Equal =

Seems like today there is a lot of talk about "equality." And yes, we are all equal. What do I mean by this? My sin, is not greater than yours, and yours in not greater than mine. Do you believe this?
It's a hard concept to grasp, and most of us don't take the time to really do the heart work to figure out what this even means to us.
But I'll tell you one thing my friend, the Lord has been asking me to dig deep within my thinking and pull out some junk that has taken root fairly deep. The thinking of judgments.
It's is so easy to look at someone and think, "Surely, I am not as bad as that person over there am I?" Why is it that when we point fingers at others, we think by doing this we diminish our own sin? I think many a believer or non-believer has been sucked into this false thinking.
We are not worse, nor are we better than anyone else.
There is only ONE who is perfect, and that is of course Jesus.
When I fall into the thinking that either I am worse, or better than another person in my sin, I either magnify my "righteousness" Or I diminish my sin.Or I magnify my sin and diminish Christ's finished work on the cross that extended me grace fully.  Either way, I'm wrong when I think this way. When I diminish my sin, I say essentially that I, am better than all the other "sinners" throughout history. I dare not make this claim. OR if I  magnify my righteousness, I say that God's grace is needed, but perhaps not needed in such great proportions as "that person" over there. I dare not think this.
Either way, I'm flawed.
Jesus tells me I'm steeped in sin, Psalm 51 depicts deeply how we are born sinners from our mother's womb. Our mother Eve sinned, and as long as we are born of her and Adam's "seed," we need a remedy for our sin. We do not think, act or live righteousness on our own. Any good that is in a man is because God has empowered that man in that moment to respond as HE would have him respond. God is the one who covers us with His grace and mercy and makes us righteous before the Father, not by anything we have done, so that no one can boast in his or her own abilities.
So yes my friend, we are all equal, apart from Christ, we all deserve death. But thanks be to God, that He sent Jesus to be a pardon for our sin.
It is hard to imagine what this life would be like without all the judgments of our thinking...the way life was before in the garden, before the sin happened. Before the mess began. But God in His infinite wisdom knew man and for-knew man, that man would chose his and her own way. So He made a way out for us, and the way out is Jesus. We need however to recognize our desperate need for His saving.
Until we see our sin for what it is, the normal tendencies and organic condition of man, we will never understand the destitute life we live.
Sin makes us destitute, and my sin, is not cleaner than your sin.
Your anger is no worse than my lie. Your stealing is no different than my covetous thoughts. Your lust is no different than my lust. We all have sin, and it's all equal.
God does not look down from heaven and point to you or I and say, this one is better, or this one is worse. No, all He sees is this, "saved by grace," Or not saved by grace. There is no middle. There is no lesser, or greater. It's either covered by His grace by the recognition of sin and confession of need for the Savior, or it's not there because of not recognizing sin and not confessing the need for the Savior. There is no middle ground.  And our sin without Him? It's all =.
It's all the same.
Shall I say it again? We are all equal in our need. We are all equal in our sin. We are all equal in how we have the opportunity to receive grace.
Grace. Chosen. Adopted as God's children.
If this is a foreign concept for you, then dig deeper into the Bible, into the concept of grace, sin and your need for the Savior.

"Father, forgive me for all the times I look at my sin as less than others, or the way I so quickly judge a person who's outward sin's seem darker than mine. We are all the same in the eyes of the Father. SINNERS IN NEED OF A SAVIOR.
Thank you Father for your saving grace and thank you for you love, patience and deep kindness.
Thank you for equally saving us all. "
Amen.

"For It is by grace you have been saved, through faith--this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8

"It does not therefore, depend on human effort OR desire, but on God's mercy." Romans 9:16