The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9).
Many people may lay claim to being morally upright they may even have good track records of not committing immoral acts. They may give alms and they may even attend church 7 times a week. But as long as they have not met Jesus and haven’t allowed Jesus to conduct a spiritual surgical procedure on their heart, they will continue in a state of depravity.
When the Bible says all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of the Lord (Romans 3:23-24) the Bible is tracing the issue of sin to its original context in the garden of Eden where Adam the first man fell to the wiles of Satan and contaminating every man born of a woman with sin regardless of their moral status. (Genesis 3:6).
This original sin left humanity in a situation of spiritual sickness and need of spiritual surgery. The situation is so bad that theologians have called it a state of total depravity, where man though having a sense of right and wrong in his conscience but so totally captured by sin that he is unable to do good. (Romans 7:19).
No man can understand the terrible nature of his heart until he takes a look at the scripture to see what God says about the condition of man’s heart and the only remedy made for sin, the man Jesus. Now, let’s take a moment to see what the Bible says about the sinful state of man.
The Bible teaches that everyone born of a woman into this world is born sinful and dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-5). Because of this spiritual state at birth, man is “dead in transgressions” and by nature enslaved to sin and lost to God (John 3:9). In fact, just as ants are naturally drawn to sugar he loves darkness and shuns the light (John 3:19).
For example, why would men want to sell the ideas of gay marriage and transgender and adorn it with a human right? Why would a civil servant in an underdeveloped country loot the resources that belong to millions only for himself and his family alone?
Why would men justify online fraud, calling it getting even with the developed world? Why do men naturally love to call out the sins of others but are blind to their sins? Why are men naturally separatist and delight in identity politics? Hitler, the German demagogue killed about 6 million Jews because of identity politics.
The simple answer is that men by nature are hostile towards the ways of God; naturally, he cannot please God on his own terms for he is unable to do so” (Romans 8:7).
The answer is that God has presented to man a surgeon, the man Jesus who came to help man overcome his depravity so that he can know that he is a sinner in need of spiritual heart surgery. It takes the Holy Spirit of God for man to recognize his need for spiritual heart surgery and respond to Doctor Jesus. (John 14: 26).
When the Holy Spirit gives a new life to a heart that is dead in sin he can see his sorry state and willingly give away his sin in exchange for the way of God found only in Jesus. When this happens “men are born again” not in a natural way but in a renewed spiritual sense (John 1:12-13).
Today is another opportunity to respond to Dr. Jesus. He is alive, he is ever willing to heal every heart that calls on him for healing.
Reading
Romans 7: 19-25
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