A Bad Heart
In the Scriptures God plainly declares that the hearts of all men are bad. Jeremiah 17:9 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is desperately wicked.” In another place we read that “the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart” (Ecclesiastes 9:3). Furthermore, Jesus plainly taught that the source of evil is rooted in the hearts of men. He said, “For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23). Sin is not created by the environment. Sin comes from out of the bad heart of man! This is the other aspect of your greatest problem, an incorrigible, sin-loving, God-hating heart, which is at enmity with God and is not subject to the law of God and cannot be (Romans 8:7).
You probably do not consider yourself to be as bad as the Bible says you are because your heart is deceitful. It is masterful not only at deceiving others but at deceiving you. With complete disregard of God’s description of your terrible condition, your heart will deceive you into thinking that you are not really that bad. It will tell you that deep down you are “OK”, not perfect, but “OK.” But do you not see that this very response is evidence of a wicked heart? Your conscience should affirm the very truths revealed by God; but instead it denies, distorts, and covers them over with lies. Furthermore, is it not true that the things that God forbids you to do are the very things that you love and do? And are not the things that God commands you to do the very things that you hate and will not do?
But do you not see that this very response is evidence of a wicked heart?
This indeed is a problem, for how can you live in heaven with a bad heart? Heaven would be like hell for you, for there you will not find anything that will feed your sinful cravings. Worshiping God and living for him is heaven’s lifestyle. Would this not bore you (even frustrate and infuriate you) if you remain with a heart set against God and his will? Furthermore, God will never allow you to enter his kingdom as a rebel sinner. God brings into his kingdom forgiven sinners with purified hearts, but never rebel sinners with corrupt hearts.
Now what makes this part of your problem so great is that you cannot change your heart. God’s Word says, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil”(Jeremiah 13:23). The obvious answer to this rhetorical question is “No.” A man or an animal cannot change his coloring; it is part of his nature. Similarly, men with bad hearts cannot do good because it is contrary to their nature. Yes, it is true that you may be able to change some of your external conduct, but you cannot change the disposition of your heart. A man may be able to keep from having sex outside of marriage, but in his heart he still will lust. A man may resolve to go to church and tithe, but in his heart he still will be far from God. A woman may restrain her lips from speaking slander and lies, yet she will not be able to keep from hating in her heart.
This is the second aspect of your greatest problem, you not only have a bad record in heaven which you cannot change, but you also have a bad heart on earth which you cannot change. Unless you face this bad news, you will never understand the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is good news only to those who have come to realize that they are utterly helpless in their wretched condition as sinners.
A Cleared Record and A Changed Heart
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news about what God in sovereign grace has done through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to clear the bad records and to change the bad hearts of a multitude of sinners.
Consider what Jesus said at the last supper with his disciples just before he was about to die. He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). Jesus summed up the purpose of his mission in these three words, “the new covenant.” All that the Lord Jesus did in emptying himself of his glory and coming to earth as a true man, all that he did in his sinless life, all that he was about to do by his death as a sin-bearing substitute for his people and by his glorious resurrection, led to and culminated in his establishing the new covenant.
But what did God promise in the new covenant? The Scripture records the substance of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws on their heart, and upon their mind also will I write them; and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
The new covenant primarily consists in the conferral of two blessings. (1) God promises that he will remember the sins and iniquities of his people no more. In other words, God says he will blot out their bad records forever; he will not hold their sins against them anymore. In the court of heaven his people are cleared of their guilt. (2) God promises to put his laws upon his people’s hearts and to write his laws upon their minds. In the new covenant God changes the hearts of his people in such a way that his laws, once rejected and hated, are laid upon the hearts of his people so that they desire and delight to obey them. What God delights in, they now delight in. What grieves God, now brings them grief also. Furthermore, God’s law is not only written on their hearts in such a way that they desire to keep it, but God enables them by his power to keep it more and more during this earthly life, and perfectly upon their entrance into heaven.
Thus, in the new covenant God as the Judge and Justifier of his people blots out their bad record. As Physician of the soul he changes and cures their sin-sick hearts. This is the good news: by God’s grace full provision has been made for the clearing of the records and the changing of the hearts of any and all who come unto God through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the only solution to your greatest problem.
Solving the Problem
Now, what does all this mean for you? Note first that it does not mean that you should resolve to change your life so that your record will not get worse. No! That is not the gospel message. Even if you could straighten out your life and never get another blot on your record in heaven, like a mountain towering over you, your bad record would still cast its ominous shadow over you because of your past years of sin. Not adding more sin to the mountain of sin which you have already piled up would not keep you from sinking into hell. “Straighten up and live right” is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Moreover, the gospel message is not, “Decide you are going to live for Jesus and begin to follow him.” With a bad heart you will never want to or be able to. That is the problem. Your bad heart is set on pleasing yourself and not Jesus. You cannot follow Jesus like you are. You must be converted. You must be changed within. You must have a new heart!
Furthermore, the message of the gospel is not, “Just believe some facts about Jesus (that Jesus died on the cross for sinners, etc.) and then say a prayer and believe that all is well.” No! That is not the summons of the gospel either.
The gospel message is, “Come to Jesus.” He is the mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 12:2-4). It is in coming to him that the blessings of the new covenant are received. Call upon Christ to save you. Acknowledge that you have rebelled against him, that you have broken God’s law countless times, and that you are as bad as the Scripture says you are, a hell-deserving sinner. Cast yourself upon Jesus Christ and his mercy. Plead the benefits of the new covenant promised to all that call upon him in truth. Ask him to clear your record and change your heart.
Christ said, “Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). If you are laboring under the load of your bad record and laden with the hopelessness of your bad heart, go to Christ to solve your problem and give you rest. Christ alone can apply the benefits of the new covenant. He is its mediator. The gospel message is not, “Come to an altar.” It is not, “Come to an inquiry room.” It is not, “Come to a minister.” These are physical acts. The gospel message is, “Come to Christ alone through faith.” This is a spiritual act. Call upon Christ to forgive your sins and grant you a new heart.
It is important to remember that when God saves a sinner, God confers both of the primary blessings of the new covenant. Beware of thinking that your record has been blotted out, if you do not delight in God’s law and endeavor to keep it. This cannot be! God never confers one blessing without the other. He never blots out a sinner’s bad record without also changing the sinner’s heart. It is a soul-damning heresy to believe that you are saved from a bad record and are going to heaven, while you continue to live with an unchanged heart and in disobedience to and disregard for God’s will in your life. If God has not given you a hatred for sin (all sin, not just some sins) and a determination to forsake all your sin, you are deceived and still have a bad heart. Call upon the Lord to forgive your foolish presumption and to change your heart.
Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, is the only solution to your greatest problem. Has God dealt with this problem in your life? Has God assured you that your sins are blotted out and that your bad record has been cleared by the substitutionary atoning sacrifice of Christ? Does your life demonstrate that God has given you a new heart? If not, seek Christ today. Cry unto Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. Plead for his mercy. No one ever perished for lack of mercy at the feet of Jesus. There is mercy there as broad as your sin, but remember it is only at his feet and nowhere else.