The Only Truly Deadly Sin
Posted: Tuesday, March 17, 2009
by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com
Supposedly, there are seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, anger, envy, and pride. But I don't buy it. I believe that only one of the items on this list – pride – can truly be a deadly sin.
Yes, all sins are bad and they stand as barriers between us and God. But if we carefully examined the reason why people go to hell, we would discover that the root cause is pride. This kind of deadly pride manifests itself in several ways.
Pride causes some people to refuse to recognize that there is a God. They just can't accept the fact there is a being more powerful than they. Belief in God would mean that they would have to take some of the spotlight off themselves sometimes. That whole concept is anathema to them. Pride causes others to believe they don't need God, even though they do acknowledge His existence. These people are elitists who are haughty enough to believe that they are the providers of their own sustenance. They think that they are the masters of their own destiny. Sure, God may have created them and their parents may have raised them, but they took over the reigns of their lives from there and have done quite well, thank you. Their focus is on their own abilities and intellect.
Why should they thank God for their food, for example, when they bought it with money they worked for? What they don't seem to realize is that they would not be able to work unless God gave them the strength to do so. They would not have gotten the education to qualify for their careers if God had got given them the requisite intelligence. In fact, they could not take another breath, if God didn't allow it. It often takes a major setback to get these people to acknowledge any kind of dependence on God.
However, the most prevalent manifestation of deadly pride can be seen in many of those who both acknowledge God's existence and recognize the fact that they need Him. The problem is that many of these people honestly believe they can find their own path to God. The other day, I read some comments from a lady who stated that she didn't need the Bible or organized religion to have God in her life. Wow, that's like saying you're a big fan of Shakespeare without ever having read any of his work!
These folks tend to focus on their own goodness and morality – and that's where pride enters the picture. They feel that God is surely going to accept them. Why, they are not like those murderers, rapists, robbers, thieves, adulterers, fornicators, gossipers, liars, homosexuals, abortionists, gang members, selfish people, foul-mouthed people, drunkards, and users of illegal drugs. They are much better than those people. They have never been in trouble with the law and they get along with everyone and even donate a considerable amount of their time and money to charitable pursuits.
But sometimes moral people and do-gooders can be harder to reach for Christ than the most vile among us – and this is the reason. They rationalize that God is going weigh their good deeds against the bad, and that the good will far outweigh the bad, therefore God will let them into heaven. The only problem is that this way of thinking is totally unbiblical.
The Bible is clear about the fact that salvation is not achieved via a checklist of the good things one does and the bad things one doesn't do. Yes, God wants all of us to live moral lives, love everyone, and do good deeds. Those things are very important aspects of the Christian life, but they don't make anyone a Christian. No one can live up to God's standard of holiness and perfection. Even if someone were to live a life of service to one's fellow man that surpassed even that of Mother Teresa, it would amount to nothing but filthiness compared to the righteousness of Christ.
For people to be saved, they must lay down enough of their pride to (1) acknowledge the existence of God; (2) acknowledge their own sinful condition and the fact that they are helpless on their own to do anything about it; (3) believe that God sent his own Son, Jesus Christ, into the world in the form of a man; (4) believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world; (5) believe that Jesus rose from the dead; and (6) accept Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross as full payment for their sins and accept Him as their Lord and Savior.
From that point, people can – with Jesus in their heart and the Holy Spirit as their guide – live a life of obedience to God and service to others. But without of each of the prior steps, there is no eternal hope for anyone. Do let pride stand in your way.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)"Pride causes some people to refuse to recognize that there is a God. They just can't accept the fact there is a being more powerful than they"I don't think pride is a factor in many atheist's lack of belief in God; it certainly isn't in mine. I accept that there are more powerful beings than me - countless examples amongst my fellow humans for definite, and probably elsewhere in the universe too."I read some comments from a lady who stated that she didn't need the Bible or organized religion to have God in her life. Wow, that's like saying you're a big fan of Shakespeare without ever having read any of his work!"Not quite.It is more like saying you like Shakespeare based on having known him / experienced him and his works personally, rather than forming an opinion about him based on a biography of him and his works .The woman is presumably basing her belief in God on her own experiences of the divine and of the universe she believes he created (the universe being the product of God, as Shakespeare's writings being the products of Shakespeare), rather than basing her faith purely on the words in the Bible.The Bible isn't God. In fact its modern forms are unquestionably the work of fallible men, complete with mistranslations and other deviations from its original form.Surely personal experience is better than an nth generation translation of various ancient texts, or at least shouldn't be ruled out completely?I find it deeply disturbing that it is widely held that doing good deeds and living a good life is merely a near-irrelevant bonus as far as God is concerned.If we are judged merely on accepting certain things as being true, and can get to heaven through accepting those things, what is the point of being good and helping our fellow man?Surely a loving God would not damn a person who had lived a selfless life doing good deeds to Hell, just because that person had perhaps never heard of Christianity (and so had not accepted Jesus into their heart because they had never heard of him), or because they believed in a different god (or no god at all)?A God who cares more about people loving him than he does about them living good lives is not a truly loving god. Such a god would surely necessarily be a vain god?Ben, thanks for reading and commenting. Dissenting opinions like yours are always welcome.
Terry, thank you for writing this. You are correct, it is pride that got Satan kicked out of heaven and it is pride that will keep humanity away from God. Each and every person will face God on judgement day and only those covered by the shed blood of Jesus Christ will be able to enter. It is true all roads lead to God, but only one road will allow you to stay with him. A hard truth that some people will not accept. But I didn't accept it for a long time either, thankfully God gave me the grace to quit fighting him. The Bible says He will draw all men to himself, but each man has the freedom to reject.I pray that many will stop fighting God. Again, great article--straight and to the point. What people fail to realize is that "Good" is measured by God's holiness, not by comparing ourselves to one another.Blessings,TeresaTeresa, thanks for commenting and re-enforcing my point.
Terry I think this line sums it up well "live a life of obedience to God". I suspect that is like you said where we fail, Gods law and word not ours. best wishes.Robert, thanks for reading and commenting.
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