Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Defiled Heart and Christ's Cleansing Grace (Mark 7:20-23)

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The Defiled Heart and Christ's Cleansing Grace (Mark 7:20-23) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the deep dive into reformed thinking.
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You know we live in a culture that constantly tells you that
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your problems are external. Right, the outside world is
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always the issue. Yeah, the relentless message is
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that your environment or maybe society at large or political
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structures, or, you know, just a lack of proper education, that
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those are the real culprits holding you back.
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It is a very appealing narrative on.
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It Oh totally, because the narrative is that if we can just
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fix the outside, well then the inside will naturally heal
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itself. Right, like a mathematical
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formula. But what if the greatest threat
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to your well-being is actually inside you?
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I mean, what if the call is coming from inside the house?
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That is a terrifying thought for most people to process.
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It really is. So our mission today is to dive
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into Mark Chapter 7, specifically looking at verses
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20 through 23, and uncover the absolute, unvarnished truth
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about human defilement. Which is not a light topic.
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No, not at all. We are going to tear down the
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illusion of external righteousness and look squarely
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at the true internal condition of humanity.
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It requires a lot of honesty to do that.
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Yeah, think about it like this. Trying to fix human behavior
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with external rules is, well, it's like a doctor misdiagnosing
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a terminal internal illness. OK.
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Yeah, tracking with you. Imagine you go to a physician
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with a failing heart, right? And instead of scheduling
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surgery, the doctor hands you a fresh, perfectly tailored suit.
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Wow. Just a new outfit.
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Yeah, it flatters you. You know, it makes you look
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quite respectable, maybe even affluent to everyone you pass on
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the street. Sure, you look great on the
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outside. But it absolutely cannot heal
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the fatal condition operating beneath the fabric.
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The suit does nothing for the heart.
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That analogy, it really captures the terrifying reality of a
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false diagnosis, because when we look at the text of Mark 7, it
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becomes immediately apparent that Jesus does not flatter
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sinners. He doesn't hand out tailored
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suits. No, he does not.
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He operates as the true physician.
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And you know, a true physician does not spare a patient's
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feelings at the expense of their life.
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Right, that would be malpractice.
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Exactly. Or if I should say precisely, he
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exposes the womb so that grace may actually cleanse it.
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A Doctor Who misdiagnoses A fatal disease just out of a
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desire to keep the patient comfortable?
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Well, that doctor is offering lethal comfort.
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Lethal comfort. That's a great way to phrase it.
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Christ offers the unvarnished reality of our condition.
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He points directly to the innermost being of man as The
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Fountainhead of the problem. And he has to do that right to
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get us to stop trusting the suit.
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Yes, he does this to prepare the mind and the will to abandon all
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hope in the flesh. Because until a person realizes
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the suit cannot cure the heart failure, they will never submit
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to the surgeon's scalpel. OK, so to really grasp the
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gravity of Jesus's diagnosis here, I think we first need to
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understand the intense historical conflict that
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provoked it. We really do.
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The context is crucial. So we have a scene set in 1st
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century Galilee and there is a massive cultural and really
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religious divide happening. Oh, Massive Galilee and
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Jerusalem were worlds apart in many ways.
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Right, Galilee was up north and we see these religious elites
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traveling all the way from Jerusalem down South.
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So can you set the scene for us? Like what was the socio
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political climate that made this confrontation so explosive?
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Well, the setting is vital to grasp. 1st century Galilee was a
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region bustling with agricultural and fishing
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commerce. It was very blue collar.
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The working class heartland, basically.
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Yes, exactly. But the religious establishment
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down in Jerusalem, So the Pharisees, the scribes, the
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academic elite, they viewed Galilee with a great deal of
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suspicion. They.
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Looked down on them. They did.
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They saw the Galileans as somewhat backward, you know,
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perhaps a bit loose with their strict religious observance.
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I'd of like city elites looking down on rural farmers today.
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Very much so. So the fact that they formed an
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official delegation and traveled over 70 miles north on foot
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specifically to investigate and confront Jesus, well, that tells
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you how much of A threat he had become to their system 70.
