Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched? How did we arrive at our doctrines?
Today we will examine the very common view that not only is the pagan's heart is deceitfully wicked, so is the Christian's heart.
Introduction
The decrepit human heart, even for Christians, is a very common view, examples here here here and here. The idea is, one should never trust the human heart because it is evil. It cannot be fixed. It is permanently false and wicked. It will lead you astray and lie to you and cause you to sin. There is nothing good in the human heart.
By extension, the only trustworthy thing is the Bible. This ties into cessationism, which teaches that the "supernatural" manifestations, particularly prophecy and inner impressions, have ceased. Therefore, whatever comes into one's mind should not be trusted, because the source of that thought can only be from the sinful heart (or perhaps demons).
This also is connected to TULIP, which is an acronym roughly explaining Calvinism (Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints). The first concept, total depravity, comes to bear on our discussion. That is, total depravity is the condition of the human heart, even when one is saved.
The primary verse upon which this is based is Jer. 17:9:
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
What is the Heart?
Of course, we are not talking about the muscular blood-pumping organ, we are talking about the inner motivations and inclinations of a man. The heart is לֵב (leb), inner man, mind, will, heart. The heart is intellect, emotions, personality, self-governance; it's the part of you that makes you who you are. It's the part of us that either understands or is dulled regarding godly things:
The Context
Of course, we are not talking about the muscular blood-pumping organ, we are talking about the inner motivations and inclinations of a man. The heart is לֵב (leb), inner man, mind, will, heart. The heart is intellect, emotions, personality, self-governance; it's the part of you that makes you who you are. It's the part of us that either understands or is dulled regarding godly things:
Isaiah 6:10 Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.
Ac. 2:36-37 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
1Co. 4:5 ...He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.
Mk. 6:51-52 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
Ac. 7:51 “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!"The wicked heart is a heart that is unregenerate, untouched by the Holy Spirit, fleshly and sinful.
The Context
Our first task is to examine the verse in its context. Therefore we shall quote the larger passage. Jer. 17:1-10:
“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. 2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. 4 Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn for ever.”
5 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no-one lives.
7 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Je. 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”
We first see that God is speaking to Judah (vs. 1). He speaks judgment against it (vs 3-4). Then He focuses His condemnation to those individuals who turn away from the LORD (vs. 5-6). After this God contrasts the evil man with the man whose confidence is in the LORD (vs 7). Such a man receives blessings (vs. 8).
It is here that the narrative turns to the heart. It has certain characteristics. God then asks a rhetorical question, "who can understand it?" (vs. 9) Of course, only God can. He searches the heart and renders reward (vs. 10). I.e., some hearts are evil, some are not.
So Judah's sin was an affront to God; He tells them about the heart and separates the evil man from the good man He is able to tell the evil hearted man from the good hearted man. That is, a man's deeds are not hidden from God.
Based on this, our preliminary conclusion is that verse 9 is not making a categorical statement about a permanent heart status, for God wants Judah to be careful to obey me (vs. 24). God wants Judah to repent and not be stiff-necked (vs. 23). Such a people will have a king on David's throne and be inhabited forever (vs. 25-26).
Analysis - Deceitful
We wonder at times if translators are caught up in the thinking colored by traditional viewpoints. This is certainly possible when we consider other usages and meanings of the word. We shall turn to Jer. 17:9 itself to see what the actual words mean. We remind the reader of the NIV rendering:
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
The literal translation is:
can know it who is and desperately wicked above all
[things] the heart deceitful
"Beyond cure" is anash, to be weak, sick. It is used eight other times in the OT:
Jeremiah 31:33 gives the solution. Where sin was once inscribed on the hearts of His people, God provides a new inscription:
The writer of Hebrews agrees, and applies this promise of a new, circumcised heart to us:
Our hearts are no longer wicked if the Holy Spirit dwells there. This is the miraculous work of the new birth, effected by the saving work of Jesus.
By extension, the prophetic no longer has this in its way. If we have new hearts as new creations, then the possibility must exist for inner promptings to be received from the Holy Spirit.
