Head and Heart

"May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord."

(2 Peter 1:2 ESV)

The Heart of Man 

Any study of the heart of man has to lead us to the conclusion that it is wicked to the core. As Jeremiah says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV) Unless we base our understanding of who we are on this fact, we can never approach God with any transparency in our intent. Hard as it may be to accept, the overarching description of man is that "every intention of the thoughts of his heart [are] only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5 ESV)

It must be further understood that this is not something that we choose; it is in our makeup. Consider the case of the alcoholic; he knows and understands that his behavior has consequences to his health, family and livelihood. If he had simply to choose not to be ensnared in his sin, it would be an easy matter to weigh the consequences against the 'pleasure' he finds in his sin and abandon the damaging behavior. Reason would indicate that he therefore does not have the choice, since no reasonable being would choose to continue destroying himself. Even Paul faced a struggle despite his acknowledgement of sin as sin. "So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." (Romans 7:25 ESV) The Christian heart contains the same evil thoughts and intents as the unsaved person. Have you ever found yourself sitting in a church service and thinking the most vile thoughts that will not go away despite your best efforts? That's the law of sin working against the law of your mind.

Jesus himself described the origin of the sin that works its way to the surface of our lives. "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” (Matthew 15:18-20 ESV) There can be no question that our hearts are desperately wicked, beyond even our own understanding of that wickedness.

Understanding all of this, a question naturally arises when Jesus announces in the beattitudes, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8 ESV) How can the desperately wicked heart of man ever be 'pure'? This is one of the questions that Christianity, and only Christianity, can answer for us. Because the natural state of the heart is wickedness without hope of redeeming itself, there must be an outside force involved in its redemption. Because it is impure, it can only be pure if He who judges it accepts it as pure. 

Though we are fond of saying such things as "I gave my heart to Jesus", the truth is that there must be an awakening of the understanding, the mind, that leads us to a pure heart condition.

Peter on Knowledge

Since I so often refer to the writings of Paul in my own writing, I am going to depart from Paul and turn to Peter for an understanding of the process of this 'head-to-heart' conversion. Let's look at a passage from 2 Peter 1:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

(2 Peter 1:3-4 ESV)

It is with the mind that we begin to recognize all that has been given us of God. Through this knowledge, we understand the promises that he has made to us, namely, that we are partakers of his divine nature. By understanding that we are partaking in his nature, we escape the corruption that the rest of the world is ensnared in because of the sinful desires of the heart. God first leads us to understand what he has done for us, and that understanding leads us to become what God's wants us to be. We become the pure in heart not by striving to be pure (Law), but by believing God when he tells us that we are pure because of what he has accomplished for us through Christ (grace).

There is a segment of the church that wants, once again, to get the cart before the horse. I always speak of indicatives and imperatives. Here is another example. The indicative: God has made us, through our knowledge of Christ, partakers of the divine nature. The imperative: We escape the corruption of the world that is caused by sinful desire. They will say that the knowledge of God does not lead to heart change. That Jesus must come 'into your heart' for a change to take place. The scripture teaches that it is a continually growing knowledge of God that brings our heart under the control of the Spirit. This idea of 'Jesus in your heart' is fabulously romantic, but nominally Biblical. If we are not growing in grace by growing in the knowledge of God, our hearts will continue to run wild. 

Interestingly, Peter leaves the door open to the sinful desires of the heart. While stating that the Christian has escaped the corruption of the world caused by the sinful desires of the heart, he does not deny that the sinful desires remain, even in the escapees. They do remain and yet are defused by the knowledge that we are partakers of a new nature so that we do not participate in the corruption. This runs counter to the idea that Jesus inhabits our hearts and drives out the sin within them. We are, and shall remain, utterly sinful so long as we are encumbered with a heart of flesh, despite being redeemed. This is the doctrine of  Simul justus et peccator...at the same time saint and sinner, and is found throughout the New Testament.

The Dirty Doctrine Word

With that, let's discuss for a moment the dirty word I just used; doctrine. The 'Jesus in your heart' camp has a real problem with it. This leads to statements like "Christ didn't give His life for church doctrine. He gave his life for people". First we need to understand that the word doctrine means 'teaching'. I might remind you that the Bible is teaching. It is doctrine. That is why it was preserved by God in written form through the ages. It consists of words which are meant to lead us to productive knowledge of God (as it frequently states). The idea that Jesus gave his life as an atonement for sinners is, surprise, DOCTRINE! As J. Gresham Machen said in his classic Christianity and Liberalism:

"Christ died"--that is history; "Christ died for our sins"--that is doctrine. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluble union, there is no Christianity.

I'm sure that many of my friends feel that I am far too cerebral in my faith; that I think too much. But I don't do this for the joy of being a 'deep thinker' or to show off. I am led to believe that the path to heart change lies in 'the renewing of the mind'. I am led to this both by scripture and experience. The years I lived under the romantic 'Jesus is in my heart' idea were unfruitful and corrupt, self-driven and full of evil desires satisfied. As I grow in the knowledge of grace, I find that my heart is gradually brought under the control of the Spirit as a productive knowledge of God renews my mind. By this knowledge of grace the way I relate to others, to the world, to the church have all been changed. Grace and peace are being multiplied in my life.

Now that does not mean that I can't topple at any second. All of that filth is still down there in my heart. But it means that the corruption of this world cannot dominate me so long as I daily acknowledge what Christ accomplished on my behalf and let that rule my heart, pathetic as it is. 

Finally

Don't let the heart camp convince you that your heart, as a Christian, is trustworthy. Look at the history of Israel in the Old Testament. They were frequently led by their hearts - led to the Baals and Ashteroths. We can similarly follow our hearts and they will dutifully lead us away from God. Rather, 'be transformed by the renewal of your mind." (Romans 12:2) Paul gets the last word after all!

God Bless