Saturday, July 14, 2018

The Deceitful Human Heart



Jeremiah 17:9–10“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds’”.

Going through a study of the book of Jeremiah, I came across the passage above, which is one that has made a large impact on my worldview and a point of contention in this world. One of the biggest questions in the world is whether mankind (in terms of our heart) is basically good or basically bad. This passage and others like Matthew 7:13-14 and Ephesians 2:1-3 make clear the answer from God’s perspective. We need a Savior. 

The study pointed out that in the law of Moses, indeed in the Bible as a whole, there is much stress laid on outward behavior and how we are to treat our neighbors. Yet the Mosaic law is clear that mere external conformity to its demands is insufficient. The Lord demands an obedience that goes far deeper than that ... not what we do, but who we are. His standards must be on our heart—they must impact our motives, thinking, emotions, and everything else that we are both inside and out. This is a hard truth to grasp, which is why God emphasizes it from the beginning of His dealings with the people of Israel. The five books of Moses often stress the need for a circumcised heart (having cut off the sin skin) that is set apart to love the Lord above all else.

Galatians 5:19-21 “When you follow the heart desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, drug abuse, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Jeremiah emphasizes the need for a changed heart by reminding his readers of our hearts’ condition apart from God’s grace. Born in sin and committing sins throughout life, our hearts are “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick”. We do not, apart from Christ, love the truth. We rationalize the irrational and defend the indefensible. We harbor malice, lust, covetousness, and all manner of secret sins. We selfishly desire whatever we want, whenever we want. This is what Scripture tells us from beginning to end because of original sin. Bible commentator Matthew Henry comments, “There is wickedness in our hearts which we ourselves are not aware of and do not suspect to be there. Are we blind and conformable in our sin?Transformation

The prophet Jeremiah saw this so clearly because of the era in which he lived. During Josiah’s reign, Judah enjoyed what appeared to be a great revival, culminating in one of the grandest Passover celebrations ever. However, though Josiah had true piety, the nation as a whole experienced only a skin-deep revival. Jeremiah 17:1–4 reveals that the people never truly gave up “their altars to other gods and their Asherim (one of the three great goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon), beside every green tree and on the high hills.” The hearts of the people under Josiah were far from God, and there was only rote observation of true religion.Ultimately, the people were not trusting God and His Word, but they looked to whoever was currently in charge to direct their piety. There was no deep personal attachment to the Lord, so the people were just as happy worshipping the gods of Canaan as they were praising Yahweh. How about us?

Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Josiah was a good man, much better than his grandfather Manasseh. Nevertheless, because the Judahites trusted in the king, not in the Lord, reformation did not go far enough. It is always folly to trust mere men for one’s reconciliation to God, no matter how good and holy such men happen to be. 

There is only one man in whom we can trust absolutely for reconciliation to God, and that is the God-man Christ Jesus. No matter how pious other servants of the Lord may be, following them simply for the sake of following them is never enough to be restored to our Creator. We can obey church leaders, show up every Sunday for worship, and otherwise appear pious, but none of these things are any advantage without a true and abiding trust in the Lord God Almighty. 

Ephesians 2:4-14 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”

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