THE MATTER OF THE HEART.
First, we’ll state the
obvious: this booklet is not about the heart as a vital organ, a
muscle that pumps blood throughout the body. Neither is this booklet
concerned with romantic, philosophical, or literary definitions.
Instead, we’ll
focus on what the Bible has to say about the heart.
The Bible
mentions the heart almost 1,000 times.
In essence,
this is what the Bible says:
The
Heart Is That Spiritual Part Of Us Where Our Emotions And Desires
Dwell.
Before we look at the human
heart, we’ll mention that, since God has emotions and desires, He,
too, can be said to have a “heart.” We have a heart because God
does.
David was a man who
possessed a Godly Heart:
And
when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom
He
testified and said, 'I have found in David the son of Jesse a
man after My
Heart,
who
will do all My
Will.'
(Acts
13:22
ESV).
And God blesses His people with leaders who know and follow His heart
(And
I will raise up for Myself
a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in My
Heart
and in My
Mind.
And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before
My
Anointed
forever.
(1
Samuel 2:35
ESV);
"'And
I will give you shepherds after
My
Own
Heart,
who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
(Jeremiah
3:15
ESV).
THE
HUMAN HEART.
The human heart, in its
natural condition, is evil, treacherous and deceitful.
The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can
understand it? (Jeremiah
17:9
ESV)
In other words, the Fall
has affected us at the deepest level;
Our
mind, emotions and desires have been tainted by sin
—and we
are blind to just how pervasive the problem is.
We may not understand our
own hearts, but God does. He “knows the secrets of the heart” no
matter what bad deeds or regretful actions we try to hide; would
not God discover this? For
He
knows the secrets of the heart.
(Psalms
44:21
ESV)
But
Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew
all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he
himself knew what was in man.
(John
2:24-25
ESV).
Based on His knowledge of the heart, God can judge righteously: "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."
(Jeremiah
17:10
ESV)
Jesus pointed out the
fallen condition of our hearts “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."
(Mark
7:21-23
ESV)
Our biggest problem is not
external but internal; all of us have a heart problem.
In order for a person to be
saved, then, the heart must be changed. This only happens by the
power of God in response to faith. For
with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one
confesses and is saved.
(Romans
10:10
ESV).
In His grace, God can
create a new heart within us (Psalm
51:10;
Ezekiel
36:26).
He
promises to:
to
revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive
the heart of the contrite.
(Isaiah
57:15
ESV).
TESTING
OUR HEARTS.
God’s work of creating a
new heart within us involves testing our hea rts;
(Psalm
17:3;
Deuteronomy
8:2) and
filling our hearts with new ideas, new wisdom, and new desires
(Nehemiah
7:5; 1
Kings 10:24;
2
Corinthians 8:16).
The
Heart Is The Core Of Our Being!
The Bible sets high
importance on keeping our hearts pure: Keep
your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
(Proverbs 4:23 ESV)
The Bible speaks often of
the heart.
The word heart can mean different things depending
upon the context.
Most often, the heart refers to the soul of a
human being that controls the will and emotions. The heart is the
“inner man” (2 Corinthians 4:16).
The prophet Ezekiel makes several references to a “new heart”
(Ezekiel 18:31; Ezekiel 36:26).
An oft-quoted verse is
Ezekiel
11:19 where
God says;
And
I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them.
I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a
heart of flesh
(Ezekiel
11:19
ESV)
So what does this mean?
In Ezekiel
11, God is
addressing His people, the Israelites, promising to one day restore
them to the land and to a right relationship with Himself. God
promises to gather the Hebrews from the nations where they had been
scattered (Ezekiel
11:17) and
give them a new, undivided heart (See
above). The result of
their receiving a new heart will be obedience to God’s commands:
that
they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And
they shall be my people, and I will be their God. (Ezekiel
11:20
ESV)
Someone
Whom God Has Given A New Heart Behaves Differently.