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Miles on foot is no joke. They were highly motivated.
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Highly motivated, and you also have to factor in the harsh
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political realities of the day. The Jewish people were
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languishing under the heavy, brutal occupation of the Roman
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Empire. Right.
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Rome was in charge, and they were not gentle.
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About it? Not at all.
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The taxation was crippling and the loss of sovereignty was just
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a daily humiliation for them. Which naturally creates a
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pressure cooker situation, yes. Because of this, the general
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populace strongly desired a political Messiah.
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They wanted a military conqueror who would overthrow Caesar and
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restore their national sovereignty by force.
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So they wanted an external fix to an external problem.
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Precisely. They were entirely focused on
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the outside. OK, let's unpack this bit more.
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In the midst of that Roman occupation, their religious
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leaders were trying to hold onto their identity, right?
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Yes, preservation was their main goal.
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And from what I understand about the historical context, they did
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this through something called the tradition of the elders.
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Right, the traditions of men. Which wasn't just the Old
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Testament law. This was an enormous apparatus
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of extra rules built on top of it.
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It was a massive, highly detailed system.
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So can you break down what the Mishnah was and specifically
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this tractate called Yadayim? Well, the intention behind the
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tradition of the elders might have started with a sincere
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desire to preserve national identity, but it morphed into
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something highly oppressive. Like it took on a life of its
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own. It did.
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In an attempt to maintain a strict visible separation from
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the surrounding Gentile culture, the Pharisees constructed these
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massive extra biblical hedges around the Mosaic Law.
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Hedges. So like a buffer zone?
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Yes. A literal fence of rules.
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Their logic was if we build a fence of rules far outside the
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actual law, we will never even come close to breaking the
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actual law. Which sounds practical on paper,
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I guess. On paper, sure, but this oral
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tradition, which was passed down by the Rabbi's, eventually
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became codified in written form as the Mishnah.
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And where does Yadaim fit into that?
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Within that vast collection of legal rulings, the Tractate
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Yadaim dealt entirely with intricate, highly burdensome
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rituals concerning the hands. Just the hands.
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Yes, particularly the ceremonial washing of hands before eating.
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It detailed how much water to use, how it should be poured and
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even how far up the wrist the water needed to reach.
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Wow, and we need to clarify right now for anyone listening
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that this hand washing had absolutely nothing to do with
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biology or germ theory. Oh, absolutely not.
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That is a modern concept. Right, They were not washing up
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because they understood that dirt carries bacteria that could
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give them a stomach bug. Precisely the concept of
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microscopic germs or bacteria or virology was entirely unknown to
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the ancient world. This practice was strictly 100%
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about ceremonial purity. OK, so how did that ceremonial
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purity work in their minds? The rabbinic laws dictated that
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the surrounding world was perpetually unclean.
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So if an Israelite walk through the marketplace and accidentally
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brushed against a Gentile. Just brushed against.
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Them or even handled a piece of merchandise that a gentile had
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previously touched. That Israelite contracted a
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state of ceremonial impurity. Like spiritual cooties, almost.
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That is a crude way to put it, but yes.
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Now here is where the logic gets really fascinating.
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OK, let's hear it. They believed that if they then
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went home and ate a meal with unwashed hands, that invisible
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external ritual impurity would transfer from their hands to the
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bread. And then they eat the bread.
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Right, and then they would swallow it by ingesting that
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impure food. The impurity would enter their
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physical bodies and defile their spiritual standing before a holy
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God. Wow, so it was a mechanism of
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spiritual contagion? Yes, a complete physical to
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spiritual transfer. The world is dirty.
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You touch the world, you touch your food, you eat the food, and
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now your soul is dirty. That was the theological math
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they were doing. But wait, I have to push back
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here on behalf of anyone listening who is familiar with
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the Old Testament. Sure, go ahead.
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Doesn't God institute actual physical dietary laws?
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I mean, if you read Leviticus 11, there are pages of very
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clear instructions classifying certain animals as clean and
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unclean. Yes, that is a very common
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observation. So weren't the Israelites
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supposed to separate themselves and maintain those physical
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boundaries with their food? It sounds like the Pharisees
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were just trying to follow the Bible.
