#depravity

It is one thing to realize and even taste for yourself the depths and depravity of your own sin, but it is another to doubt the promises of God. We may say that our doubt arises out of a despair over our own sin and not over His faithfulness—as I claimed when I was in the throes and pangs of doubt—but that simply will not do. To acknowledge your sin is one matter, but to obsessively fixate on it is another. Indeed, it is nothing but a form of unchecked self-pity, a shade of pride that ‘humbly’ swaths itself not as “holier than thou” but as “more wretched than thou.” In both instances the sin is the same: a preoccupation with self over Christ. Make no mistake, to claim that our own personal sin is somehow out of the bounds of God’s grace and Christ’s redeeming work is to doubt His character and promises. Self-pity is not piety, it is pride.