The human heart was created
to mirror God’s own heart
(So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. (Genesis
1:27
ESV)).
We were designed to love
Him, love righteousness, and walk in harmony with God and others He
has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of
you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with
your God?
(Micah
6:8
ESV).
FREE
WILL.
But part of God’s design
of the human heart is free will.
That free will carries with it
the opportunity to abuse it, as did Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden (He
said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the
tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
(Genesis
3:11
ESV)).
God desires that we choose to love and serve Him. When we stubbornly
refuse to follow God, our hearts, which were designed to communicate
with God, are hardened.
God compares rebellious
hearts to stone (Zechariah
7:12). A
heart of stone finds it impossible to repent, to love God, or to
please Him (Romans
8:8). The
hearts of sinful humanity are so hardened that we cannot even seek
God on our own (Romans
3:11), and
that’s why Jesus said no one can come to Him unless the Father
first draws him (John
6:44). We
desperately need new hearts, for we are unable on our own to soften
our hard hearts.
A change of heart toward
God requires a supernatural transformation.
Jesus called it being “born
again” Jesus
answered him, "Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless
one is born again
he cannot see the kingdom of God."
(John
3:3
ESV).
When we are born again, God
performs a heart transplant, as it were.
He gives us a new heart.
The power of the Holy Spirit changes our hearts from sin-focused to
God-focused. We do not become perfect (1
John 1:8); we still have our sinful flesh and the freedom
to choose whether or not to obey it. However, when Jesus died for us
on the cross, He broke the power of sin that controls us (Romans
6:10).
Receiving Him as our
Saviour gives us access to God and His power—a power to transform
our hearts from sin-hardened to Christ-softened. When we were
separated from God with hardened hearts, we found it impossible to
please Him. We tended toward selfishness, rebellion, and sin. With
new hearts we are declared righteous before God (2
Corinthians 5:21).
The Holy Spirit gives us a
desire to please God that was foreign to us in our hardened state. 2
Corinthians 3:18 says that we “are
being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which
comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” God’s desire
for every human being is that we become like His Son, Jesus (Romans
8:29). We can become like Jesus only when we allow God to
rid us of our old, hardened hearts and give us new hearts.
GOD
KNOWS YOUR HEART.
When Jesus said, “God
knows your heart” in Luke
16:15;
He was speaking to the Pharisees—men who
lived double lives.
Outwardly, they sought public approval.
They made a point of following all the religious rules and
worked hard to impress people so that they would appear to be godly
and wise.
But God knew their hearts.
He saw through their
phony, pious displays to what was on the inside.
In Luke
these Pharisees are
called: “lovers
of money”
(Luke
16:14), and
Jesus said to them, And
he said to them,
"You
are those who justify yourselves before men, but God
knows your hearts.
For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
(Luke
16:15
ESV).
Jesus had just finished
teaching about wealth and possessions (Luke
16:1–13).
Through a parable, He showed that genuine kingdom followers obey God
and His Word rather than pay homage to those things the world values
like money and status. He closed with this piercing caution to people
who attempt to live dual lives: No
servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and
love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and money."
(Luke
16:13
ESV)
God knew that, in the heart
of the Pharisees, they served money. They were only generous with
their money on public occasions when others could see them giving.
Despite their strict religious fervour, they cultivated godless
values just like the unbelieving worldly crowd. They even claimed
that their wealth was God’s reward for their righteous living (Luke
18:9–11).
But Jesus harshly criticized their outward displays of piety: "Beware
of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be
seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who
is in heaven.
"Thus,
when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be
praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their
reward.
But
when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your
right hand is doing,
so
that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret
will reward you.
(Matthew
6:1-4
ESV) (see
also Matthew
23:5).
APPEARANCES
ARE DECEIVING
God called out these
religious leaders for their greed, self-indulgence, and hypocrisy:
"Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside
of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and
self-indulgence.
You
blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that
the outside also may be clean.
"Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are
full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
(Matthew
23:25-27
ESV)
The Pharisees proved that
appearances can be deceiving. Their actions were inconsistent
with who they really were in their hearts. In the Bible, “the
heart” refers to a person’s inner moral and spiritual life.
Jesus’ challenge to these
hypocritical leaders is the same for His followers today. We must be
careful not to simply honour the Lord with our lips while we live
like the world because our hearts are far from Him ("'This
people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
(Matthew
15:8
ESV);
And
the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and
their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
(Isaiah
29:13
ESV)).
We need to focus on
cleaning up the inside of our spiritual houses, dealing with our
sinful attitudes and misguided motives. If the inner person is
righteous, The
good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and
the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of
the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
(Luke
6:45
ESV)
The inner treasure of
righteousness will flow out to produce external holiness as well. Our
moral and spiritual character will automatically be revealed on the
outside.
God knows your heart is a
concept seen throughout the Bible. The prophet Jeremiah declared that
the Lord:
O
LORD of hosts, who
tests the righteous,
who
sees the heart and the mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my
cause. (Jeremiah
20:12
ESV).
Every
way of a man is right in his own eyes, but
the LORD weighs the heart.
(Proverbs
21:2
ESV).
When it came time for Samuel to anoint a new king, God looked past
outward appearances to the heart to make His choice: But
the LORD said to Samuel, "Do
not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I
have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on
the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."
(1
Samuel 16:7
ESV)
A
HEART OF STONE.
The case of the Hardened
Heart.
Jesus answers this question for us: For
out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual
immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
(Matthew
15:19
ESV)
And then: And
he said,
"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."
(Mark
7:20-23
ESV)
In these passages, Jesus
reveals the very springboard of our wants: our fleshly desires come
from our innermost being. Sin does not just come about as a result of
outside forces. It is borne from those hidden little niches residing
in our thoughts and intentions, from the secret desires that only the
mind and heart can envision.
The bottom line is that, in
our fallen state, the desires of our hearts do not come from God.
Jeremiah further confirms the nature of man’s heart: The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can
understand it? (Jeremiah
17:9
ESV)
A
long held false view
held by many
non believers is
that: “All
humans are basically good and decent and that it is the circumstances
of life such as poverty or poor nurturing that turn us into murderers
and thieves.” But
the Bible teaches that all men suffer from a common frailty—sin.
The apostle Paul calls it our sin nature.
For
I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I
have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it
out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is
what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer
I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
(Romans
7:18-20
ESV)
Our
Evil Hearts Lead Us To Sin.
Furthermore, the heart is
so corrupt and deceitful that our motives are unclear even to
ourselves.
As sinful creatures we devise and create evil
things in the arrogance and self-sufficiency of our hearts (Proverbs
16:30; Psalm 35:20;
Micah 2:1; Romans
1:30).
The truth is that only God
can examine our deepest motives and inward desires and only by His
power can we ever hope to untangle the uncertainty and depravity that
is bound up within our hearts.
He alone searches all and
knows us intimately (Hebrews 4:11-13).
GOD
PROVIDES GRACE AND STRENGTH.
Fortunately, God does not
abandon us in our struggles.
He won’t leave us with hurtful
desires and sinful tendencies.
Instead, He provides us the
grace and strength, we need to resist and overcome sin when it
crouches at the door of our hearts.
The psalmist says, Delight
yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. He will
bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the
noonday.
(Psalms
37:4-6
ESV)
Here we see that God can
literally plant His own desires into the heart of man, the heart
that, without Him, is desperately wicked and deceitful. He replaces
the evil with good and sets our hearts on the path toward Him,
removing our own desires and replacing them with His. This only
happens when we come to Him in repentance and accept the gift of
salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. At that point, He removes
our hearts of stone and replaces them with hearts of flesh.
And
I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them.
I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a
heart of flesh,
(Ezekiel
11:19
ESV)
He accomplishes this by the
supernatural implanting of His Holy Spirit into our hearts. Then our
desires become His desires, our wills seek to do His will, and our
rebellion turns to joyous obedience.