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Making the distinction between God's actual law and the
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Pharisees additions is essential for understanding this passage.
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OK, So what is the distinction? Well, yes, Leviticus 11 did
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institute stringent dietary boundaries.
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The Israelites were forbidden from eating pork, shellfish and
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various other animals. Right, God said don't eat it.
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He did, however, under the dispensation of the Old
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Covenant, those laws functioned as a God ordained external
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marker to separate national Israel from the surrounding
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Pagan nations. So it was an object lesson.
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It was typological. It was a physical, daily object
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lesson pointing to the necessity of moral holiness.
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God was teaching them that his people must be distinct.
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But the Pharisees took this divine revelation and buried it
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under human tradition. God never commanded the
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elaborate hand washing rituals found in Yadahim.
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So they basically put words in God's mouth.
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They elevated their own manufactured rules to the level
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of divine authority, and in many cases they placed their rules
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above God's commands. Which is terrifying.
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It is they were judging Jesus's disciples, literally condemning
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them as spiritual failures based on an inherited man made custom,
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not a divine mandate. And Jesus does not take that
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lightly. Not even a little bit.
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He exposes their hypocrisy brilliantly.
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He points out how their obsession with their own
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traditions actually LED them to violate the very core of God's
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moral law. Yes, he turns their entire
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argument back on them. He brings up the specific
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practice called the core bound rule.
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I really want to unpack this because it is such a vivid
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illustration of how external religion masks internal
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corruption it. Is one of the most glaring
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examples he could have used. So how did this Corbin loophole
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actually work in practice? The Corbin Rule is a devastating
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example of legalistic evasion. Corbin essentially means a gift
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dedicated to God. OK, sounds pious enough.
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It does. According to their tradition, a
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person could declare their money or their property Corbin.
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By doing this, the property was legally brown to the Temple
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treasury upon their death. Upon their death.
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But what about while they were alive?
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That is the catch. They could often continue to use
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it for themselves while they lived.
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Oh wow, convenient. Very.
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However, because it was now technically dedicated to God, it
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could not be given to anyone else.
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I think I see where this is going.
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So imagine a grown son whose elderly parents fall into
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poverty and desperately need financial support.
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A very real scenario in the ancient world.
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The son, wanting to keep his wealth for himself, simply
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declared his assets Corbin. Wow, when?
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His parents asked for help, he says.
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I would love to help you, but unfortunately all my money is
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dedicated to God. So he gets to keep his money, he
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gets to look incredibly pious to his neighbors because he has
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supposedly dedicated his wealth to the temple, yes, but he
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completely, completely abandons his starving parents.
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Spot on. And by doing so, he directly
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violates the 5th commandment. Honor your father and your
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mother. Which is an actual written
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command from God. The irony is staggering.
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Jesus points this out to show that they honored God with their
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lips. They looked fantastic in their
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tailored suits of external religion, but their hearts were
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completely disconnected from His will.
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They were playing a religious game.
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They were meticulous about washing their hands perfectly
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before dinner, ensuring not a single drop of ceremonial
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impurity touched their bread. All well, harboring intense
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greed, selfishness and rebellion inside their chests.
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So the historical conflict we are looking at in Mark 7 is not
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a debate between Old Testament seriousness and New Testament
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looseness. No, that is a massive
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misunderstanding of the text. It is a fundamental clash of
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authorities. It is the absolute authority of
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God's Word versus the manipulative tradition of men.
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That is a core issue. And because the Pharisees
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fundamentally misdiagnosed the problem as an external issue,
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Jesus does something remarkable here.
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He completely changes the venue of the conversation, right?
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He pulls his disciples aside, away from the crowds and the
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religious leaders, and issues a radical paradigm shifting
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correction. He brings them into the inner
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circle to explain the real mechanics of purity.
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The central thesis of this entire confrontation is found in
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Mark 7.20. He says that which cometh out of
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the man that defileth the man. Let's look closely at the
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mechanics of what Jesus is claiming here.
