What the Bible says about Heart, Corruption of
(From Forerunner Commentary)
Human nature is so tricky that it can deceive even one who is converted into taking the grace of God for granted. Human nature has the tendency to pull a person further and further into sin. If God does not execute His wrath and justice immediately against such a person, and instead gives him grace, He allows that person an opportunity to continue to live longer so that grace can work in his life and lead him to repentance. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).
John W. Ritenbaugh
Justice and GraceRelated Topics: Carnal Mind | Carnal Nature | Carnal Reasoning | Carnally Minded | God's Grace | God's Justice | God's Patience | Grace | Grace, Cheap | Heart | Heart is Incurable | Heart, Corruption of | Heart, Deceitfulness of | Heart, Desperately Wicked | Human Nature | Human Nature, Perversity of | Justice | Repentance | Repentance, Motivation For | Repentance, Opportunity for
The tongue utters only what is already in the heart (Matthew 12:34). Acts of sin besides what the tongue commits proceed from the same evil heart (Matthew 15:17-20). Matthew 7:16-18 confirms the impossibility of changing an evil heart, as it can never produce good fruit. God must completely replace it with a wholly different nature for it to produce good fruit! Before being changed, it can produce only evil fruit.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Offerings of Leviticus (Part Seven): The Sin and Trespass Offerings
The heart changed. How man is like God does not have so much to do with form and shape as it does with qualities of mind. It is while we were in the world that the mind became corrupted because we just absorbed - we conformed to - the image of this world, the image of Satan the Devil in its many forms. Therefore, we have to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, to be created in the image of His Son.
Related Topics: Conformed to God's Image | Conformed to this World | Conforming to Christ's Image | Corruption | Corruption of the Human Heart | Heart, Change of | Heart, Corruption of | Heart, Deceitfulness of | Image and Likeness of God | Image of God | Image of Satan | Image of this World | Renewal of Mind | Renewing of Mind | Transformation | Transformed into His Likeness
The problem of sin is in man's thinking, which is why God says the problem is in the heart—in the mind. Humans are limited to thinking what is in their minds. If we have God's Word in our minds—along with the Holy Spirit—then there is a good chance that our minds will begin to change, to become circumcised, as it were—to be purified, to become holy as God is holy. God says, "My thoughts are higher than yours, better than yours—greater than the east is from the west." Yet, we have to take steps in that direction to begin thinking as He does.
A person who is not holy will not see God because they will not think as He does. Along the same lines, He will not recognize Himself in any of them! So, until the heart is changed, nothing will change. The change begins by taking in the Word of God on a daily basis and applying it in our lives.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Eight)Related Topics: Circumcised in the Mind | Circumcision | Circumcision of the Heart | Circumcision, Spiritual | Heart | Heart, Change of | Heart, Corruption of | Heart, Mind, and Soul | Sin | Sin Begins as a Thought | Sin Begins in the Heart | Sin Begins in the Mind | Sin is Spiritual | Spiritual Circumcision