A
HEART OF FLESH.
The
Heart Of Flesh Agonizes Over Sin, While The Heart Of Stone Is
Oblivious.
An example of this
is:
‘People with a heart of stone drive, by just
cutting in and out of other cars while driving, which in turn causes
unnecessary anxiety, and physical effort on behalf of their victims,
who have to apply brakes or make unnecessary gear changes.’
‘The fleshly hearted
people drive responsibly, taking into consideration the
other drivers needs, as well as their own. They agonize with the
drivers who have hearts of stone, because these curtsies are seldom
reciprocated. They see the 'god-awful' ways people behave on the
road, making selfish decisions, etc. and 'sigh and cry' over it.’
It all boils down to
freedom of choice, sin would never have been possible to begin with
if God had not allowed that very freedom;
The freedom of choice,
being able to choose between right and wrong, good or evil.
Justice
and Righteousness is a choice we have to make
The more we opt for love,
that is to love Jesus, the more just or righteous we become. The more
compassionate we will be towards those around, and our hearts of
stone will melt and become hearts of flesh. This is God’s goal for
us. He wants so much more for us, yet it is up to us.
WE
HAVE THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE;
THE FREEDOM TO RESPOND TO HIS WORD,
AND WILL.
Freedom is the power,
rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that,
and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By
free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for
growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection
when directed toward God, our happiness.
A
HEART OF GOD.
A Heart created by Jesus
through the work of the Holy Spirit.
The prophet Joel
bids us to:
rend
your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
(Joel
2:13
ESV)
David implores
God to:
Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
(Psalms
51:10
ESV)
Jesus
teaches,
"Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
(Matthew
5:8
ESV)
The heart refers to the
central part of a person. The heart is the nature of a person, and to
know the heart of someone is to know that person’s innermost
character, feelings, or inclinations (see Proverbs
4:23 and Proverbs 16:1).
The heart of God is the essence of Who He is,
What He desires, His
will,
and His purposes. By reading the Bible,
knowing Jesus, and spending time in prayer, a person can know the
heart of God.
The Word of God reveals the
heart of God. To know the heart of God, a person must read His Word,
for that is God’s revelation of Himself and His message to all.
People read autobiographies about celebrities to get an idea of who
they “really are.” Historians read journals and letters from
people in history to understand what their life was like and what
influenced and motivated them. In a more profound way, the Lord has
given us His Word so that we can know Him. By reading the Bible, a
person can know the heart of God because Scripture was divinely
breathed out by Him
(2 Timothy 3:16).
From Genesis to Revelation, the entire Bible speaks of God and
reveals who He is and what He is like. Reading the Bible merely to
gain facts about God will not bring a person any closer to the heart
of God (John 5:39). Instead,
reading Scripture should cause a person to worship and love Him.
Studying Jesus reveals the
heart of God. Anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the Father (John
14:9). No one can truly know the heart of God without knowing and
trusting in Jesus for salvation. Jesus Christ revealed the Father,
for “He is the image of the invisible God”
(Colossians 1:15, ESV).
JESUS
HEART IS THE FATHER’S HEART.
Since Jesus and the Father
are one, Christ visually represents the heart of God, the essence of
who He is (John 10:30). Jesus
dying for the sins of the world and being resurrected to bring life
to those who believe in Him vividly presents the love, judgement, and
mercy of God (John 3:16). In
Christ we see God as the Saviour of mankind who desires all to come
to know Him and experience the salvation He offers (2
Peter 3:19).
Prayer reveals the heart of
God. Spending time with the Lord in prayer assists in knowing His
heart. Just as a child must spend time with his father to know him
personally, so we also must spend time with God in prayer to know Him
more deeply. The first part of James
4:8 says,
Draw
near to God, and He
will draw near to you.
Spending time alone with
God in prayer will encourage a deeper relationship and create a
greater intimacy between us and God, in which our desires will become
more aligned with His.
