The Bad News Before the Good News

Few people would ever deny the presence of sin in the world. We can all pick up a newspaper and see evil and suffering. In this regard, it is easy to see sin. Sin becomes a little trickier, however, when we turn our gaze from 'out there' to 'in here'. It is much easier to ignore personal sin. It often becomes an issue of comparison. “I never killed anyone.” Sin is easier to see or acknowledge in someone else, usually Hitler.
While we’d like to think that sin is a problem out there, it is in reality a problem in here. We all know the thoughts that we have. We all know the how we often do or say that thing that we don’t really want to do or say. We all know that we have made mistakes. We all know that things are not as they are supposed to be. We have felt sin’s corruption and guilt, even if we would like to dismiss it and think of it only in terms of someone else’s problem.
The basic issue of sin is one of idolatry. It is usually the sin beneath the sin. When God laid out his Ten Commandments, they were done in the pattern of an Ancient Near Eastern treaty. The treaty was a promise by God to man that He would be their God and they would be His people. In the pattern of this treaty, the first command is a general overarching command and the following specific commands expand and explain the general. The first command of the Ten Commandments is, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” This first command is that we would love God first. All the other commandments detail the manner in which we are to love God. This is the same way with sin. Our first sin is that we have not loved God. The manner in which we have broken that command is secondary to the fact that we have put something else in the place of God. This is idolatry. We have crafted little idols into which we place our hope, trust and security. We all have turned to idols. The brokenness of the world drives us to idols. The corruption of our heart looks for peace in idols. Our guilt chronicles the pattern of choosing idols throughout our lives. Idolatry is present in all our lives, and it is the underlying issue in each of our hearts.
Now that we’ve come to terms with sin being an 'in here' problem, it is crucial to look at the effects of sin. The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus that people are dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1-5). He also wrote to the church in Rome that the result of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We are spiritually dead before God. We stand before him with a guilty record and a corrupt heart in the midst of a broken world. And being dead, there is nothing that you can do about it.
What is your issue? What is your idol? What are you worshipping? The basic message of the Gospel is to turn from your idols and worship the one true God.