stories about lost and found things to a group of lost and found people—sinners and righteous. The stories weren’t just told to them; they were about them.

The wandering sheep wasn’t just a wandering sheep, it was a wandering person. The lost coin wasn’t just misplaced money, but the lost in Israel who didn’t even know they were lost. I wonder what the tax collectors and sinners thought of these descriptions. What were they thinking as the stories progressed?

Jesus was eating with and welcoming these outsiders, which was a surprise to everyone—especially the religious, since most religious leaders didn’t welcome such people.

This is a significant detail—good Jews in Jesus’ day didn’t associate with tax collectors and sinners. Such people were on the outside of religious life. Any association with them would cause a person, no matter how holy and righteous, to become ceremonially unclean and therefore be placed outside the worshipping community. To eat with a sinner meant that you were contaminated by their sin.

Given this context, it’s perfectly understandable why these upstanding religious leaders would express shock that Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

This question (and supposed answer) must have vexed the Pharisees:

Question: “Jesus, do you really take sin seriously?”

Answer: “How can He, when He welcomes sinners and eats with them?”