While in the way of wickedness, it can never be seen as wickedness

Why is it that when caught up in some sin or powerful desire to sin, we are unable to see it for the sinfulness of what we are doing or desiring? 
SIN IS ALWAYS BLIND TO ITSELF AS SIN.
This excerpt helps answer this question.

"Untruth remains undiscovered because, as Paul says, truth is held down and suppressed in unrighteousness. Being in untruth conceals untruth. The same applies to evil. It is of the essence of wickedness that it cannot see itself. In this, it resembles stupidity. Stupidity cannot see itself because some unattainable intelligence is needed to see it, to confess knowledge of one’s own ignorance. That wickedness cannot see itself but must be opened by the Pneuma (Holy Spirit) to do so finds striking expression in its constant justification, exculpation, and validation of itself. In its own eyes it is not wickedness. A related fact is that the demonic power behind wickedness shares this fate of invisibility, or better, initiates it. It is a power in the background and not in the objectifiable foreground. People never see the devil even when he has them by the throat."

-Helmut Thielicke, The Evangelical Faith Vol. 3
reposted here from Robert Bennett post on facebook - Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 11:03pm.


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