Sin

‎"The point at which a man like Joseph showed his spiritual insight and understanding supremely was this. Tempted by Potiphar's wife he said: 'How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?' What troubled Joseph was not the possibility of sinning against the woman but against God Himself. Now that is true spiritual thinking. We must not think so much about the sin itself. That is what we tend to do. What constituted sin for Joseph was the fact that it involved his relationship to God - 'if I do that I will be sinning against God'. David saw the same thing. Murderer and adulterer that he was, this is what troubled him: 'Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight.' He was not minimizing the wrong he had done to others; he knew all about that; but that was not the worst thing. it was God - his relationship to God. The moment you think of it like that you forget particular sins, and you forget that one is worse than another. 'My unbelief,' says Paul, 'that was the trouble' - not particular actions. it in indeed our relationship to God and His Law that matters."

- from "Spiritual Depression" from Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones

I've been reading through this book called Spiritual Depression by this dead London preacher named Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. In the latest chapter, I stumbled upon this. Dr. Lloyd-Jones is so spot on when he says we so often think about the sin itself and even relativize our sins against other sins and fail to grasp how offensive we are to God. Our greatest offense is in our unbelieving, ungrateful, adulterous hearts.

Jesus said: And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

(Matthew 15:16-20 ESV)

And with my very thoughts and desires, I constantly offend God and don't realize how deeply sinful I am.

And further, James said: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

(James 2:10 ESV)

Even with my one wayward thought, I've already become guilty of all the law.

And yet despite all that, I think the really crazy thing is that God still loves me and has forgiven me through the death of His son and has adopted me into His family to be a co-heir with Christ.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

(2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)

The prodigal love and grace God lavishes on us is amazing and I pray that it will impress itself on me more deeply and that I might continue to understand it's breadth, length, height, and depth so that I will be more and more moved to live for Him rather than for me.

And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
(Luke 15:21-24 ESV)