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In Scripture, the heart is the seat of indwelling sin as well as its subject. It is from the heart that indwelling sin springs in a person’s experience. Indeed, sin has invaded as an enemy and now possesses the very throne of God himself. So says the preacher:
The writer of Ecclesiastes says that the hearts of all people are not just tainted by sin, but indeed, full of sin. He likens it to madness that goes on during the whole of their lives. A sad picture indeed. In his evaluation of the sinfulness of the human heart, Jesus says essentially the same thing:
Matthew 15:18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person. 15:19 For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 15:20 These are the things that defile a person; it is not eating with unwashed hands that defiles a person.”
It is true that there are many outward temptations that come upon us as human beings, but the problem we have comes essentially from within. It is from within that our fallen, darkened hearts gush forth evil and corrupt the whole of our lives, seriously damaging the lives of those to whom we are most connected. In Genesis 6:5 the text pulls no punches, describing the depths to which the human heart can sink apart from God:
6:5 But the Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.
Jesus said that “the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil….” (Luke 6:45). The good treasure Jesus speaks of comes by grace, but the evil treasure is the best that man, in his pitiful, fallen state can produce apart from God’s grace. These two treasures, ironically enough, do not run empty the more men draw upon them. Indeed, the more a person under God’s grace draws on Christ’s riches through faith and obedience, the more the principle of grace is strengthened in that person. On the other hand, the more a person feeds his sin through unbelief and disobedience, the more the sin’s power grows within, establishing a foothold and then a fortress.
There is no more realistic picture of the deceitfulness of sin than here presented. How many times have you heard people (myself/yourself?) say: “I’ll just do it this time and get it out of my system.” Nothing could be more deceitful than this. “Do it once, and you’ll do it twice” is much closer to the truth. Our sinful lusts—which live and thrive in our hearts—gain ground through use, but by the Spirit they can be put to death (Rom 8:13). Thus the Bible is everywhere realistic in its evaluation of the human heart. It recognizes the good from creation and the grace of God, but is utterly straightforward about the sin and folly bound up within us as well. THE NATURE OF THE HUMAN HEART ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE
THE HEART IS DECEITFUL
The heart is desperately deceitful. One need only look at the affairs of men in the world, including their actions toward others and the advice they offer to others. But Jeremiah’s reference to the heart as deceitful is not in connection with the deceitfulness of sin in society, as prevalent as that is. Rather, the prophet speaks of the deceitfulness in a man’s heart toward himself. But how does this deceitfulness manifest itself? First, the heart abounds in contradictions. Sin has laid such a hold on the faculties of the heart that it has corrupted all of them causing them to act in ways outside their created order and harmonious workings. The mind was designed to discover truth, the emotions and affections to set themselves on the beauty of the truth and the will to perform the truth out of love for God. But sin has entered and a beautiful creation has been seriously marred. We still have all these faculties but they seldom function according to their design. Sometimes the affections get the sovereignty, that is, they run off into sin and only later the mind recognizes the error. At other times the will refuses to love and obey the truth the mind discovers. There are also times in which the mind is too weak to investigate truth even though the emotions are crying out for it, the will is waiting for it, and the conscience is demanding it.
The mind and the reason were in perfect subjection and subordination to God and his will….That being disturbed by sin, the rest of the faculties move cross and contrary to one another. The will chooseth not the good which the mind discovers; the affections delight not in that which the will chooseth; but all jar and interfere, cross and rebel against each other. This we have got by our falling from God.24
This leads Owen to the conclusion that the “frame of the heart is ready to contradict itself every moment.”25 Things can be going well, so to speak, with the mind, affections, and will at peace and operating properly, but in the very next breadth the emotions can seize sovereignty and all can descend in turmoil and contradictions. This is not the way in which God created us, but it is the sad reality of the impact of sin on us. There is a second way, besides contradictions, that deceit operates in our hearts. Deceit operates in the heart by also making full promisings at the first appearance of things. Sometimes our affections or emotions are touched upon and all seems to be well with the heart. But, within a short time, our whole disposition or countenance is shaken, indicating that our mind had not also been touched or changed by God. Once the emotion is gone, all the “fair promises” we made regarding reform and holiness are gone with it. This, according to Owen, is another great deceit of the heart wherein lies sin. When we consider that the very “frame” (Owen’s words) or order of operations of the faculties of the soul are dislodged by sin, and thrown violently into confusion, and that the heart makes promises it cannot keep, we are not surprised to hear Jeremiah call the heart “desperately wicked.” We are also not surprised that God should warn us numerous times in Scripture to watch our hearts!
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS IN LIGHT OF THE CONDITION OF OUR HEARTS
There are three considerations which Owen wants to remind us of in light of the deceitfulness of our hearts: (1) never think our work of mortification has come to an end; (2) such great deceitfulness requires perpetual watchfulness; (3) in our struggle we must commit all things to God.
MORTIFICATION NEVER ENDS IN THIS LIFE
The redeemed soul, by the grace of God and his indwelling Spirit (Rom 8:13), must press on toward perfection. To this it has been called. Thus, our role is one of co-operation with God, in which we put to death the misdeeds of the body (Phil 2:12-13). And we shall do this for as long as we are in this body. Only at glorification, in the next life, will there be no need for mortification. How much more do we realize this now, since we have come to understand that the very home of sin, i.e., our hearts, is deceitful? The person who dies fighting this fight, dies a victor. ,
