There is no escaping the fact that the ultimate message of the Bible is that access to heaven after physical death is impossible for a sinful human without shedding the burden of that debt. Christianity is based on the concept that Jesus paid the debt for all humanity, provided that each of us acknowledges that sacrifice and embraces Jesus as He who took on that burden on our behalf.

Central to that belief is the admission that each of us has sinned throughout our lifetime.

It is human nature that we contemplate the definition of sin and exactly how deep in debt are we. If I have never committed murder or other such heinous crime, do I qualify for the fast lane to a heavenly reward? Does God keep a ledger record of our sinful acts? Is there a category of small sins and another category of major sins?

The Ten Commandments of the Old Testament is a pretty basic guide to avoiding sin, but still leaves a few questions in terms of the severity of our transgressions.

“Thou shalt not steal.” Okay, I get it, I shouldn’t steal my neighbor’s car, but what about that piece of candy I snatched from the bulk bin in the grocery store? Surely that can’t be comparable.

The problem we have with our method of judging sins is that we are handicapped by our humanness. We view our transgressions on a scale from “little white lie” to “murder and torture,” and we expect God to judge us on that scale. We trust that our good deeds and good intentions will somehow tilt the scale in our favor and cancel out our debt.

What we fail to grasp is the deeper definition of sin.

If we see a citizen of heaven as a pure, spiritual being, existing in perfect harmony with love – the basic foundation of a relationship with the Creator, then sin becomes anything that is in conflict with that status of the ideal citizen. Sin then, becomes any thought, word or deed that is not in keeping with God’s principle of love.

It is pretty basic and all-encompassing. It is also very logical.

Perhaps instead of worrying about the number and degree of our sins, we need to count our blessings and reflect on our sins. Perhaps that reflection will enable us to recognize the path to a better relationship with our Creator.

It might also help us understand forgiveness as a step toward strengthening that relationship.

“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone…”