Seeking to know the heart
of God is a serious endeavour, as knowing Him will change a person’s
entire life. The more a person learns and knows about the Lord, the
more he or she will long for Him and declare with the psalmist,
As
a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
(Psalms
42:1
ESV)
DECEITFULLY WICKED HEARTS.
Is the Christian’s heart
deceitfully wicked?
You’ve heard that
“deceitfully wicked” phrase from the Old Testament, but is such
an indictment applicable to the regenerated Christian heart? The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can
understand it? (Jeremiah
17:9
ESV)
Let us walk quickly through
the flow of thought from Jeremiah 17:1–9. looking at the whole
council of God, after which everybody should be able to see how verse
9 is functioning.
Blessing
and a Curse
Jeremiah begins with an
indictment of Judah and a warning of destruction. It says, "The
sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond
it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of
their altars, while their children remember their altars and their
Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, (Jeremiah
17:1-2
ESV).
Those are other gods. Idolatry is the issue here. on
the mountains in the open country. Your
wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of
your high places for sin throughout all your territory.
(Jeremiah
17:3
ESV).
So, He’s
going to bring judgement on them for the sin of their heart and the
idolatry of their worship.
And then He
says what’s beneath that. Thus
says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes
flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like
a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall
dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt
land.
(Jeremiah
17:5-6
ESV)
That’s
The Root Problem Of The Idolatry And The Sin.
The Root Problem
Is That They Are Trusting In Man, Not In God.
And then he describes what
alternatively ought to be: the opposite of this and the benefits that
would come if it were the case. “Blessed
is the man”
— not cursed as is
the man who trusts in 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."
(Jeremiah
17:7-8
ESV)
EVERY
HEART AN IDOL FACTORY.
Now, that leaves us with
this question: If trusting in self results in such misery
(no
good shall come) and trusting in God results in such fruitfulness
(you’re going to prosper), why in the world is a whole nation
acting so suicidally in self-trust and sin and idolatry? And the
answer is verse 9: “The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
So, the human heart is diseased with sin and in the sway of deceit.
And that’s why people act suicidally in preferring self-trust over
God-trust.
So, the overall point of
the passage seems to be that the root of sin and idolatry is a
failure to trust in God rather than self. And the root of that
failure is a deceitful and depraved heart. So, I think Jeremiah —
indeed, I think all the biblical writers — would say that’s the
root problem ever since the fall of man into sin and corruption. All
human beings — no exceptions — are born with this kind of fallen,
diseased, deceived, self-exalting, God-opposing heart.
What Happens In The
New Birth?
So, the question is this:
When a person experiences the new birth — becomes a Christian —
what happens to that diseased, deceived, self-exalting, God-opposing
heart? Here are some verses that describe what happens:
Ezekiel
36:26 describes the new covenant like this: “I
will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a
heart of flesh.”
Romans
6:17: “Thanks be to God, that
you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart
to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.”
Acts
15:9: God “made no distinction
between [Jew] and [Gentile], having cleansed their hearts by faith.”
John
7:38 may be
the most amazing of all: Jesus says, Whoever
believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will
flow rivers of living water.'"
Oh,
amazing. Oh, I want to be like that, right? I just want to have a
kind of new heart that doesn’t just enjoy water — it flows to
other people. John
7:39: “Now
this He
said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him
were to receive.”
The
aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good
conscience and a sincere faith.
(1
Timothy 1:5
ESV)
Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed
away; behold, the new has come. (2
Corinthians 5:17
ESV)
DIVINE
DNA INFUSED.
So, in conclusion we could
say that Jeremiah 17:9 (the
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick)
is true of the human heart — all of them.
But where God is applying
the blood-bought purchase of the new covenant, there is a new
creation. Sins are forgiven. Holy Spirit is poured in. New nature is
brought into being. That newness consists in the presence of the
heart-influencing Holy Spirit and in the new nature. You might call
it the divine-like DNA that is more and more being conformed to
Christ.
