What’s the difference between the sin of a believer and the sin of a non-believer?

Dear Tracy,

This is Pastor Jorge. Thanks for the question. There is no difference in the sins. There is no difference if I sin and if someone sins who does not have a relationship with God. There is a difference in the way that God sees us. In Ephesians, Paul depicts this in an awesome way! Ephesians 1:19-21 states that God brought salvation through Christ and SEATED Him at His right hand. So Christ is seated beside God as HIS child.

“19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”

Keep reading in Chapter 2:4-9.

4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.

Because of His kindness we who are in Christ are seated in the same place as Christ. God looks at us not as sinners who are lost without hope but as His children. What a privilege it is for a person who has a relationship with God to be able to call God His Father. But this is not done because of what we can do or have done, but it is because of what Christ did. God sees us just as if we had never sinned! As followers of Christ, we have been justified because of Christ’s sacrifice.