Before God we are all guilty sinners, and this sin condemns us and sets us at a distance from Him. The greatness of our sin is not only in the number of sins, but in the seriousness of even just a single one. One sin is enough to pronounce a death sentence, and one sin is too much for us to pay the penalty for.

Having a sense of guilt is different than realizing the seriousness of our sin. Cain knew he was guilty, yet rather than confess the gravity of the murder he had committed, he focused on the severity of the punishment. It shows how little he appreciated what his sin meant to God. In stark contrast, David owns up to his sin and declares that he cannot bear it—not the punishment, but the iniquity itself. As a man after God’s own heart, he keenly felt that his wrongdoing had been a major slight against God. Similarly, when the Israelites had intermarried with the nations around them, Ezra uses the same expression as David, saying, “our iniquities have risen higher than our heads” and confesses that they “have been very guilty” (Ezra 9:6–7).

There are many today who, like Cain, treat sin as though it were nothing serious. God’s view of sin has not changed. Only God can truly understand the full magnitude of our sins, and He provided a way for them to be forgiven. He gave His Son, Jesus Christ, as our substitute and made Him to be sin on our behalf. Surely if my sin were not so serious it would not require the Son of God to die! “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Rom. 5:20), for not only have our sins been washed away but we have been made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).