Photo of a canyon

The Great Problem

The Great Problem

The Bible makes it clear that my greatest problem is not a physical or emotional problem. No, it’s a spiritual problem. Like a great sheer-sided canyon, we are separated from the only one who is able to answer our deepest problems. God seems unreachable. And I know this because I know the loneliness deep within when the noise of life fades.

What caused such a distance between me and God? The Bible tells us the precise problem:

Your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you that He will not hear.

Isaiah 59:2

Deep within me there is a desire to rule my own life, to be in charge. Its in my nature. And so I decide to do things my way rather than the way I was created to live. I decide to love and pursue not only things which are good but also things which might satisfy me now but ultimately destroy. In turning from the way God designed us to live I rebel against God. ‘Sin’ is rebellion against God.

And sin separates – because God is pure, we cannot approach Him:

[God’s] eyes are too pure to look on evil; [He] cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

Habakkuk 1:13

Our Great Guilt

The result of this separation from God is shown in my dissatisfied life. Also, even more seriously, there can be no place for us in God’s perfect Kingdom. The Bible says:

Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful

Revelation 22:17

The Sad Result?

This automatically excludes me from solving my life problems myself. I can’t hide, bury, or undo the things I’ve chosen to do in rebellion against God. No matter how religious I might become, how many good things I might try to do, what philosophies or political persuasions I might follow, there is nothing that can bridge the divide to God, who alone can meet my deepest needs.

But that’s not the end of the story … there is a solution!