A Biblical Overview of Mortal Sin       

Sola Fide was called the material principle of the Reformation in part because from it the other issues the Reformer’s stressed could be derived.  Indeed, once the doctrine of salvation by faith alone is accepted, the rejection of infused righteousness, Purgatory, indulgences, and even the Mass logically follow.  Each of these doctrines is in some way incompatible with a soteriology which excludes all things other than faith as active in salvation.  Certainly the concept of a distinction between mortal and venial sins is also incompatible with Sola Fide. 

 

In the system of salvation through faith alone, there are several points which would invalidate the concept of a distinction in the gravity of sins.  First is the obvious notion that if through faith alone one is deemed unaccountable for sins, it would make no difference whether the sins were great or small; the faith would be the same.  A second point which may not be at first so obvious pertains to the ramifications of righteousness being imputed rather than infused.  In Catholic teaching, justification actually causes a person to be righteous.  A person may thus be righteous even while being guilty of some minor sins.  However, when righteousness is imputed, the degree of sin is somewhat irrelevant.  In this system, Christ essentially presents his righteousness to the Father in judgment in place of the Christian’s.  When the judgment is rendered, it is a judgment based on Christ’s perfection, instead of the Christian’s sinfulness.  Whether one sins greatly or not is not even considered by God; Christ’s imputed righteousness is all that matters. 

 

To the Reformers, the classification of certain sins as mortal and others as venial was also explicitly rejected in the Scriptures.  Perhaps the most important is found in the book of James:

 

            For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. (2:10-11)

 

The apostle points out that to commit one sin is to be guilty as guilty of the whole law, and thus to commit any sin is to be guilty to the same degree.  Other passages are also cited.  In Romans 3:22-23, Paul writes, “There is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  All of these points do seem to be problematic for the Catholic teaching of a distinction between the gravity of sins.

 

However, the Scriptures contain several references to sins being greater or lesser than other sins.  In Genesis 18:20, God says that the sin of Gomorrah is “very grave.”  If all sin were the same, this statement would be meaningless.  The New Testament also records such an instance:

 

So Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?"  Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin." (John 19:10-11)

 

Jesus’ statement makes it clear that there are indeed some sins worse than others. This is not merely some understanding of sin from the human perspective, but God’s own understanding of Pilate’s sin.  It cannot be said that there are different degrees of sin to men but not in the site of God, because here the almighty renders a judgment on the severity of a sin.

 

In addition to this, there are also several passages in the Scriptures which point out that certain sins result in death whereas others do not.  The most famous example is in the first epistle of John.  He is very straightforward in pointing out that some sins lead to death, whereas others do not:

 

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life--to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.   All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. (5:16-17)

 

The first thing to notice here is that John makes yet another distinction between different classes of sins. Just as Christ said that one sin could be worse than another, John says that one sin may lead to death whereas on the other main not. It is clearly, then, not the case that all sins are the same. On top of fact that there is a distinction is the substance of what the distinction is.  John points out that some sins lead to death. This is worth stressing because it shows many important points. For example, many Protestants believe that it is impossible for the person to lose his salvation once he has come to Christ. One of the verses that they use to prove this is 1 John 5:13, where he writes, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”  However, just three versus later John says that some sins lead to death.  He pointed out in verse 13 that his audience is “those who believe,” so it is clear that he is writing to Christians.  Moreover, he does not speak of just anybody committing a sin that leads to death, but rather of a brother, a fellow believer, committing a sin that leads to death.  There is no question that John recognizes that not all sins are of the same gravity, that some sins lead to death while others do not, and that it is possible for a brother in Christ to commit such a deadly sin.

 

The writer to the Hebrews echoes this point while giving further insight into the nature of these deadly sins. The book of Hebrews has as its primary theme the superiority of the New Covenant sacrifice over those of the old. In part because the purpose of these sacrifices it is the atonement for sin and in part because the audience was struggling with the pressure to return to the old sacrifices, in the end 51% book consists of warnings against falling away from the faith.  One of these warnings gives a very particular fact about the sort of sin that leads to judgment:

 

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (10:26-27)

 

According to the writer to the Hebrews, it is deliberate sins committed with the knowledge of the truth which lead to death. Those who commit these sins have only the expectation of judgment and fire to await them.  It is clear that this applies to Christians (and not only non-believers or Jews) because in verses 28 to 30 the point is made that if this was true under Moses, then it is all the more meaningful now under Christ. This is important to the discussion not only because it gives insight into the nature of deadly sin, but also because it is in part the basis for the catholic understanding of mortal sin. Paragraph 1857 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

 

For a sin to be mortal, conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin know whose object is a grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”

 

The teaching of the church is consistent with the teaching of the book of Hebrews: a person who commits a sin deliberately and with full knowledge can expect judgment. The reason for this is that in committing a sin deliberately one is rejecting the forgiveness of God.