A good verse to end on
would be 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being” —
this old, horrible, self-exalting, God-opposing heart of mine is
being — “transformed into the same image
from one degree of glory to another.”
A
HARDENED HEART.
To better understand the
causes and solutions for a hardened heart, it’s important to
understand the broad biblical meaning of the word “heart.” The
Bible considers the heart to be the hub of human personality,
producing the things we would ordinarily ascribe to the “mind.”
For example, Scripture
informs us that grief (John 14:1);
desires (Matthew 5:28); joy
(Ephesians 5:19); understanding
(Isaiah 6:10; Matthew
13:15); thoughts and reasoning (Genesis
6:5; Hebrews 4:12;
Mark 2:8); and, most importantly,
faith and belief (Hebrews 3:12;
Romans 10:10; Mark
11:23) are all products of the heart. Also, Jesus tells us
that the heart is a repository for good and evil and that what comes
out of our mouth – good or bad – begins in the heart (Luke
6:43–45).
Considering this, it’s
easy to see how a hardened heart can dull a person’s ability to
perceive and understand. Anyone’s heart can harden, even faithful
Christians’.
In fact, in Mark
8:17–19 we see Jesus’ own disciples suffering from
this malady.
The disciples were concerned with their meagre
bread supply, and it was clear that each of them had forgotten how
Jesus had just fed thousands with only a few loaves.
Questioning them as to the
hardness of their hearts, Christ spells out for us the
characteristics of this spiritual heart condition as an inability to
see, understand, hear, and remember. Regarding this last criterion,
too often we forget how God has blessed us and what He has done for
us. Similar to the disciples in this instance or the Israelites
wandering in the wilderness, when a new calamity arises in our lives,
our hearts often fill with fear and concern. Sadly, this simply
reveals to God the little faith we have in His promise to take care
of us;
(Matthew 6:32–33;
Philippians 4:19).
HE
WILL NEVER LEAVE NEITHER FORSAKE US.
We need to remember not
only the many times God has graciously provided for us in our time of
need, but also what He has told us: “Never will I leave you; never
will I forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6;
Hebrews 13:5).
Sin causes hearts to grow
hard, especially continual and unrepentant sin.
Now we know
that “if we confess our sins, [Jesus] is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins” (1
John 1:9). However, if we don’t confess our sins, they
have a cumulative and desensitizing effect on the conscience, making
it difficult to even distinguish right from wrong. And this sinful
and hardened heart is tantamount to the “seared
conscience” Paul speaks of in 1Timothy
4:1–2. Scripture makes it clear that if we relentlessly
continue to engage in sin, there will come a time when God will give
us over to our “debased mind” and let us have it our way. The
apostle Paul writes about God’s wrath of abandonment in his letter
to the Romans where we see that godless and wicked “men
who suppress the truth” are eventually given over to the
sinful desires of their hardened hearts (Romans
1:18–24).
Pride
Will Also Cause Our Hearts To Harden.
The “pride
of your heart has deceived you . . . you who say to yourself, ‘who
can bring me down to the ground’ . . . I will bring you down
declares the LORD”
(Obadiah
3). Also,
the root of Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness was his pride and arrogance.
Even in the face of tremendous proofs and witnessing God’s powerful
hand at work, Pharaoh’s hardened heart caused him to deny the
sovereignty of the one, true God. And when King Nebuchadnezzar’s
“heart
became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his
royal throne and stripped of his glory . . . until he acknowledged
that the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets
over them anyone He wishes”
(Daniel
5:20–21).
Accordingly, when we’re inclined to do it our way, thinking we can
“go it on our own,” it would be wise to recall what King Solomon
taught us in Proverbs
14:12 and
Proverbs
16:25:
“There
is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to
death.”
ANTIDOTE
FOR PRIDE.
So, what then is the
antidote for a heart condition such as this?
