A self-loving corrupted Heart that bears the fruits of sin is the Source of Sin.
The heart is the human’s unseen inner source and wholeness. That’s why people have continuously studied the heart to understand humans. This is because a person’s actions are determined by their heart. People try to change a person’s heart through education, counseling, training, and many other methods. Psychology and psychoanalysis, studies of the human mind, have in a way some truth and shows many reasonable aspects. But one thing for sure is that, just because it is reasonable, it does not mean it is the Truth.
The world believes that humans have the ability and possibility to change, so it does not stop trying various things. Through endless self-development, education, training, and change of environment, people believe that they could become a better being. As a result, it’s true that people who work in this manner might show partial and temporary improvements. But God’s diagnosis on a person’s heart is that it is dead and completely corrupted due to sin, and it is impossible to improve. This is the current state of the human’s heart, justified by the Bible.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
Corrupted heart, where Self is king.
The corrupted heart has become impossible to recover or improve! Our being died due to sin! After being depraved by sin, “self” became the center of a human’s corrupted heart. The Bible says the following about the “self” that has taken God’s place.
Self-Boasting “Me”
“And the king answered and said, ‘Is not this great Babylon, which I have built my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?’ ” (Daniel 4:30)
Self-Content “Me”
“For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched pitiable, poor, blind and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)
Hypocritical “Me”
“The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” (Luke 18:11)
Self-Righteous, Unsubmissive “Me”
“For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” (Romans 10:3)
World-Loving “Me”
“For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life- is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16)
God-Hating “Me”
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:21,28)
The results of the corrupted heart
Humans are born with a hypocritical and corrupted heart that naturally pursues Self. And in the process of pursuing the self, it defends itself from the its own conscience by making excuses for its own actions. The corrupted heart pursues the self endlessly, and its self-love goes against God’s will, thus naturally doing the things that God hates.
The reasons behind the results of the corrupted heart
The world ignores and is unaware of God’s Kingdom because God’s Kingdom cannot be seen. The world denies that God is the Creator by teaching that humans have hope within themselves. The world believes that humans can become better if they keep developing themselves. That is why psychology, education, philosophy, and studies based on humanist philosophies is tempting, very favorable and has persuasive power.
But the gospel of the Cross considers the world’s scholarship as elementary and warns to not to be deceived by philosophy and false teachings (Colossians 2:8). The self-discipline that controls one’s own heart to pursue an ethical and moral life is itself a deception of Satan. Satan is continually deceiving humans to go further away from God and follow the traditions of the world. In other words, behind a person’s effort to become better, there is the control and rule of Satan. Jesus Christ has crushed this power of Satan through the Cross.
“By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them.” (Colossians 2:14-15)
》Prayer Topic
Ask yourself: Are you free from pursuing the glory of “self”? Let us pray that we might leave the world’s teaching to “love yourself” but to follow the Holy Spirit’s teaching to “deny yourself.”
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
》Scripture Prayer
(Ephesians 2:3) “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
(Galatians 5:19-21) “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
(Romans 1:28-32) “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
(Matthew 5:28) “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
》Pray that the Word may become the Conclusion.
1. Satan prevents people from seriously contemplating God’s diagnosis that humans are existentially corrupt. Instead, he deceives by suggesting that outwardly evident wrong attitudes and behaviors can be corrected through effort. Satan teaches that by doing our best, we can approach God. However, God declares humans to be beings without any hope, dead in transgressions and sins. Let’s pray that everyone realizes not only the actions we do, but that the thoughts of our hearts are corrupted, and our whole existence is in desperate condition. Let’s pray for the Holy Spirit to illuminate every corner of each person’s being.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
2. A mind that has become entirely corrupt cannot uphold God’s Word. A corrupt heart doesn’t desire what the Word requires; in fact, it prefers that the Word fails. This is because the entirety of one’s being is corrupted, naturally inclined toward the sins that God hates. This is the reason why we cannot respond to the Gospel and the Word. Let us praise the victory of the Cross of Jesus Christ, who has made us free from the sin and the law of death.
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 7:21, 24, 8:2)
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