Pride and Tree Roots
I'm a true believer in the notion, "pride is the root of all sin." Think about it this way: in order to sin, we are putting something in front of God's commandments for us. When we choose something other than what God has ordained as Good for us, we are declaring that we ourselves know better than God. This is the very same sin Adam and Eve committed in the Garden of Eden: putting ourselves and our immediate desires ahead of God's Goodness and Promises. Adam and Eve were separated from God after their sin, and our own "iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2). This separation is the reason our God "made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:7-8). Without our sepa