 

Saint Paul provides a wonderful example of the difference between deliberate sin and the state in which is not deliberate.  In one of his most famous discourses, in the book of Romans, he laments at the sins that he commits.  He makes it clear that he does not want to commit these sins. This passage completely unlocks the mystery of mortal sin and thus it is greatly worthwhile to quote him at length:

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

 

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

 

To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (7:15-8:9)

 

The first thing to notice is that these sins are not deliberate. They are sins which he hates.  They are sins which he does not want to commit. He points out that these sins are in his flesh.  He makes it clear he wants to do what is right, but because of his flesh he cannot.  He then says something very important: it is not a Saint Paul himself who does these things, but rather sins which dwell within him.  It is in his flesh that these sins occur, not in his spirit. He says that those who live according to the spirit set their minds on things of the spirit.  When one sets his mind on the flesh he receives death.

 

This is the distinction between a deliberate sin and a non deliberate sin.  A deliberate sin simply results from the fallen nature of man.  In deliberately sinning, a person turns his mind from the spirit and instead places it up on the flesh. It is not simply an unavoidable consequence of being human, but rather a purposeful choice of the flesh over the spirit and of the self over God. This is why such sins are deadly even given the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.  As James pointed out in his epistle, all sin offends God and deserves punishment, even sin which is beyond a person’s control.  Thanks to Christ He has forgiven these sins. As Saint Paul points out, Christ has put sin to death in the flesh.  Christians can consider themselves dead to sin, as he writes in Romans 6:11, and sin no longer reigns over them (6:12, 5:21) as it once did. Saint Paul teaches that men are slaves to whoever they yield themselves to (Romans 6:16).When a person sins deliberately he puts himself back under the reign of sin and yields himself as a slave to sin.  In Matthew 6:24, Christ taught that a man cannot have two masters.  He was speaking about money but the principle is the same.  One is either a servant of Christ or a servant of sin.  The Lord will forgive even deliberate sins when a person repents of them, but committing a sin intentionally as opposed to doing so out of weakness is to choose to serve sin as a master instead of Christ. It is nothing less than a rejection of the Lordship of Christ; it couldn’t be any other thing.  This is why deliberate sin is mortal. All Christians are familiar with the principle that without Christ as Lord, one cannot be saved; it is by this principle that deliberate sin is mortal sin through which a person loses salvation.

 

The other two conditions which are required for a sin to be mortal are that it is committed with full knowledge and that it be of grave matter.  It is because a person cannot choose to sin without knowing an act is a sin that full knowledge of the sinfulness of an act is a condition for mortal sin.  Jesus says that the Pharisees would have no sin in rejecting Him if He had not told them the truth about Himself (John 15:22).  The same is true of all sins.  Saint Paul indicates the necessity of grave matter in three lists found in his letters.  In the first letter to the Corinthians (6:6-9), the letter to the Ephesians (5:5-6), and the letter to the Galatians (5:19-21), the apostle lists that sins which will bar a person from Heaven.  The lists enumerate sins of grave matter.  James also teaches on this point:

 

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)

 

He begins, just as Saint Paul did in his discussion in Romans, with the fallen nature of man.  That sin which is in the flesh is always a temptation. It is always there, enticing the soul to embrace it.  To indulge is to give birth to sin, though it may be at first minor.  When sin has grown however, it becomes deadly.  A grave sin is a full grown sin, a sin completely opposed to Christ.  Here Christ’s words to Pilate must again be considered.  Though all sin is offensive to God, it is to lesser and greater degrees.  In fact, one of the reasons that John is able to recommend prayer for those sins which are not mortal (1 John 5:16-17) is because they can be distinguished in part by their gravity.

