Welcome to Paul Tripp's Wednesday's Word podcast. I'm Dalton from the Paul Tripp

Ministries team, and each week I'll read aloud Paul's popular Wednesday's word devotional,

short, powerful reflections that connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

You can get each week's devotional straight to your inbox by subscribing at paultrip.com slash Wednesday, or find it anytime on our website, the Paul Tripp app, or on Facebook and Instagram. This week, Paul reminds us that beneath our self-righteousness and defensiveness is a deeper reality. Our greatest problem isn't outside of us, but inside of us. Here's this week's

Wednesday's work. On the off chance you haven't noticed recently, here's a theological step on

your toes reminder.

There is a war in your heart between what the Bible has to say about you and what you would like to think is true about you.

You and I tend to think that we're wiser and more sanctified than we really are.

This is why we get defensive when someone points out our sin or our weakness.

This is why we're skilled at ignoring or minimizing

our own sin while being highly sensitized to the sin of others. As the Bible invites us to look intently

into it, as into a mirror, see James 1, 22 through 25, it invites a humbling and accurate self-assessment.

There are two identities of every Christian, sinner and child of grace.

To understand each, together, is to see yourself as you truly are. Today, I will examine sinner

and next week, Child of Grace. Your identity as a sinner. The biblical doctrine of sin

confronts each of us with the reality that we are not as good as we imagine,

and therefore more needy and vulnerable than we typically consider ourselves to be.

Even though the Bible also reminds us that our environment has been broken by sin,

our biggest problem is moral.

There is something wrong inside of us, and in one way or another, it influences everything

we desire, think, choose, say, and do.

Our greatest need does not derive from the fact that the brokenness of the fall fractures every situation, every relationship, and every context.

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