What is the greatest sin?

Assuredly all men are sinners, "For all have sinned." (Rom. 3:23) I learn then that there is not one man now in the whole of this world that can either have forgiveness of sins, or be fit for the presence of the Holy God, except by the blood of the Lord Jesus, who was the sacrifice once offered for sins. Oh, what swarms of despisers and rejecters of Christ in this day. Art thou one, my reader? Perhaps thou sayest, "I am not so great a sinner as many; I try to pay all I owe; and do no harm to any one." Hold! do no harm to any one! Hast thou believed in Jesus, to the saving of thy soul? Dost thou say, No? Then art thou the greatest of all sinners; for to reject Christ is the greatest of all possible sins, and this thou wilt find to thy cost for ever. To disbelieve Jesus is to sin against God, who sent him to die for sinners. To sin against that precious Christ, who died for sinners. To sin against thyself; oh, sin of all sins; to plunge thyself into eternal torment. Is this doing no harm? This is that monster sin, of which the Holy Ghost convinces; "Of sin, because they believe not on me." (John 16:9) Ah! ponder this well. Thou hast but a moment to live compared with eternity; and if thou shouldst continue to reject the pardon preached through the blood of Jesus, then, when thou liftest up thine eyes in torment, then wilt thou know what thou hast done in rejecting Christ.

It is! Man will not be judge merely because he did not believe the gospel, but unbelief is nevertheless the greatest sin of all. At the judgment of the "great white throne", the word is not "whosoever was not found written in the book of works" but, "whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire".

Of all sins this is the worst. For it makes God a liar if we believe Him not (1 John 5:10). Unbelief is the only sin which, if persisted in, is unto eternal death. The difference between a real Christian and an unreal one is, that the former does not draw back unto perdition, but believes to the saving of the soul (Heb. 10:39). Have I then a heart for Christ? Can I trust the word of God, who cannot lie, more implicitly than I can rely on my heart, which is deceitful above all things? Can you not do this, reader? Let not the word which may be trembling to escape your lips be still repressed because you yet feel the sense of personal vileness. God is not addressing you because you are not vile, but because you are so. He preaches peace to them who in themselves can have no real peace. He bestows His own righteousness in Christ in the same word which pronounces the full forgiveness of your sins if you believe in Jesus. The depth of our own feelings in regard to sin is in one sense immaterial. It is not by an inference that we are justified, but by faith. Conclusions inferred from within are exactly opposite to the venture of faith, that casts all on Jesus at the bidding of God's word.

30 Pride is the greatest of all evils that beset us, and of all our enemies it is that which dies the slowest and hardest. . … God hates pride above all things, because it gives to man the place that belongs to Him who is above, exalted over all. Pride intercepts communion with God, and draws down His chastisement, for "God resists the proud."

“If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin,” said the Lord Jesus, as though the sin of a Cain, of an antediluvian world, of a Babel, of a Sodom and Gomorrah, of a Tyre and Sidon, of a Pharaoh, of a Jeroboam, or of a Ahab, were not to be placed in the same scale, or to be measured in the same measure; as though every previous act of transgression, disobedience, and blasphemy were now completely eclipsed. “Now,” says He, “they have no cloak for their sin.” His rejection was the sin of sins—the crowning sin, yea, the damning sin! Bad as it was to “thrust aside” a Moses, “treat shamefully” a Jeremiah, or “slay” a Zechariah “between the temple and the altar,” what shall we say of that act whereby the Son of God is disallowed and murdered?

Take the most wonderful example of all. The greatest crime this world has seen, or can see, is the murder of the Son of God. One, who only displayed love, whose life was spent in undoing the works of the devil, was done to death by the insensate hate of the religious leaders of the nation.

A. — The same thing in substance is meant, the first stating its evil character with energy, the second widening its extent. It signifies imputing to Satan that power of God which the Holy Ghost exercised then and afterward; and it bespeaks deep and settled hatred of God. Souls that give themselves up to such malice against the worker of all good are beyond pardon. Forgiveness is for those who repent and believe the gospel.

But it was more than folly. Such a course as they had embarked on would imperil the salvation of their souls, and cause them to be in danger of eternal sin. Of this the Lord now warns them: "Verily I say to you, All sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost has never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" (rather than condemnation). And to make clear what the Lord referred to as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Mark, and he alone, explains it: "Because they said, He has an unclean spirit" (3:28-30). Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit consists in attributing the power of the Spirit to evil agency. How many a person with a morbid conscience has been troubled, thinking he has committed that sin. A simple reference to Mark 3:30 should at once set such an one at rest.

There is no sin that is not gross sin in God's sight. Men are accustomed to regard some sins as heinous and some as trivial, but every sin is abhorrent to God. The slightest sin as effectually bars heaven's gate against the one who commits it as the sin of murder, and it calls as loudly for atonement by the blood of Christ.

The doctrine fundamental to the gospel is that there is no difference between man and man , — not no difference as to the amount of sins that anybody may have committed, or the aggravation of them; for, truly, the day of judgment will bring out a difference, and put everybody exactly in his place according to his works, that is, those who are not saved by the gospel. It is true, then, that there are various degrees of sin, and God will judge with perfect equity as to all; but that is no question of salvation. As to that, everybody is precisely upon the same footing: "There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." It does not say, "all have sinned so many times;" but it says, "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."