sin is the problem

"Sin is in every human heart. It is the villain with a thousand faces.  It’s the man who gets a woman pregnant and leaves town.  It’s also the reputable family man who cuts down his wife and ignores his kids.  It’s the mean-spirited woman who talks bad about everyone, but it’s also the sweet lady who never says an unkind word but harbors all kind of resentment and grudges.  It’s the kid who swears at his parents and blows off everyone who tries to help.  It’s also the kid who gets straight A’s, keeps curfew, and smiles at church, but is one enormous bundle of pride and self-righteousness...

Sin is preaching and serving and being a good Christian because others will notice and think well of us for it.  Sin is talking about other people’s faults more than praying for them.  Sin is refusing to give one inch of mercy to those who hurt us, even when we have been given miles of mercy in Jesus.  Sin is loving people to be liked by them and helping people so we can be applauded by them.  Sin is the laziness that we call a short attention span, the fear of man that we call anxiety, and the ignoring of God that we call busyness...

The Bible says sin is the problem in the world.  We are rebellious traitors disloyal to our King.  We are ungrateful creatures thumbing our noses at the Creator.  We are foolish lovers going after other people and things that don’t satisfy.  We have polluted hearts that like what is bad and don’t like what is good, corrupted hearts that seek the glory of self instead of God. Sin is the besetting sin of us all.
Except for Jesus of course. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. For sin may have a thousand faces, but salvation has only one."

Kevin DeYoung, The Villain with a thousand faces (read the full thing here)