First and
foremost, we have to recognize the effect that this spiritual disease
has on us. And God will help us to see our heart’s condition when
we ask Him: “Search me O God, and know my
heart…see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting” (Psalm
139:23–24). God can heal any heart once we recognize our
disobedience and repent of our sins. But true repentance is more than
simply a resolute feeling of steadfast determination.
REPENTANCE
MANIFESTS ITSELF IN A CHANGED LIFE.
After repenting of our
sins, hard hearts begin to be cured when we study God’s Word. “How
can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart. . . . I have hidden your word in my
heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm
119:9–11). The Bible is our manual for living as it
is:
“God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness”
(2 Timothy 3:16). If we are to
live life to the fullest as God intended, we need to study and obey
God’s written Word, which not only keeps a heart soft and pure but
allows us to be “blessed” in
whatever we do (Joshua 1:8; James
1:25).
Hearts can also become
hardened when we suffer setbacks and disappointments in life. No one
is immune to trials here on earth. Yet, just as steel is forged by a
blacksmith’s hammer, so, too, can our faith be strengthened by the
trials we encounter in the valleys of life. As Paul encouraged the
Romans: “But we also rejoice in our
sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not
disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by
the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us” (Romans
5:3–5).
HEART
AND MIND LINKED.
The phrase “reprobate
mind” is found in Romans 1:28
in reference to those whom God has rejected as godless and wicked.
They “suppress the truth by their
wickedness,” and it is upon these people that the wrath
of God rests (Romans 1:18). The
Greek word translated “reprobate” in the New Testament is
adokimos,
which means literally “unapproved, that
is, rejected; by implication, worthless (literally or morally).”
Paul describes two men
named Jannes and Jambres as those who “resist
the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith"
(2 Timothy 3:8). Here the
reprobation is regarding the resistance to the truth because of
corrupt minds. In Titus, Paul also refers to those whose works are
reprobate: “They profess that they know
God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient,
and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus
1:16). Therefore, the reprobate mind is one that is
corrupt and worthless.
As we can see in the verses
above, people who are classified as having a reprobate mind have some
knowledge of God and perhaps know of His commandments. However, they
live impure lives and have very little desire to please God. Those
who have reprobate minds live corrupt and selfish lives. Sin is
justified and acceptable to them. The reprobates are those whom God
has rejected and has left to their own devices.
Can
A Christian Have A Reprobate Mind?
Someone who has sincerely
accepted Jesus Christ by faith will not have this mindset because the
old person with a reprobate mind has been recreated into a new
creation: “The old has passed away;
behold, the new has come” (2
Corinthians 5:17). Christians are basically “new”
people. We live differently and speak differently.
Our world is
centred on our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and how we can serve
Him. Also, if we are truly in the faith, we will have the Holy Spirit
to help us live a God-honoring life (John
14:26). Those with reprobate minds do not have the Spirit
and live only for themselves.
CIRCUMCISED
HEART.
The idea of “circumcision
of the heart” is found in Romans 2:29.
It refers to having a pure
heart, separated unto God. Paul writes, “A
Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by
the Spirit, not by the letter.” These words conclude a
sometimes confusing passage of Scripture regarding circumcision and
the Christian. Verses 25-29
provide context:
“For
circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break
the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who
is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his
uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically
uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written
code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is
merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a
Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by
the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from
God.”
Paul is discussing the role
of the Old Testament Law as it relates to Christianity. He argues
that Jewish circumcision is only an outward sign of being set apart
to God. However, if the heart is sinful, then physical circumcision
is of no avail. A circumcised body and a sinful heart are at odds
with each other. Rather than focus on external rites, Paul focuses on
the condition of the heart. Using circumcision as a metaphor, he says
that only the Holy Spirit can purify a heart and set us apart to God.
Ultimately, circumcision cannot make a person right with God; the Law
is not enough. A person’s heart must change. Paul calls this change
“circumcision
of the heart.”