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The grammar Jesus uses here is highly significant.
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The Greek particle used is to ektu anthropo equilomenon, which
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translates literally to the thing proceeding out of the man.
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The thing proceeding out? Yes, Jesus is entirely reversing
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the directional flow of moral defilement.
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The Pharisees, and frankly most of human philosophy, believed
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defilement was outside in. You walk through a corrupt
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world. You touch an impure market
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stall. It gets on your hands, goes into
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your mouth, and pollutes your pristine soul.
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Exactly. Christ says the absolute
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opposite is true. The flow of defilement is inside
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out. Inside out.
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Yes, the world constantly argues, if we can just fix the
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environment, if we can eradicate poverty, if we can improve
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educational circumstances, we will fix the man.
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Which is the entire basis of modern social theory.
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It is, but Rice says the man is already broken from the inside
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out and because of this, he pollutes every pristine
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environment he enters. The shock value of that
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statement to a 1st century Jewish audience must have been
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off the charts. We can hardly comprehend how
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offensive that would have sounded.
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We are talking about a culture steeped in centuries of rigorous
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dietary separation. Their entire social lives, their
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commerce, their worship revolved around what they could and could
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not put into their mouths. It defined who they were.
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By declaring that defilement is exclusively an internal reality,
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Jesus is effectively pronouncing all foods clean.
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Which Mark points out parenthetically a bit earlier in
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the chapter. Right.
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This anticipates the New Covenant Church age, where those
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Levitical dietary restrictions would be completely abrogated.
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It dismantles their entire religious and sociological
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framework in one sentence. It was utterly revolutionary to
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hear a rabbi state that nothing entering the stomach can defile
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a person spiritually with scandalous.
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To Jewish ears, it sounded like heresy.
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They probably thought he was throwing out the Bible.
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They did, but Jesus is establishing the fundamental
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biblical anthropology. Defilement is an internal
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reality. He explains that food goes into
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the stomach and is naturally eliminated by the body.
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It's just biology, yes. It never touches the heart.
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It cannot alter the moral state of the soul.
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Therefore, the battleground of purity is not the dinner plate,
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it is the human heart. You know, it makes me think of
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the ascetic or monastic impulse that we see throughout history.
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That is a very apartment comparison.
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You have these groups of people who look at the corruption in
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the cities, the crime, the greed, and they think I have to
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get out of here. I need to separate myself.
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Right, they think if I can just isolate myself in a sterile
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room, or move to a remote desert cave, or build a secluded
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compound, I can avoid the disease of sin.
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They treat SIN like an airborne pathogen.
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Yes, they treat it like a physical virus they can
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quarantine themselves against. So they go to the desert, They
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build their walls. They lock the heavy wooden door
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to keep the filthy world out. And then what happens?
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Then comes the terrifying realization you are the carrier
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of the contagion. You brought the disease with
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you. You.
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Packed it in your bags? You carry your corrupt inner
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being right into the monastery. You lock the door and you
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realize you are locked inside with the actual source of the
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defilement. That is a phenomenal
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illustration of the text central thesis.
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The locus of defilement is not the marketplace in Jerusalem,
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nor is it the modern secular city.
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The locus is the human person. It's me, yes.
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The monk in the desert will find that in the silence of his cave,
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his mind is still capable of generating immense pride, lust
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and bitterness. Which is a crushing realization.
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It is once Jesus establishes this undeniable fact that the
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defilement comes from within. The conversation logically moves
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to identifying the specific source and analyzing the
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horrifying output it produces. Right, the text moves to what we
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might call the factory of idols. The factory of idols, I like
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that. Jesus breaks down the anatomy of
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the fallen heart, and the word used here in the original
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language is the Greek word cardia.
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Yes, Cardia. Now, when we hear heart in
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modern Western culture, we immediately think of Valentine's
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Day, romance or fleeting emotions.
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Follow your heart, right? Exactly.
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Follow your heart, trust your feelings, but that is not at all
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what this text implies. Not at all.
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It is vital to understand that in biblical usage, the heart is
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not merely the seat of passing emotion.
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The Cardia is the command center of the human person.
