Now, given this universal sense of right and wrong that undeniably exists, Lewis goes on to say that we all have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people.” We are always quick to make excuses for ourselves when we violate this standard, but even our quickness to make excuses is in itself confirmation of the existence of such a standard. And so Lewis concludes the first chapter of Mere Christianity with these words: “These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.”[1]
Indeed, every culture under the sun throughout the history of the world has been aware that there is a standard of right and wrong, and that we have not lived up to that standard. That is why almost every culture in history has sought some means of justification – the making right of what we know is wrong. For some, justification has been sought in rituals, for others, it has been in the making of excuses. In our own day, it is very commonly seen in the shifting of blame. There is a standard, and we know that we do not live up to it, but it is not our faults, we say. We are victims. Left to ourselves, we would be OK, we think. Our problems come from the fact that we have been victimized by some person or circumstance in our lives that was beyond our control, and therefore the way I am is not my fault, but rather the fault of that person, that event, or that circumstance. And therefore, I think, because of my victimhood I am thereby justified. And this kind of thinking is fueled by an unscrupulous psychiatric industry which enriches itself by telling people what they want to hear. We pay them big money to tell us that we’re fine. Tell me I’m OK, tell me it’s not my fault, and name your price, because its worth it for me to hear those words. We live in a culture which shouts aloud that your problems come from the outside, and the solution is on the inside. The diametrical opposite of this is what is found in biblical Christianity. The Bible alone proclaims that the problem is inside, and the only solution is outside.
The Pharisees had helped to shape a religiously superficial culture in first century
I. The True Condition of the Human Heart
Contrary to the traditions of the Pharisees, Jesus insists that defilement does not come from outside the person. He says in v15, “There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him.” He restates this and explains it further in vv18-19, saying, “Whatever goes into the man from the outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated.” Now, remember here that the issue is not health and hygiene. Yes, there are some things that might make you sick or harm you if you put them into your body. But these things are not what make you morally undefiled. They do not alter the condition of your heart. What you put into your body does not make you a sinner, nor does abstaining from putting certain things into your body make you righteous. When food enters your body, it takes a biological journey in one end and out the other. There are no spiritual transactions taking place. It is all biological.
Mark adds an editorial comment at the end of v19, saying parenthetically, “Thus He declared all foods clean.” When Mark wrote this Gospel, questions relating to Kosher foods and dietary regulations were prominent in the minds of Gentile converts to Christianity. It is of interest that Mark was likely writing for the benefit of Christians at
Defilement, Jesus says, works the other way. It is already in you, and you are defiled when what is already inside of you, in your very heart, comes out. He says in v15, “The things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” Again, in v20, He says, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.”
II. The Terrible Catalog of the Human Heart
What sorts of things defile the man from the inside? Jesus gives us a representative list in vv21-22. They consist of six plural words denoting defiling actions and six singular words that speak of defiling attitudes. Evil thoughts – the foods you eat don’t determine your thoughts. The evil thoughts that we all wrestle with are already in us, regardless of what we eat. And then He mentions fornications (NASB). Some of the English versions use the phrase sexual immorality here, which is perhaps a better rendering of the Greek word porneia, from which we get the English word pornography. This word is found in Greek literature with reference to a variety of illicit sexual practices, including but not limited to adultery, fornication (that is, sexual intercourse outside of the bond of marriage), prostitution, and homosexuality. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), it is used to describe any sexual practices outside of the marriage covenant. It has been well said that we live in a pornographic culture today. Everything is saturated with sexuality. And the common way of thinking is that people are defiled by the sexual images that are thrust upon them at every turn. But what Jesus is saying here indicates that we are not pure beings who are defiled by a sex saturated culture, but rather that our pornographic hearts are what has defiled the culture. And this is a truth to be understood by both genders, for as it has been said by Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, that “Men are tempted to give themselves to pornography; women are tempted to commit pornography.”[2] By this he means to say that men are often led by their unsanctified desires into viewing pornographic images, but women are often likewise led by their unsanctified desires to dress, talk, or act in certain alluring ways. Both of these are defilements that are not the result of being victimized by the culture, but rather are the result of the sexual immorality that is resident within our very being.
Jesus continues the list with thefts, murders and adulteries. It is of interest that these three items occur side by side also in the Ten Commandments. Thefts and murders are self-explanatory, and adultery here is stated with more specificity than the former word porneia. Here the word is moichea, which speaks with precision to marital unfaithfulness. It should be noted that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus equated anger with murder, and lust with adultery, thus indicating that it is not merely the external act of murder or adultery which defiles, but the very internal desire, which may or many not ever be expressed outwardly.
