The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure… Jeremiah 17:9
Scripture is full of disheartening diagnoses, including that the heart is “desperately sick” (ESV).
But the Great Physician must tell us this hard truth so we can say, “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10) The Physician also promises, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees” (Ezekiel 36: 26-27).
Words that at first, sting us deeply don’t mean we’re without hope, only that we cannot cure ourselves. But God has provided the cure: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17).
BOTTOM LINE:
“Scripture considers repentance a path to liberation, not condemnation.” Edward Welch
Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 14 Harvest House.