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The command center. It is the central processing
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unit. It encompasses the intellect,
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the reasoning faculties, the desires, the affections and the
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will. It is the totality of the inner
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man. So it's everything that makes
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you you. Yes, when Jesus targets the
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heart, he is targeting the very core of human identity and
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volition. And Jesus starts his devastating
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list of defiling things in verse 21 with evil thoughts, which
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corresponds to the Greek phrase diellaj Moya Hoy kokoi a.
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Very specific phrase the text. Doesn't start with murder.
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It starts with thoughts. Let's unpack the the weight of
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that specific phrase. That phrase is highly revealing.
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The word dellogist Moy refers to calculated, reasoned,
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premeditated deliberations. So it's not just a random bad
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thought passing through. No, Jesus is not talking about
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accidental mistakes or fleeting, careless impulses that pop into
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your head and disappear. He is talking about the internal
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boardroom of the soul where sin is planned.
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The boardroom of the soul. He is saying that sin is
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scripted in the mind before the body ever acts on it.
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The visible deed always has an invisible womb.
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Man, that is a chilling way to put it.
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The visible deed has an invisible womb.
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It forces us to take our thought life very seriously.
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So the guy who embezzles money from his company didn't just
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accidentally slip and steal the funds?
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Right, he didn't trip and fall into a stack of cash.
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There were weeks, maybe months, of dialogue is more calculating
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the spreadsheets, rationalizing why he deserved the money,
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figuring out how to hide the paper trail.
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The Greed counted the game before his hand ever reached out
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to steal. Precisely.
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Lust scripts the entire scene in the theater of the mind before
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the body ever follows. Through it's all rehearsed
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internally. Bitterness holds an entire mock
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trial in the head, acting as prosecutor, judge and jury
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against a rival long before an unkind word is ever spoken
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aloud. We've all done that.
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The heart is a restless factory, constantly deliberating and
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manufacturing these rebellions. OK, let's walk through the
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inventory of this factory. There is a deliberate
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grammatical structure in the list of sins Jesus provides.
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Yes, Mark records it with precision.
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He starts with six plural nouns which represent repeated
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manifest acts. Then he shifts to six singular
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nouns representing deep entrenched dispositions or
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attitudes. A shift from actions to
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character traits. Let's start with the plural acts
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we see porni, murders, thefts, adulteries, covetousness, and
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wickednesses. Let's break these down 1 by 1,
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starting with porni, the term. Porni is a comprehensive Greek
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word from which we get our modern word pornography right.
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However, in the 1st century context, it was an umbrella term
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encompassing all sexual activity outside the explicit boundaries
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of a complementarian marriage covenant.
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So it covered a lot of ground. It did.
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The Greco Roman world had extremely loose sexual ethics,
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much like today, but Jesus categorizes all of it.
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Any deviation from the Genesis design as defilement originating
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from the corrupt heart. Then the list moves to murders
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and thefts. These are severe violations of
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our horizontal duty to our fellow human beings.
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The breakdown of society, really.
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And again, following the logic of the heart, the murder starts
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with a seed of internal rage, and the theft starts with a seed
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of internal dissatisfaction with what God has provided.
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Yes, and then we see adulteries which specifically violate the
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sacred marriage covenant, destroying families and breaking
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vows. Following that is covetousness.
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The Greek word here implies a severe, ruthless greed.
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Right, that does it is an insatiable thirst to possess
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what belongs to another person. So it's not just I wish I had a
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nice car like his. No, it is not just wanting nice
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things. It is the aggressive desire to
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have more, often at the expense of someone else.
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It's. Predatory.
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Exactly. Then wickednesses is a broad
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plural term for malicious practices acts deliberately
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intended to cause harm or distress to others.
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So these are the manifest repeated acts of rebellion that
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are easily visible to the outside world.
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Yes, these are the fruits you can easily spot on the tree.
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But then the list pivots. Jesus moves from the plural
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actions to the singular attitudes.
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The roots. Right, these are the subtle,
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deeply ingrained character traits that might never result
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in a prison sentence, but are just as defiling.