The word "deceitful" is aqob. It means insidious, deceitful, foot-tracked, steep, hilly. It is used two other times in the OT:
Is. 40:4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
Ho. 6:8 Gilead is a city of wicked men, stained with footprints of blood.
The first reference, Is. 40:4, is a messianic statement regarding the coming of the King of kings. The previous verse reads:
Is. 40:3 A voice of one calling in the desert, "Prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God."
When the king would return from battle he would be treated royally, which included clearing the way for him to return to the city. Men would rush out from the city and remove obstacles, fill in holes, and generally make the way clear. So Isaiah takes this to the nth degree, where the mountains themselves would be leveled, the canyons filled in, and the highway would not be wavy with footprints going here and there, but rather, straight.
If the reader has ever walked across a snowy field and turned around and looked at the path just traveled, it would not be straight. This is what Isaiah is picturing here.
Matthew applies this voice of one calling in the wilderness to John the Baptist, who preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Mt. 3:2) Thus the preparation is really the human heart, where the high places (steep, hilly) are brought down, the rough ground is smoothed, and the foot tracks are made straight. This is all so that the King might be received.
The King travels a new road, straight and obstacle-free. This is what Paul alludes to in Ro. 12:2:
The King travels a new road, straight and obstacle-free. This is what Paul alludes to in Ro. 12:2:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
If we were to hypothesize, we combine aspects of all these meanings and suggest a possible alternative translation for The heart is deceitful above all things:
The heart is covered with winding foot tracked paths, hilly and rough...
Analysis - Beyond Cure
2Sa. 12:15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
Job 34:5-6 “Job says, `I am innocent, but God denies me justice. 6 Although I am right, I am considered a liar; although I am guiltless, his arrow inflicts an incurable wound.’
Is. 17:11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.
Je. 15:18 Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?
Je. 17:16 I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you.
Je. 30:13 There is no-one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sore, no healing for you.
Mi. 1:9 For her wound is incurable; it has come to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself.So depending on the preference of the translator, the weakness or sickness can be fatal, but it doesn't have to be. A related word, nush, is found in Ps. 69:20-21:
Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. 21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
This is a messianic statement, and we know that Jesus is not in a condition beyond cure. A sick and weak heart can therefore be physical or spiritual.
To continue with our own amplified version:
The Heart Solution
It is now clear that Is. 17:9 is not a verse about a permanent condition. The heart can be changed. In fact, it must change. The ancient doors must open to admit the King of glory (Ps. 24:9).
To continue with our own amplified version:
The heart is covered with winding foot tracked paths, hilly and rough, it is very weak and sick...A Not-Wicked Heart is Possible
Mt. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Lk. 6:45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.It is quite clear from these verses that depending on the state of the heart, either good or evil can flow from it.
The Heart Solution
It is now clear that Is. 17:9 is not a verse about a permanent condition. The heart can be changed. In fact, it must change. The ancient doors must open to admit the King of glory (Ps. 24:9).
Jeremiah 31:33 gives the solution. Where sin was once inscribed on the hearts of His people, God provides a new inscription:
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.God's intent is to give us new hearts:
De. 30:6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
Ez. 36:26 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.This promise is a messianic prophecy. God makes a promise about the deceitful heart: He's going to replace it! The old heart, the sinful nature, the disobedient and stiff necked-ness, will be done away with.
The writer of Hebrews agrees, and applies this promise of a new, circumcised heart to us:
He. 8:10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.And this indeed is what has happened, by the power of the Holy Spirit:
Ro. 2:29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.By the power of the resurrection we are born again. It is here, by faith, we become new men, and the old has passed away.
2Co. 3:15-16 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
2Co. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!The new heart is where the Spirit of the Lord dwells:
2Co. 1:21-22 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Ga. 4:6-6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.It's by this indwelling presence that we know His glory:
2Co. 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” [Gen. 1:3] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.It's by this indwelling presence that we bear fruit:
Lk. 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.Conclusion
Our hearts are no longer wicked if the Holy Spirit dwells there. This is the miraculous work of the new birth, effected by the saving work of Jesus.
By extension, the prophetic no longer has this in its way. If we have new hearts as new creations, then the possibility must exist for inner promptings to be received from the Holy Spirit.
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