I'm going to first preface this by saying that this was initially an email to a friend about sin against God, but quickly turned into a rather lengthy blog post. Second, Mike, what were we thinking starting these blogs? I'm never going to get any work done now.
I think anyone who believes in any sort of god has some concept of sin (even if it's as simple as a concept of right and wrong). Most would admit that at some point in their lives they have broken at least one part of God's law...even if it's just "well when I was 10 years old I stole a pack of bubble gum". Thus, even though not all "god believing" people would believe the New Testament, I think we could agree on the point made by Romans 3:23a: "For all have sinned". The complete verse, which I'm going to support using primarily the Old Testament, is "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Whereby falling short means that we miss God's expectation of perfect (which only Jesus was able to satisfy). Falling short of the glory of God thus earns us hell.
Looking at the Old Testament, Isaiah 59:2 says that "your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear." That whole chapter is pretty explicit about God not taking sin lightly. Give it a read if you're looking for more: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2059&version=ESV To me, that doesn't sound like God says "ohh, you didn't kill anyone, I think you can move on to heaven". It says that God says that he wants nothing to do with you. Without Jesus you deserve hell and that's where you're going.
In terms of God not taking sin lightly, Tim Keller said: "What hope is there for YOU if God is a just god? What hope is there for the WORLD if God is not a just god?" As I've just pointed out, we deserve death and hell for our sins. God makes the rules, not president Obama, not any man or woman. If God is absolutely perfect and without sin as well as perfectly just, how can he simply let a few "not really major sins" by? He says that any sin, regardless of what kind of "bad" scale that we put it on is still punishable by hell. Additionally, there is no hope for the world unless there is a God of justice who will one day put everything right in heaven for those who trust in Jesus bearing the weight of ALL of our sins thereby making us sin-free in his eyes.
A few more verses to consider:
"For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers." - Psalm 5:4-5
"The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence." - Psalm 11:5
"The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD" - Proverbs 15:26
"The LORD could no longer bear your evil deeds and the abominations that you committed. Therefore your land has become a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. It is because you made offerings and because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies that this disaster has happened to you, as at this day." - Jeremiah 44:22-23
Our "not really major sins" are seen EQUALLY as deserving of an eternal trip to hell as the worst sin we could imagine. For example, "'You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." - Matthew 5:27-28. Our society has really botched this concept. Most people assume a scale of good and bad. But God doesn't see a scale. He simply sees sin.
We do a lot more than simply commit adultery with our minds: "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart [mind] and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders [6th Commandment], adulteries [7th Commandment], sexual immorality [7th Commandment], theft [8th Commandment], false witness [9th Commandment], and slander [3rd Commandment]: These are what defile a person" - Matthew 15:18-19
"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." - Romans 3:20. Have you stopped and really thought about your sins recently? Not just the, "well I didn't save a doughnut for that guy who works in my lab" but more the motivations behind our actions. "I selfishly ate the doughnut because I was hungry, regardless of how anyone else felt." I thus sinned by not loving my neighbor well (even if I didn't know he wanted to eat it). It's really enough to make one sick when you begin looking into your motives for your desires or for doing things. The doughnut story isn't a very good example, but it does begin to illustrate the concept that you can find sin in nearly everything we do. If you don't stop and think about pursuing righteousness you continue in your sinful ways. How can you think that God excuses this? To say that God excuses this is to say that he hands out a 'get out of jail free card' to every ignorant sinner on the street who doesn't want to submit to him. From discussions that I have had, if I am understanding this correctly, from a Muslim's perspective, a person who ignores his sin would be seen as more righteous and thus deserving of heaven because he is conscious of less sin in his life than someone who is seeking to beat the sin in his life. There seems to me to be a flaw in that theology.
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives" - 1 John 1:8-10
A few weeks ago I posted the following quotation from Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle, on my facebook wall, which generated an enormous number of comments and discussion amongst my Christian friends (shout outs to you Mike and Steve for your input): "You've been told that God is a loving, merciful, kind, wonderful & good sky fairy who runs a day care in the sky and has a bucket of suckers for everyone because we're all good people. That's a lie...God looks down and says 'I hate you, you're my enemy, & I will crush you,' and we say that is deserved, right and just, and ... then God says 'Because of Jesus I will love you & forgive you.' This is a miracle." While I absolutely love every word he says here, the part of this quotation that I want to point out is that in the middle of it he implies that God not only hates sin but hates the sinner.
I found two more commentaries that provided a significant amount of clarity to the topic:
The first from John Calvin: “Before we were reconciled to God, he both hated and loved us. Why did he love us? Because we were his creatures... Yet at the same time, he hated us, because he is the source of all righteousness and had to hate the evil within us.”
The second from John Piper: "God hated me in my sin. Yes, I think we need to go the full Biblical length and say that God hates unrepentant sinners. If I were to soften it, as we so often do, and say that God hates sin, most of you would immediately translate that to mean: he hates sin but loves the sinner." Then he cites Psalm 5:5 and 11:5 which were both referenced above
R.C. Sproul really clears a lot of this up in his book Chosen By God: "The divine hatred mentioned here is not an expression of an insidious attitude of malice. It is what David...called a "holy hatred" (Psalm 139:22). Divine hatred is not malicious. It involves a withholding of favor. God is "for" those whom he loves. He turns his face against those wicked people who are not the objects of his special redemptive favor. Those whom he loves receive his mercy. Those whom he "hates" receive justice. Again, no one is treated unjustly."
John 3:36 says "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on HIM." Add a little more emphasis on the wrath of God remains on the person, not on the sin.Calvin said that God hates AND loves the sinner at the same time. The love part is easy to comprehend as explained by the fact that God actually lets us live and doesn't send a lightning bolt crashing through the sky, frying our bodies and sending us straight to hell. Instead, (a) allows us to live and for the most part really enjoy being here and (b) he sent his son to die an incredibly painful death for our sins. But we also NEED to comprehend how much God hates sin. We need to comprehend that God also hates the sinner. Additionally, God's hate is a manifestation of his goodness: God hates sin because He's good/perfect, and then hates us because we're sinners. So hate for God is not some emotional whim like it is for us but a conscious expression of His holiness offended. Hate can be righteous.
My point in mentioning this is: why would God want to spend an eternity with a sinner whom he hates?
In any regard, When the Bible says, “For all have sinned,” it means that every person has transgressed God's law and has missed the mark of the perfection that God demands. When the Bible says, “the wages of sin are death,” it means that sin earns you the death penalty of an eternity in hell. When the Bible says that your sins separate you from Him, It means that without the blood of Jesus, your submission to him and genuine repentance of sin God hates you. However, that hate is washed away by Jesus Christ's death on the cross. And God's power is demonstrated in his resurrection three days later.
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