He names in v22, deeds of coveting, that is, a greedy desire to have more even at the expense of others. And then there are deeds of wickedness, a less specific term speaking generally of evil and wicked deeds. Thus we see that Jesus’ intention is not to provide an exhaustive catalog of defiling acts, but representative examples.
Then He moves on with defiling attitudes, firstly naming deceit. Then Jesus mentions sensuality, using a Greek word that speaks of unrestrained, unbridled, and shameless living, behavior completely lacking in moral restraint. It is the acting upon one’s senses, or physical urges, rather than pausing for moral reflection on the rightness or wrongness of such. The wording translated envy is a Semitic expression that might be literally translated “evil eye.” This phrase was often used to speak of stinginess, envy, jealousy, or holding a jealous grudge. Then there is slander, pride and foolishness. Again, not an exhaustive list, but representative examples.
Now, none of us would question that all of these things exist in the world around us. But where do they come from? Jesus says once again in v22, “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. The human heart is a fountain of defilement, contaminating humanity from the inside.
III. The Theological Consideration of the Human Heart
In saying these, Jesus is at odds with the Pharisaic traditions, but His teachings are right in line with the unchanging truth of God’s Word as it was stated in the Old Testament. Consider what the writer of Ecclesiastes said in Ecclesiastes 9:3, “the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives.” God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, saying in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”
You can even go back further to the days of Noah and find in Genesis 6:5, “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” We go on there to read in Genesis 6:11-12, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.” So, the earth was corrupted, but it was not the earth which was corrupting man, but rather man corrupting the earth because of the inherent sinfulness within humanity. And so God says in Genesis 6:13, “the earth is filled with violence because of them.” The world is in the shape it is in because of humanity, and the same is true in our own day, and every era in between.
Now, the question naturally arises, “How did the human heart get to be in this condition?” And the answer is found in the sin of Adam. When we speak of “original sin,” we are not referring to the sin that Adam and Eve committed, but rather to the result of their sin. Perhaps we would better understand this concept if we spoke of it as inherited sin rather than original sin. What we mean by this is that we have inherited a guiltiness because of Adam’s sin. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:19, “through the one man’s disobedience, the many were made sinners.” We inherit the guilt of Adam because he was the representative head of the entire human race. But not only did we inherit the guilt of sin from our representative head, we have also inherited from Adam the corruption of sin. We are born with a sinful nature. Thus David says in Psalm 51:5, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” Similarly he says in Psalm 58:3, “The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.”
This sin nature is summarized by Paul in Romans 3:10-12, where he strings together a collection of Old Testament sayings which read, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."
So, the inherited guilt and nature of sin in us manifests itself in that each and every one of us are inherently prone to sin. We could prove God wrong for condemning us in Adam, if only we could live in such a way to show that we do not deserve it. But alas, we bear a likeness to our great-ancestor, for we have our own sins to answer for as well. We are all sinners. Now when we say that, people jump to the defensive and say, “You don’t know me! You don’t know what I do! You can’t call me a sinner!” But that is missing the point. There is an explanatory value in saying that we are all sinners, for it helps us to understand our true condition. We aren’t sinners because we commit sin, but rather we commit sin because we are sinners. Surely all of us can relate to Paul’s struggle which he confesses in Romans 7:15, “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate,” and in verse 19, “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” Why do I do what I do, even though I don’t want to? Why am I unable to do the good that I so want to do? Because I am a sinner. I am corrupted within. So Augustine said of Adam that he possessed a nature which was posse non pecarre, posse pecarre, a Latin expression meaning “able to not sin, able to sin.” But all born since Adam have been born non posse non pecarre, that is to say “Not able not to sin.”
The theologians of the Reformation articulated this doctrinal understanding with the words “Total Depravity.” Unfortunately, many have misunderstood these words to mean that we are all as bad as we could possibly be. That is not true. Even Adolf Hitler, bad as he was, could have been worse. Perhaps better is the phrase “Radical Corruption,” meaning that sin has penetrated to the very core of our being. It is not external or peripheral to us. It rises up from deep within us. And so we are not conflicted beings with some good parts connected to some bad parts, but rather, every part of us is corrupted by sin – our intellects, our emotions, our desires, our wills, our ambitions, and even our physical bodies. This means that there is no inherent spiritual fitness within us, and there is nothing we are capable of doing to merit any spiritual good before God. We can’t be saved by works, because even our best works are going to be tainted by sin. We stand justly condemned in our sins.