This concept was not
original with the apostle Paul. As a Jew trained in the Law of Moses,
he was certainly aware of this discussion from Deuteronomy
30. There, the Lord used the same metaphor to communicate
His desire for a holy people: “And the
LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your
offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul, that you may live”
(Deuteronomy 30:6). Physical
circumcision was a sign of Israel’s covenant with God; circumcision
of the heart, therefore, would indicate Israel’s being set apart to
love God fully, inside and out.
TRUE
CHILDREN OF GOD, REPRESS PRIDE.
John the Baptist warned the
Pharisees against taking pride in their physical heritage and
boasting in their circumcision: “Do not
think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I
tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for
Abraham” (Matthew 3:9).
True
“children of Abraham” are those who follow Abraham’s
example of believing God (Genesis 15:6).
Physical circumcision does not make one a child of God; faith does.
Believers in Jesus Christ can truly say they are children of “Father
Abraham.” “If you
belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according
to the promise” (Galatians
3:29).
God has always wanted more
from His people than just external conformity to a set of rules. He
has always wanted them to possess a heart to love, know, and follow
Him. That’s why God is not concerned with a circumcision of the
flesh. Even in the Old Testament, God’s priority was a spiritual
circumcision of the heart: “Circumcise
yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and
people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire
because of the evil you have done” (Jeremiah
4:4).
Both Testaments focus on
the need for repentance and inward change in order to be right with
God. In Jesus, the Law has been fulfilled (Matthew
5:17).
Through Him, a person can
be made right with God and receive eternal life
(John
3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9).
As Paul said:
True
Circumcision Is A Matter Of The Heart, Performed By The Spirit Of
God.
A HEART OF STONE KILLS.
By now, the mind-body connection is a familiar idea. Most
people are aware, for example, that stress can produce physical
symptoms like an upset stomach, or that depression often physically
hurts. But a growing body of research suggests that negative emotions
and thoughts may also have links to other serious health problems,
like heart disease.
ANGER, FEAR, AND FRUSTRATION
“Many negative emotions such as anger, fear, and frustration
become problematic when those emotions turn into a more permanent
disposition or a habitual outlook on the world,” explains Emiliana
Simon-Thomas, PhD, science director of the Greater Good Science
Center at UC Berkeley.
CYNICISM
Take cynicism, for example: A 2014 study published in the journal
Neurology linked high levels of cynicism later in life, i.e. a
general distrust of people (and their motives), to a greater risk of
dementia compared to those who were more trusting, even after
accounting for other risk factors like age, sex, certain heart health
markers, smoking status, and more.
HOSTILITY
Another bad attitude that's been linked to poor health outcomes:
hostility. According to a 2014 study published in the journal Stroke,
people who scored higher on measures of unfriendliness, as well as
those with chronic stress and depressive symptoms, had a higher risk
of stroke than the friendlier, kinder participants.
DEPRESSION
Finally, there's depression, which is a serious diagnosis that can
have repercussions far beyond feeling sad or losing your appetite.
It's been connected with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, heart
attack, and a greater chance of disability later in life. (This is
another reason why it's so important to seek help for depression.)
Our thoughts and emotions have widespread effects on bodily
processes like metabolism, hormone release, and immune function,
Simon-Thomas says. One theory is that when you're stressed or
depressed, cortisol levels increase, making your immune system less
able to control inflammation, which could lead to disease over time.
POORLY-MANAGED
NEGATIVE EMOTIONS ARE NOT GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH
Negative attitudes and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness
can create chronic stress, which upsets the body's hormone balance,
depletes the brain chemicals required for happiness, and damages the
immune system. Chronic stress can actually decrease our lifespan.
(Science has now identified that stress shortens our telomeres, the
“end caps” of our DNA strands, which causes us to age more
quickly.)
Poorly managed or repressed anger (hostility) is also related to a
slew of health conditions, such as hypertension (high blood
pressure), cardiovascular disease, digestive disorders, and
infection.
