I've never been more convinced that Luther was right when he said that at the heart of every sin is the root sin of idolatry.

To break the 3rd through the 10th commandments is ultimately a breaking of one of the first two: to have no other gods and to not make for oneself an idol. When a child lies about stealing an M&M cookie, the root sin was not lying but looking for his happiness in a cookie more than his Creator. When a man murders another man for sleeping with his wife, the root sin was not murder but idolatry. His identity was so wrapped up in his relationship with his wife that he became unglued and let it out with a knife. Any man would be rightfully angry and jealous, but if his meaning for life is found in Christ, then he holds something even greater and more secure than a close relationship with his wife. He doesn't have to murder the offender. He can move on becuase he has experienced a forgiveness far deeper than he ever could offer himself.

So sin at its core is an identity problem more than a "rule-breaking" problem. It's looking for one's significance, one's place in this life in something other than Christ Himself. Often in raising our children or dealing with our own sin, we waste energy addressing the surface sin, all the while ignoring the real issue lying deep in the heart. I've often caught myself rebuking my child for hitting his brother when the real problem was not physical violence but looking for happiness in the bigger waffle instead of knowing Jesus.

When a woman builds her identity on her career instead of Christ and that career falls apart, she's devastated. Her purpose for life has been sucked into emptiness because all her hope was in her career and she'll likely slide into despondency. If she turns to gluttony or bitterness or jealousy as a result, these new sins are simply child sins of the mother sin of idolatry. But if her identity is in Jesus, she'll be rightly devastated but not totally, because her identity is not wrapped up in a temporary career but in the eternal Son of God.

King David's real problem when he committed adultery with Bathsheba was not lust or unfaithfulness to his wives but finding his satisfaction in a woman instead of in God. He looked for joy in something other than his Creator, the same sin that turned the glorious Lucifer into the hideous serpent who tempted Eve with essentially the same thing: you will be like God. In other words, you can find your happiness, your significance, in something other than God Himself.

One room of idolatry that the conservative religious are often blind to is the idolatry of one's own family. To put it pointedly, if your spouse left you today, you'd be understandably distraught and full of deep sorrow. But could you say with Job, "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord!"? If your children go rebellious, could you still cling to Jesus and cry out through floods of tears, "I still have the one thing that matters most!"? If one builds his identity on anything but Christ he builds his life on shifting sand (Mat 7:24-27). When you wake up tomorrow you have no guarantee that your husband, wife, children, job, money, car, education, or health will still be here. Thus, to build your life on any of these is a shaky investment. But build it on Jesus and even the fiercest storms you can weather, for you have built your life on the one thing that God has promised never to take away from you.

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Mat 6:33).