God has been gracious. His blessings astound me, and that’s only the ones I’m aware of. There is so much to be thankful for: everything from great family and friends to meaning in life. But the most gracious thing God has done was show me the ugly truth about myself. By this I mean He showed me what a sick, depraved sinner I am. And for this precious truth I will ever be grateful. Nothing has ever had such sweet rewards.
You may find it strange, even morbid, that I would relish such a truth. To appreciate why I’m so thankful you must have an understanding of what sin and being a sinner really are. Sin is not an act, and a sinner is not someone who has chalked up enough sinful acts to deserve the title. It’s much deeper than that. Let me illustrate. I enjoy a good laugh and the internet has proved a rich resource. My friends often send me funny pictures and video clips. While clicking on some links one day I found a site with some entertaining material. But this particular site also had an adult section with a small provocative picture to entice you to click on. I partially ignored it, but as I continued to enjoy the harmless stuff a lustful desire started to grow within me. I desperately wanted to go back and click on that picture and it wasn’t just ‘curiosity’ either (what a great copout that is).
The longing to indulge myself was pervasive and persuasive. But before I could act on what my heart desired, the truth hit me like a meteor. ‘Sin’ was not in the act of clicking on that picture and viewing the degrading material. Sin was in my heart. It was my desire, my longing for what I knew was wrong that was the problem. It is my desire to sin that makes me a sinner in God’s eyes. The fact I didn’t click on the picture is irrelevant. I’m not suggesting the action doesn’t matter, obviously it does, but a sinful action cannot occur without there first being a sinful desire.
The problem of sin is internal. My actions are but external symptoms, like a sneeze is to a head-cold. Sitting at the computer that day my sinful heart was poised to swoop. The images about to appear on my screen were the prey. Lust wasn’t coming from the website or the computer; it was coming from inside me. Jesus accurately describes the situation in Mark 7:20-23. ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’ If you think that list does not apply to your heart, your problem is worst of them all, pride.
When we see sin from God’s perspective, everyone, including the ‘good non-Christian’ and the dedicated Buddhist, is guilty. We have all fallen short where it matters most. We have all sinned in our hearts. Buddhists have got it right in identifying the problem as being desire (’craving’), but their Eightfold Path cannot fix it. They are in a similar situation to my father when he needed a life-saving heart-bypass operation. He knew what the problem was, but unlike the Buddhist, he also knew he couldn’t do the operation on himself. He needed a good heart surgeon. The truth is all human beings have sick hearts. We are all in desperate need of open-heart surgery.
It [the Good News] promised healing to those who knew they were sick. We have to convince our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis before we can expect them to welcome the news of the remedy. — C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock
The most gracious thing a loving God can do for people with a sick heart, especially those who think they’re ok, is tell them the truth before it destroys their life. A doctor who is not totally honest, who tells patients what they want to hear, snatches the cure from their hands. If my father’s doctor had responded by saying, ‘Yes, it’s your heart, but it’s not that bad,’ there would be no way he would be alive today. The good doctor told my father exactly how dire the situation was and it was this truth that caused him to embrace the cure and go through a major heart operation.
When Jesus exposed my depravity and showed me just how sick my heart was it caused me to go after and embrace the cure. People who don’t know they are sick will avoid the treatment they desperately need. For those who accept the diagnoses and the truth about themselves, Jesus Christ offers free open-heart surgery. But there is just one condition. The only place He will perform the operation is at the Cross. This world does not need more self-help groups or motivational speakers or positive thinking or self-esteem seminars. It needs the Cross of Jesus Christ. The heart is where the problem is and the Cross is our only hope. We need the Master Surgeon to do the work that only He can.
A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to Christianity. — C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Without understanding sin and the true condition of your heart you will look at the Cross and wonder, instead of looking at the Cross in wonder. This is the sweet reward of appreciating depravity, the Cross becomes truly wonderful. The more we see the ugliness of our sin the more beautiful the Cross of Christ becomes. The other benefit of accepting the truth about sin is it takes away our judgmental attitude. How can we look at others and think we are superior? Just because we don’t have as many symptoms doesn’t make us in any less need of the same heart surgery. All have sinned in their hearts and fallen short of God’s glory (see Romans 3:23).
‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me’ (Psalm 51:10). King David got it right. Only God can create the clean heart we desperately need. We need Jesus Christ, the Master Heart Surgeon. So let us run to the Cross, and cling to it. It is all we have and it is all we need.
(All Bible quotes from the ESV)