 

It is easy to see why the passages understood to teach a lack of distinction between sins do not in fact teach such a thing.  In Romans, Saint Paul is indeed concerned with the eliminating a distinction, but it is between Jews and Gentiles, not between sins.  The overarching theme of the first half of the book is that there is no favoritism in God and Jews and Gentiles stand before him equally in the judgment. In 2:5-11, he warns the Jews that they will be judged for their actions along with the Gentiles, saying, “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek.” (9) His point is summarized by verse 13: “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”  The Jews were the hearers of the law, for it was them to whom God spoke.  There was a belief at the time of the early days of the church that the Jews, as God’s chosen people, were all ready destined for salvation. Saint Paul’s point is that nobody will be saved simply by being a Jew, but rather by faith in Christ. This distinction between Jew and gentile is what Paul says does not exist in Romans 3:22. The entire context of Romans 3 is a discussion of circumcision and of Jewish law, by which the Jews believed they were saved.  St. Paul teaches that it is not by the law that man is saved, but rather through faith in Christ.  To illustrate the problem with the suggestion that the law saves and that there is a distinction in salvation between Jew and gentile, the apostle concludes the discussion in chapter 3 by asking, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also?” (29)

 

Saint James does not teach that all sins are the same either. James 2:10-11 does not say anything of the sort. Rather, it says that to violate one point of the law is the same thing as violating every point of the law. The letter of James was written to Jews, being addressed to the “twelve tribes of the dispersion.” (1:1) This passage is an admonition for them to live under the new law of Christ instead of living under the old law:

 

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (2:8-13)

 

Saint James has just concluded a discussion on partiality, teaching that one must not treat the rich greater than the poor or practice other forms of favoritism.  He points to Christ’s commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself, because it is a strong teaching against this sin.  In doing so, he makes the point that this commandment is itself the principle under which Christians will be judged.  He calls is the “royal law,” quoting from Matthew 22:39.  In that passage, Christ teaches that the entire law is dependant upon this simple commandment (alongside the commandment to love God).  Saint Paul teaches the same thing in Romans 13:8-9:

 

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 

 

After commending this “royal law,” Saint James then warns that the violation of one commandment of the law is a violation of the entire law.  This is true because the entire law comes down to loving one’s neighbor.  To commit adultery is no different than to commit murder because each breaks the commandment to love thy neighbor.  He then once more writes to live under the new law, this time calling it “the law of freedom.”  It is this, the royal law, by which men may be saved, because this is the law of Christ the King (hence the descriptor ‘royal’).  It is under this royal law that there is forgiveness of sin, and under this royal law which one serves Christ as Lord.  Those who reject the Lordship of Christ remove themselves from this law of freedom and place themselves under the law which can be violated in its entirety by a single transgression.  To sin mortally is to reject the Lordship of Christ, and to reject His Lordship is to live under the merciless old law, the law of perfection.  

 

One last helpful example of the distinction between those sins which lead to death and those which do not can be found in Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In the fourth chapter he writes, “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.”(4) This is an extremely interesting statement.  The apostle presents the point here that there could be something against him which would keep him from being acquitted.  The only things which the lord would hold against a person in judgment are sins, so it would seem that this is what Paul is concerned about.  However, he makes it clear in the book of Romans (and elsewhere) that he is aware of his sins and that thanks to Christ they are of no concern for his soul.  He sins cannot be what Paul is writing about.  Nevertheless, he must be talking about sins, because only sin can bar a person from the kingdom of heaven. The solution to this problem is to consider that in Romans Saint Paul was speaking about sins which were not deliberate.  As has already been pointed out, this is a very important distinction.  The apostle knows about his non deliberate sins, and he does not worry that they will bar him from heaven.  However, he is concerned with something being held against him so that he will not be acquitted.  The only thing he could be talking about is deliberate sins.

 

This may seem odd given the fact that he is not aware of them; it would seem that a sin would have often been known to be deliberate. This is, in general, true.  However, it is necessary to consider the fallen human condition. Not only are men’s’ hearts blinded to sin as a result of the fall, but men's minds are also blinded to their hearts.  Anybody who has ever been involved in a romantic relationship knows this.  Sometimes, people simply do not understand themselves.  All sin is a movement of the heart, a movement of the will. It is not impossible that a man may turn from God in his heart or will without his mind completely recognizing this. For this reason Job offered sacrifices in case his children had “cursed God in their hearts.” (Job 1:5) Saint Paul makes it clear that this is his concern in the first Corinthians by following his statement that there may be something against him with the explanation that when Christ comes He will “bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.” This is not, of course, a cause to worry about one’s salvation, but rather a call to grow closer to God in prayer so that He may reveal whatever inner darkness the heart may hold, and a call to the ever diligent to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” (Phi 2:12) and especially with trust in the mercy and love of Jesus Christ.

 

God bless,

 

 

Shane Coombs 2006