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We see deceit, which comes from the word dolos.
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I read that this literally translates to baiting a trap.
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Yes, Dolos carries the imagery of a fisherman baiting a hook or
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a hunter setting a snare. That is so descriptive.
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It is the disposition of manipulation.
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It is using flattery, half truths, or calculated omissions
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to reel someone in for your own advantage.
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So it's the salesperson who knowingly hides the flaw in the
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product. Yes, or the friend who gossips
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under the guise of sharing a prayer request.
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It is cunning deception. Next is lasciviousness, which is
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defined as a total lack of restraint, A shameless
22:07
indulgence where a person no longer cares what God or anyone
22:10
else thinks of their behavior. Just total brazenness.
22:12
But the next one is fascinating. An evil eye.
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For a long time I thought the evil eye was just some ancient
22:18
superstition or forklore about cursing.
22:21
People like casting a spell. Yeah, but it is actually a
22:24
Hebrew idiom. Let's look at what that means in
22:27
this context. The evil eye is a brilliant
22:30
idiom. It describes A stingy, intensely
22:32
envious disposition. Stingy.
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OK. It is the internal posture of
22:37
bitterly resenting another person's blessing or success.
22:40
Wow. If a neighbor gets a promotion,
22:43
the evil eye cannot celebrate. It only feels the burn of
22:46
jealousy. So their success is my failure.
22:48
Right. It views the world as a 0 sum
22:51
game where someone else's joy is perceived as a personal injury.
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It is a miserable, inward focused way to live.
22:58
Following the evil eye, the list continues with blasphemy, which
23:01
is speaking against the majesty of God.
23:03
Then comes pride. A very common one.
23:06
The text describes this not as healthy self esteem, but as an
23:09
arrogant disdain. It is the creature attempting to
23:12
usurp the Creator's throne, looking down on others with
23:14
contempt. Elevating oneself above everyone
23:17
else. And finally, foolishness.
23:19
Now, this is not about a low IQ or or a lack of formal
23:23
education, right? Correct.
23:25
Biblical foolishness has nothing to do with intelligence.
23:27
Because there are plenty of very smart fools.
23:29
Oh absolutely. You can have a PhD and be a
23:31
biblical fool. Foolishness here is moral
23:34
insanity. Moral insanity.
23:36
It is living with a reckless, brazen disregard for God's law
23:41
and God's reality. It is the person who knows the
23:44
bridge is out ahead but accelerates anyway.
23:47
I have to ask a question that I'm sure many people listening
23:49
are wrestling with right now. Go ahead looking at this
23:53
devastating list. Murders, thefts, adultery.
23:57
Someone might logically say OK, I understand I'm not perfect,
24:00
but I can honestly say I have never committed physical murder.
24:03
I have never robbed a bank or committed Grand Theft Auto.
24:06
That is a very normal reaction. Am I really still just as
24:09
defiled according to this text? Is my heart really that bad?
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It is a natural defense mechanism to look at the
24:14
extremes on the list and say that isn't me.
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Right, we want to distance ourselves.
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But the text forces us to a very humbling conclusion.
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This is the theological concept of total depravity.
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OK, let's break that down. Total depravity does not mean
24:29
that every single human being commits every possible sin to
24:32
the maximum possible degree. Obviously, not everyone is a
24:35
physical murderer. Right.
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What it means is that every faculty of human nature, the
24:40
mind, the will, the emotions, is tainted by the fall.
24:44
The seed of murder, the seed of theft, resides comfortably in
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the native disposition of every single person.
24:51
So it's like a botanical issue? Yes, the soil of my heart has
24:54
the seeds of all these weeds. Even if the weed hasn't sprouted
24:58
into full physical violence, the potential the DNA of that
25:01
violence is present. That is highly accurate.
25:05
Even if the physical act of murder has not occurred, the
25:07
malice, the impatience and the sudden flare of intense anger
25:11
that produced murder are manufactured in the exact same
25:14
corrupt factory of the heart. That is terrifying.
25:17
If you have ever felt a flash of road rage where you genuinely
25:20
wished harm on another driver, well, you have felt the
25:22
machinery of murder turning inside you.
