Our sin problem

"There seems to be this philosophy that to reduce criminal activity, all one needs to do is 

--give people a great environment, 

--freedom to do what they want, 

--and use counseling. 

But there’s a massive problem. This is how Jeremiah states the problem: 

--“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick [wicked]; who can understand it?” 

(Jeremiah 17:9). 

Mark tells us, 

--“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21–23). 

The point is that Christians should understand that man’s heart is not neutral. We are biased against God. In fact our sin nature is really summed up by Genesis 3:1 (“did God actually say”) and Genesis 3:5 (“you will be like God”). 

Thus, our nature is we don’t want to obey God; we want to be our own god and be a law unto ourselves." 

AIG/KenHam