Evil things come from within, and they defile a person (Mark 7:23)
The heart of our problem is our heart itself. We try hard to change what we do and keep doing the good we want to do, but we don’t realize that the fundamental problem is in our being, not in what we do. Until we admit that problem, the sin problem, there is no hope. Total depravity is the most experientially tested and proved doctrine yet the most emphatically despised and denied. When total depravity is watered down, the gospel becomes a therapeutic tool, not a transformative means. The uniqueness of Jesus is that He unapologetically exposed that our primary problem is within ourselves and not outside of us. He then called His audience to repent of sins rather than reciting religious slogans. Jesus did not say that we have behavioral disorders or psychological disorders; he looked right through us and said the problem is the heart, and it needs to be transformed. Gospel is not teaching us specific exercises as a physiotherapist does but a call for heart transformation, which our creator does. Freedom is not the right to do what we want but receiving the power to do what we ought to do. That’s what Christ gives. Don’t let sin reign in your mortal flesh. Present your bodies as instruments of righteousness, not as instruments of unrighteousness. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
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