There is no shortage today of evidence that the world is sinful. Turn on any news program or just type in CNN.com on your Internet browser and you will see that we are “messed up”.

What’s ironic is that all of these news events dont just consist of one people group. Rich, poor, white, black, young, and old. The wickedness of man is not bias.

You look at the story of Michael Vick, star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, million dollar contracts and endorsements, yet sentenced to 23 months in prison. And for what? Dog fighting. Look at Marion Jones, 3 time Olympic Gold medal winner, guilty of taking steroids and stripped of all her Olympic medals.

At some point we must ask the question, “What is wrong with us?”

What’s Wrong With Us?

Well there are two ways we can find the answer to that question:

• The World
• The Word of God

What does the World say is wrong with us?

Walk into any bookstore today and there are thousands of books written to try to solve these problems. The world says that we are really good people, we just make mistakes. All we need is a little help in getting our life in order and that will solve our problems.

If we just do this, then this will get better. And we buy that lie. Has that solution worked? I mean, with all of the great advice that we have been given over time, are we any better of today than we were years ago?

As John Stott says:

“Much that we take for granted in a ‘civilized society’ is based upon the assumption of human
sin. Nearly all legislation has grown up because human beings cannot be trusted to settle their own disputes with justice and without self-interest. A promise is not enough; we need a contract. Doors are not enough; we have to lock and bolt them. The payment of fares is not enough; tickets have to be issued, inspected and collected. Law and order are not enough; we need the police to enforce them. All this is due to man’s sin. We cannot trust each other. We need protection against one another. It is a terrible indictment of human nature.”

Lets take a look at sin through the lens of God’s eyes.

1. Sin is against the nature of God.

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)

God is so holy, that he cannot sin himself, or be the cause or author of sin in another. He does not command sin to be committed, for to do so would be to cross his nature and
will. Nor does he approve of any man’s sin, when it is committed, but hates it with a perfect hatred. On the contrary, as God is holy, all holy, only holy, altogether holy, and always
holy, so sin is sinful, all sinful, only sinful, altogether sinful, and always sinful. As in God there is no evil, so in sin there is no good. God is the highest good and therefore sin is the
highest of evils. As no good can be compared with God for goodness, so no evil can be compared with sin for evil.

2. It is against the sovereignty of God. Meaning that it says God isnt in control of all things.

“With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?” (Psalm 12:4)

When we sin, we say to God that we know are in control of our lives and not him. Although we can believe that God is in control, when we sin, we lie about that truth. We say that we want to be our master, not God.

3. It is against the fact that God is everything we need.

When we sin, we say that we need something more than God. We may say that God is all sufficient for us, but our sinning says that we need more. God is everything we need, there is nothing lacking in him at all. Therefore, when we sin, we lie about this attribute of him. We are like the prodigal son that says there is somewhere better to be than here.

4. It is against the fact the God knows everything.

When we sin, it says that we a smarter than God. That we know better than God does. We believe that God knows all things and therefore when we sin, we say that there is something that he does not know, and therefore we want to do it this way. This again is another lie we tell about the truth of God.

5. Sin is against the glory of God.

Man was created to glorify God and enjoy him forever. When we sin, we say that we are created to glorify ourselves and enjoy us forever. This exchanges to truth of God for a lie. It replaces the creator with the creature and there is no greater sin than to fall short of the glory of God.

So the next time you find yourself struggling with the temptation of sin, think about these truths and how they offend our Holy God. We hate when sinful people do us wrong, how much more does God hate sin because he is Holy?