"I referred earlier to the Puritan Ralph Venning's book The Sinfulness of Sin.  The title sounds somewhat like a tautology, a needless repetition.  But in his title, Venning was trying to make a point, and here is his point in his own words: 'On the contrary, as God is holy, all holy, only holy, altogether holy, and always holy, so sin is sinful, all sinful, only sinful, altogether sinful, and always sinful.'  It does not matter whether our sin is scandalous or respectable, all our sin is sinful, only sinful, and altogether sinful.  Whether it is large or small in our eyes, it is heinous in the sight of God.  God forgives our sin because of the shed blood of Christ, but He does not tolerate it.  Instead, every sin that we commit, even the subtle sin that we don't even think about, was laid upon Christ as He bore the curse of God in our place.  And herin lies chiefly the malignancy of sin.  Christ suffered because of our sins."

"Our responsibility and privilege is to glorify [God]: to enhance His reputation in the minds of rational creatures and to live our lives and order our days so that all who encounter us will have a higher regard for God than they might have had they never encountered us!"