Wait. What Just Happened?

The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? (Jer 17:9)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23) 

Just a minute ago I said this, “It was because we were self-centered in heart and wanted everything to go our way. We were sinners, sinful, and sinning all the time.” Our verse said, “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” If these two statements are true, how can anyone believe the Gospel of Jesus? How can someone who is so dedicated and drenched in his own selfishness, turn away from his own agenda and take up his cross and follow Jesus? Why would someone who is so selfish ever do such a thing? More, how could he ever do it? How can a sinner believe the Gospel and turn to Christ?

You’ll remember that I’m writing about Biblical counseling. These things are incredibly important to keep in mind as we work with folks who are struggling with the life God has given them. The Gospel is good news, great news in fact. Without it and more importantly the consequences of the good news, we are stuck in our sins and in the darkness of our hellish existence. Without the great news being good news in our lives, we are locked in our sinfulness and selfishness.

But here’s the thing. We can’t do anything about it. We are lost, damned, condemned, headed for even worse.

More Good News

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:44). And Paul said, “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil 1:29). What these two statements mean is that not only did God know our need in terms of having our sins washed away in the blood of Jesus, he also saw and anticipated our need to come to him out of our deep selfishness and wickedness. In other words, we couldn’t change, so he reached into our lives and changed us.

It appears, from our vantage point, that we heard the Gospel and believed it. We think we just changed our minds and submitted ourselves to Christ, all on our own. But in reality, because of the nature and extent of our sinfulness, we couldn’t change. We couldn’t decide to believe the Gospel. We couldn’t repent and submit ourselves to Christ. We couldn’t take up our cross and follow Jesus. God had to do a work in our hearts.

In another place, Jesus said this, “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, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man” (Mk 7:20–23). Our evil hearts can only produce evil thoughts, feelings, actions, and speech. Unless God does a miracle in our hearts, thus giving us new hearts, we’re stuck in our sins.

We need to preach and notice that everyone who comes to Christ has witnessed a miracle in his life and that is that God has given us new birth, even when we were total enemies, hating and plotting against him all the while. In other words, though, in one sense, it might not have looked like we were being total rebels, we really were, and God reached down and plucked us out of the fire and gave us faith.

Some have thought that our believing was an act that we have done that saved us. This is often because the Bible so closely connects faith with action. But the Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8–10).  Notice that this passage specifically says that we were saved through faith and that was a gift from God. The Apostle went on to make sure that we understand that our salvation is a direct act of God, “we are his workmanship.” So, salvation comes to us from God from first to last.

So, which is it? Do we believe? Or does God give us faith? It isn’t an either/ or kind of thing. It is a both/and kind of thing. God does indeed command every man to repent (Acts 17:30). And Jesus told us to repent and believe (Mk 1:15). And everywhere the Bible calls us to lay down our lives and follow Jesus (Mt 16:24). And everywhere we see people falling on their faces in abject humility to the convicting and gracious hand of God (Ps 51). We see people choosing to follow, submit, bow down to, and lay down their lives for Jesus.

At the same time, we have all the passages we’ve just gone over (and lots more) that say God is doing all these things.

Both at the same time. Men believe and God gives belief. God calls, draws, grants, changes, circumcises, etc. Men hear, bow down, repent, follow, cry out, etc. All at the same time.

So, we are/were total rebels against God, we hear the gospel, and despite our horrible context, change our minds, receive the good news, believe the good news, repent, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus with every fiber of our being. But behind it, and in it, and producing it, God. All so that he will get all the glory.

Image by Karsten Paulick from Pixabay