“For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23).
Sin can’t be controlled by external changes. Religion and its attempts to control our behavior by rules and regulations don’t work. It doesn’t touch the core of the problem which is the human heart. The issue all of us have had to face is the unredeemed heart with which we began life.
Jesus offers the only solution that works. Rules and regulations don’t change our hearts. Martin Luther, in his preface to a commentary on Romans, said that in the monastery there were many sins he couldn’t commit because they weren’t available. What he realized was that he still wanted to commit them. What he battled with was more than behavior, it was his heart.
Like Luther, what each of us needs is a heart transplant. Thankfully, there is hope in the salvation God offers through Jesus. Ezekiel got a glimpse of the answer that was coming when he described the change God would bring to our hearts. “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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
A religion that focuses on rule-keeping as the way of salvation doesn’t work, but faith in Jesus opens our hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit to change us from the inside. That works every time!
