Time for a quiz: Can you name the seven deadly sins?

Did you get them all? They are: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, wrath, and pride.

How about the Ten Commandments? (Check Exodus 20:1-18 to see if you got them right.)

Now try to find where the seven deadly sins are listed in the Bible. Can’t find it? I wonder why. I’m always amused when the seven “deadly” sins come up. The idea that there are only seven deadly ones is a pretty big lie, yet you’ll find more often people can list these seven than they can the Ten Commandments.

One of the biggest ways people mistake God is in the idea of how he looks at sin. It’s easy to read the Bible and see a lot of “thou shall” and “thou shall not” and think, okay, I need to just follow the rules and God will be pleased with me so long as I don’t break the really “big” ones and then go to church a lot.

The thing is, God doesn’t have a scale to weigh all the good things you did against all your bad. If God is a holy God, he can’t tolerate a single sin in his presence. All sin is detestable to God. There aren’t just seven big ones. All sin is deadly because any sin is a “big” one to a holy God, even if it was just that pack of gum you stole from your sister when you were four or the white lie you told to get out of work. For me, I can say I sin many, many more times than once each day.

And according to the Bible, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But the answer to this problem? “The wages of sin is death, and the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Sacrificial death to pay for sin is a recurring theme in the Bible, culminating in the person of Jesus who claimed to take all responsibility of sin upon himself. Jesus offered up a perfect sacrifice for all people to accept as their wages for sin. So take all your deadly sins to Jesus. He’ll exchange them for eternal life, free of charge. He already paid the price.