The Fundamental Problem

The Bible is clear. All human beings share a basic problem. It's called "sin." With the sole exception in all of history of one Person, all have sinned. The basic problem for humans is sin. Jesus came to save sinners (1 Tim 1:15). Now, we're all pretty clear what "sin" is. It is "lawlessness" (1 John 3:4) -- the violation of God's law. But it's not merely "doing bad things." The root of violating God's law is the violation of God's glory (Rom 3:23). So it is there that we find our basic problem -- the failure to honor God or give thanks to Him (Rom 1:21). A big problem.

Now, for the world, not honoring God is of no consequence. They don't care. But to the believer, it's bad. I mean, we are offended by our own failure to honor God. We are offended by our own sin. So what do we do? Well, we work hard at not sinning. We read the Bible and we find someone to help us with accountability and we get in groups and we pray and we seek God's help and ... lots of really good things. I'm here to offer one more -- something you may not have thought about.

According to Paul, God's wrath is "revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." (Rom 1:18) He even tells specifically what truth is suppressed -- "what can be known about God" (Rom 1:19-20). The rest of that first chapter is a series of steps we humans have accomplished in our suppression of the truth of God that has precipitated our demise. Now, if the suppression of the truth about God is the primary cause of our sin problem, then it would make sense that the reception of the truth about God would be a solution.

It could be an interesting approach. "I'm tempted to ____." You know that however you might fill in that blank, it is sin. We might ask, "What is it about that sin that entices us?" But what if we asked, "What does that temptation tell me about what I think about God?" Is He not enough? Is He not sufficient? Is He not competent? Is He not capable? Is He not wise? Is He not loving? Is He not aware? I think if we thought about it in this light, we might begin to see that it is a deficient understanding of who God is that drives us to pursue those things God tells us not to. I think we would see that, when we're tempted to sin, we're suppressing the truth about God ... to ourselves. We're lying to ourselves about who God is and, therefore, feel the need to fill that void that God has failed to fill. I wonder if that approach might help us in times of temptation and in struggles against sin.