For the Christian, we always want our good works to bring glory to God. Actually, we are reminded in 1 Corinthians 10:31 always to do everything for the glory of the Lord, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." I think that perhaps one of the biggest things that we miss is that all of our works go to God; some to honor and glory, and some to dishonor and shame.
We are reminded of this in Psalm 51:4, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." It is important to see the differences between the two verses. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "do all to the glory of God," but Psalm 51:4 says, "against thee, thee only, have I sinned." We often don't look at our sin as being against God. It is easier on the conscience to say that maybe we made a mistake, or even just missed the mark, but against? Down deep we even feel that when we do sin, we might be a little selfish, and maybe it's not quite right, but we are not really against Him. We would never go against Him would we?
The biggest problem in reconciling these differences is in our misunderstanding of the holiness of God Himself. It is His holiness that declares that any act that is unholy to be carnal. The Word of God then says in Romans 8:6-8, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." If our works are at enmity with God, then we are against Him.
Why would God make this so black and white? Can't we have a little gray area here, at least to soothe our conscience a little bit? No, my friend, no. We cannot have it both ways. Psalm 51:4 says after it has declared our sins to be against God, why it must be that way, "that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest." Without our sin being declared to be against God, He would not be justified through His Word and His Word would become a vague and obscure collection of noble ideals and nuanced paradigms that seem to shift according to our perspective of how our religion should fit into the culture of our modern era.
The danger of changing our sin from being against God to anything else is revoking the holiness of God, rejecting God as being just, and reporting God's Word as being ambiguous. No matter how society may scream, no matter how our will may resist, and no matter how far we may wander, our sin will always be against God.