Had you remembered your identity as creature, how would you have acted differently in that situation? Be specific about how you could have turned and walked in a God-honoring direction.Дiscouraging as it may be, why is it important to be honest about your identity as a sinner? When was the last time you willingly and knowingly stepped over a boundary that God set? What was the result of you overstepping that boundary? ItвЂ™s a cry for something David had no power whatsoever to produce in himself-radical, long-lasting heart transformation.ДЄnd itвЂ™s the reason for the bright promise of the new covenant: вЂњI will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within youвЂќ (Ezek. So the only hope for us is the thing David asked for in one of the most well-known prayers in all of Scripture: вЂњCreate in me a clean heartвЂќ (v.В 10). Sin causes us not only to fail to live up to GodвЂ™s standard sadly, we also seldom consistently live up to our own standards.Дavid understood that his problem wasnвЂ™t his eyes, or that beautiful women exist in the world, or that he lived near such a woman as Bathsheba his problem was his identity as a sinner. Sin makes us weak, easily susceptible and all too frequently defeated. Sin renders us unable to live up to GodвЂ™s design and according to his will. If iniquity expresses moral impurity and transgression moral rebellion, then sin expresses moral inability. There is a rebel heart inside every sinner. We take our lives into our own hands, and we do what we have to do to get what we want. We break GodвЂ™s law, not just because we are ignorant of it, but because we come to a point where we donвЂ™t care what God says. ItвЂ™s important to remember that itвЂ™s always the evil inside us that hooks us to the evil outsideВ us.ДЄ transgressor willingly and knowingly steps over legal boundaries. It was the moral impurities inside David that caused him to desire and do the morally wrong thing. IвЂ™d encourage you to read the whole Psalm, but for the sake of today, IвЂ™m going to focus on three key words: Iniquity, Transgression, and Sin. We will only ever be what we were designed to be, and do what we were designed to do, when we have been blessed with the rescuing, forgiving, empowering, transforming, and delivering mercies of the Savior.ДavidвЂ™s confession recorded in Psalm 51 is incredibly helpful in defining our identity as sinner and our need for mercy. We need more than external restraints on their behavior. We need more than practical life strategies. We are all broken, still in need of the further work of redemption. ItвЂ™s sad to have to say this, but none of us is okay.

The second foundational identity will be equally as hard to acknowledge, and equally as essential for a joy-filled, God-honoring life. It will be a struggle to submit to the law of the Creator, but when we do, we will experienceВ safety, freedom, and joy inside the good and wise boundaries that God has defined for us. We are GodвЂ™s idea, we reflect his design, we exist for his purpose, and we have been commissioned to do his will. I have previously introduced the first of four foundational identities that we need to embrace вЂ“ that of creature.