“Until the heart is changed, doing the right thing is just a cover up for the unrepentant, unchanged heart.”

“Until the heart is changed, doing the right thing is just a cover up for the unrepentant, unchanged heart.”

TEXT:

Chapter 4, Page 37 –

This is the meaning of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7 about those who say, “Lord, Lord” but who never really knew Him, or He them. This is the difference between not stealing the cookies from the cookie jar because you think you will get a reward and not stealing the cookies because you love your mama. On the one side – the side of doing it yourself – this is the “filthy rags” righteousness of Isaiah 64:6. On the other side – the Grace-Faith Relationship side – this is why Paul is so exultantly joyful in Romans 8:1-4. “There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death . . . in order that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

This is a matter of “obedience from the heart.”

Until the heart is changed, doing the right thing is just a cover up for the unrepentant, unchanged heart, a condition that you and I cannot change on our own.