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The argument of the text closes like a heavy steel vault door at
25:27
the end of verse 23. All these evil things come from
25:30
within and defile the man. There are no exceptions.
25:34
It really leaves absolutely no room for human boasting.
25:38
It is a total leveling of the playing field.
25:40
The ground is completely level at the foot of this diagnosis.
25:43
The religious elite in their fine robes and the criminal in
25:46
the street share the exact same diagnosis.
25:49
And once the diagnosis is confirmed as a terminal internal
25:52
disease, all superficial treatments have to be thrown
25:55
out. You have.
25:55
To stop playing games with bandages.
25:57
So let's take this ancient text and apply it to the modern
26:00
world. How does this passage challenge
26:03
the various ways our modern society tries to cure itself?
26:07
This text acts as a Wrecking Ball to several modern
26:10
ideologies and proposed remedies.
26:13
Let's start with secular theology and frameworks like
26:16
critical race theory. OK, let's look at those.
26:18
These systems of thought typically locate the origin of
26:21
human brokenness and sin in external factors.
26:24
Like we talked about at the beginning.
26:25
Yes, they argue that societal structures, historic power
26:29
dynamics, economic disparities, or a lack of progressive
26:33
education are the root causes of humanity's problems.
26:37
Right, the system is broken, not the people.
26:39
If you follow their logic, the cure is to dismantle and
26:43
rearrange the external structures.
26:45
But based on this passage. The text of Mark 7 creates a
26:47
direct, irreconcilable conflict of that approach.
26:51
Based on Jesus's words, the individual human soul is the
26:54
source of the problem. A society is simply a collection
26:58
of corrupt human hearts. Exactly.
27:00
Therefore, you cannot clean a poisoned well by simply
27:04
repainting the bricks on the outside.
27:06
Changing the structure does not change the human heart.
27:09
And it is not just secular sociology that gets challenged
27:11
here. The text also takes aim at
27:13
modern religious pragmatism. Yes, this cuts both ways.
27:16
You see these seeker sensitive church movements that rely
27:19
heavily on sophisticated marketing techniques, concert
27:22
level strobe lights and Ted talk style motivational speeches.
27:25
The production value is incredible.
27:27
It is, but the goal seems to be treating the symptoms of human
27:31
sadness or a lack of fulfillment.
27:33
Based on this passage, treating sadness while ignoring the
27:36
terminal disease of human depravity is malpractice.
27:39
It's absolute malpractice. The underlying assumption of
27:42
extreme pragmatism is that people just need to be engaged,
27:46
entertained or give them practical life tips to be
27:49
healthy. Give them five steps to a better
27:52
week. Right, but you cannot entertain
27:54
a person into a state of spiritual regeneration.
27:57
A smoke machine cannot alter a corrupt nature.
27:59
A strobe light doesn't fix a dead heart.
28:01
Furthermore, if the problem is an internal corruption of
28:04
nature, then adding stricter rules or trying harder, which is
28:08
the path of legalism and moralism, is equally futile.
28:12
You just end up exhausted. Better daily habits cannot
28:14
create a new spiritual nature. You can train a dog to sit, but
28:18
you cannot train a dog to become a cat.
28:20
That is a brilliant way to put it.
28:22
You can't change the nature through training.
28:24
No you cannot. That brings up another point
28:26
regarding sacramentalism. There are theological traditions
28:29
that emphasize the physical act of sacraments as the actual
28:32
mechanism of grace. Yes, viewing the sacrament
28:35
itself as the cure. But the analysis of this text
28:39
pushes back on that, noting that the physical act of sprinkling
28:42
water on the outside of a person cannot magically alter a corrupt
28:46
internal nature. It goes right back to the hand
28:49
washing. Exactly.
28:50
The internal desire to sin, the technical term being
28:54
concupiscence. Is it self damning?
28:56
That is a critical observation. Concupiscence is that innate
29:00
leaning desire toward evil even before you act on it.
29:05
The fact that you want to rebel is evidence of defilement.
29:08
It shows the factory is still running.