The problem is not something out there making a mess of what is inside of me. It is a corruption inside of me that is the problem, and it taints everything I think, say or do. It is like a reverse King Midas effect – instead of turning everything I touch to gold, my inherent sinfulness just makes an utter mess of it. While the world around you tells you that the problem is out there and the solution is inside, only Jesus loves us enough to tell us the truth – the problem is in you and the solution comes from something outside of you. That solution is Jesus Christ. He lived for us the perfect life that none of us can. He satisfies the holy standard of God with perfect righteousness, and died as our substitute. And so by His death, we can be forgiven of sin, and by His life, we can receive justification – being declared righteous and covered with the very righteousness of Jesus which we cannot attain in our own effort. I am my biggest problem. Christ is my only solution.
Now, I want to close with six quick thoughts for application –
1) If you are trying desperately to justify yourself by blaming all your sins and shortcomings on external matters – some other person, some event, some circumstance – then you are cutting yourself off from the grace of God which permits you to come before Him just as you are, take responsibility for your sins, and confess them to Him, and accept Jesus Christ’s death as the punishment for your sins and His life as the righteousness by which you will be accepted before God. We must abandon self-efforts, vain excuses, and victimhood, and embrace the grace of God alone for our justification.
2) The doing or not doing of certain things is not the righteousness that God accepts. It is a condition of the heart that God is interested in. And all of us fall short of His righteous standard. So we must abandon superficial religion whereby we think the avoidance of certain evils and the performance of certain rituals makes us right with God. Rather, we must recognize the radical corruption of our own nature, and accept the mercy of God and His salvation by faith.
3) If we tend to think our own sins are a very small matter, then we commit a blasphemy of the highest order. If our sins are small, then we only need a small savior and a small redemption. But God has given to us His own Son – Himself incarnate in the flesh – to pay the redemption price for us in His own blood. How great must our sins be to necessitate such a costly sacrifice? Shall we look at this inestimable gift of God and say that it is a small thing? That would be blasphemous. Rather than dismiss our sinfulness as a small matter, we must recognize the massive magnitude of it, recognize that it cost the Son of God His very life, and stand in awe of the grace of God who loved us enough to redeem us with such unfathomable mercy.
4) As we deal with children, whether they are our own children, our grandchildren, or children who in the providence of God we have opportunity to influence, we must not make the mistake of thinking that they are born clean, and made dirty by the world around them. No, they are born sinners, even before they ever commit a conscious act of sin. And through discipline and training in righteousness, we must instill in them an awareness that corruption is something inherent within them, and our only hope is to abandon ourselves and cling to Jesus who offers to give us His very own righteousness in exchange for our sins. We must help them to see the corruption of the heart that underlies their thoughts, actions and words, and take full advantage of every teachable moment to point them to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help them understand why He died on the cross.
5) Mark tells us that Jesus hereby declares all foods to be clean. Some have abused the freedom we have been given by the grace of God, and said in a near-hedonistic way, that if those things outside of me do not corrupt me, then I will partake of them without discretion or concern. And thus we have Christians who abuse substances like alcohol and drugs, who are gluttons in their consumption of food, or who otherwise throw caution to the wind in the name of Christian freedom. But the same Bible which affords us these great freedoms also cautions us in our exercise of them. The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians that even though all things might be lawful for me, there are three caveats that I must consider when exercising my freedom: Is it profitable? Is it enslaving? Will it cause another person to stumble? I believe if we ask ourselves these questions, we will make wise and biblically informed decisions in the exercise of our Christian freedom.
6) If you think it unfair of God to reckon you guilty of sin because of Adam and to transmit to you a sinner nature because of what Adam did as your representative, you have only considered half the matter. For this same God who counts you guilty through representation is also willing to save you through representation. Paul said in Romans 5:19, “For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” That One is Jesus Christ. If you will accept that God’s condemnation is just, you will find that His salvation is gracious. By the representation of Adam, we are under sin, and demonstrate the appropriateness of it through our own sinfulness. By the representation of Jesus, we may be saved, and demonstrate the glory of His grace as He transforms our hearts of corruption through the sanctifying work of His Spirit.
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