What’s in the Heart of a Human Being?
by
PAUL C. JONG
What should we do before God? We should admit our sins and ask God to save us.
Faith should start with God’s Word and we should believe in Him through His Word. If not, we will fall into error. That would be the wrong and untrue faith. When the Pharisees and the scribes saw Jesus’ disciples eating bread with dirty hands, they couldn’t have reproved them if they had looked at it from the viewpoint of God’s Word. The Word tells us that whatever enters a person from the outside cannot defile him/her because it goes through the stomach and exits the body, not affecting heart. As it is said in Mark 7:20-23, “And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.’” Jesus said that people are sinners because they are bornwith sin. Do you understand what this means? We are born as sinners because we are all Adam’s descendants. But we cannot see the truth because we neither accept nor believe in all of His Words. Then, what is inside a human heart? The above passage states, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” All kinds of evils come out of people’s hearts and defile them.
It is recorded in Psalms, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalms 8:3-4)
Why does God Himself visit us? He visits us because He loves us, created us and took pity on us sinners. He blotted out all our sins and made us His people. “O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Heavens!” King David sang this psalm in the Old Testament when he realized that God would become the Savior of sinners. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul repeated the same psalm. It is such an amazing thing that we,
God’s creations, can become the children of the Creator. It is done only through His compassion for us. This is the love of God. We should recognize that trying to completely live by the Law of God is an audacious challenge to Him. It is also an arrogant orientation that comes out of our ignorance. It is not right to live outside His love while struggling to keep the Law for oneself and pray desperately for such a life. It is God’s will that we should realize ourselves as sinners under the Law and believe in the redemption of the water and the blood
of Jesus. His Word is written in Mark 7:20-23, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” Jesus said that what comes out of a human being, the sins within, defiles him/her. Even the unclean food that God gives cannot defile us. All creations are clean, but only the things that come out of human beings, that is, the sins, defile us. We are all born descendants of Adam. So, with what are we born? We are born with twelve kinds of sins. Is this not right? Then, can we live without committing sins? We will continue to sin for we are born with sin. Can we stop sinning just because we know the Law? Can we live by the commandments? No.
The more we try to live by the Law, the harder it becomes. We should realize our limitations and give up our past orientations. Then, with humble minds, we can accept the baptism and blood of Jesus, which save us. All 613 articles of the Law are good and just. But people are sinners from the time they are conceived in their mothers’ wombs. When we realize that the Law of God is right, but that we are born as sinners who can never become righteous by ourselves, we come to realize that we need the merciful compassion of God and the redemption of Jesus in the gospel of the water, the blood and the Spirit. When we realize
our limitations—that we cannot become righteous by ourselves and we will go to hell for our sins—we cannot but rely on the redemption of Jesus. We can be delivered. We should know that we are unable to be right or good before God by ourselves. Therefore, we should admit before God that we are sinners who are destined to hell and we can pray for His compassion, “God, please save me from my sins and take pity on me.” Then, God will surely meet us in His Word. In this way, we can be delivered. Let’s see the prayer of David. “That You may be
found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge” (Psalms 51:4).
David knew that he was a mass of sin that was evil enough to be thrown into hell, but he admitted before God, “Lord, if You call me a sinner, I am a sinner. If You call me righteous, I am righteous. If You save me, I will be saved; and if You send me to hell, I will end up in hell.”
This is the correct faith and the way to be saved. This is how we should be if we hope to believe in the redemption of Jesus.
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