29:10
Sacramentalism often relies on an external ritual to confer
29:13
grace, much like the Pharisees relying on ceremonial washing.
29:17
But external water cannot wash the internal conscience.
29:20
The overarching point derived from all these critiques is
29:23
singular. External applications cannot
29:25
solve an internal rupture. That is the immovable truth of
29:29
the passage. You know, it makes me think of a
29:30
guy who has a car with a completely blown engine.
29:33
The Pistons are shot, the block is cracked.
29:35
It is a total disaster. It's beyond repair.
29:38
And his solution is to spend thousands of dollars giving the
29:41
car a fresh high gloss coat of paint and putting on brand new
29:44
tires. Oh, it would look nice.
29:46
It looks fantastic sitting in the driveway, but the moment he
29:49
turns the key it is still dead. Because the engine is gone.
29:53
All of these human solutions, societal restructuring,
29:56
moralism, religious pragmatism, they are just fresh coats of
30:00
paint on a blown engine. That analogy perfectly sets up
30:03
the massive theological dilemma we face.
30:05
A massive dilemma if. We connect this to the broader
30:08
biblical narrative. The absolute inability of
30:12
humanity to cure its own defiled heart creates A terrifying
30:15
situation. Because God still demands
30:17
perfection. Yes, the law of holy God demands
30:21
internal perfection. He does not just want clean
30:24
hands, He demands a pure heart. Yet, as we have established,
30:27
humanity produces only internal rebellion.
30:30
We are totally incapable of generating the purity God
30:33
demands. This insurmountable human
30:35
inability screams for a divine substitute.
30:38
Which brings us to the only actual cure.
30:41
The beauty of the gospel is that God doesn't leave us in that
30:43
terrifying dilemma. He provides the solution we
30:46
could never generate. The historical and theological
30:49
reality is that Jesus Christ is the sole exception to this
30:53
universal rule of human depravity.
30:55
Indeed, This is why the virgin birth is not just a nice
30:58
Christmas story, it is a theological necessity.
31:01
Wait, untack that. Why is the virgin birth a
31:03
necessity here? Because conceived by the Holy
31:06
Spirit, Jesus did not inherit Adam's fallen, corrupt nature.
31:10
He bypassed the corrupt factory line.
31:13
Exactly. His Cardia, his inner being, the
31:15
command center of his humanity, was absolutely pristine.
31:19
From him proceeded no evil thoughts, no deceit, no pride,
31:22
and no foolishness. When the pressures of life
31:25
squeezed him, only pure, unadulterated love and obedience
31:29
to the Father poured out. He possessed complete, unbroken
31:32
internal purity. He was the only human to ever
31:34
walk the earth with a clean heart.
31:36
So let's break this down for the listener.
31:38
How does Christ's pristine purity actually solve my
31:41
problem? The application is key here.
31:43
He was perfect, but I am still the guy with the corrupt factory
31:46
in my chest. How does his historical
31:49
perfection become my present cure?
31:51
The mechanism of this cure is understood through 2 vital
31:54
theological concepts, the act of obedience and the passive
31:58
obedience of Christ. OK, let's look at active
32:01
obedience first. Christ's active obedience refers
32:04
to the fact that He fulfilled the Law perfectly both
32:07
internally and externally over the entire course of His earthly
32:10
life. For all 33 years.
32:13
Yes, for 33 years he loved God with all his heart, soul, mind
32:17
and strength. He loved his neighbor perfectly.
32:20
He never had a selfish thought. Never harbored a single one.
32:23
He lived a flawless, meritorious life that you and I were
32:26
commanded to live, but completely failed to do.
32:29
OK, so that is his act of obedience, his perfect life.
32:32
What about his passive obedience?
32:33
His passive obedience refers to his willing submission to the
32:36
penalty of the law on the cross. The suffering.
32:39
On Calvary he passively absorbed the wrath of God that was due
32:43
for our specific internal sins. So he took the hit for the
32:46
factory. He took the punishment for our
32:48
adulteries, our thefts, our deceit, our pride, and our
32:51
foolishness. The full force of divine justice
32:54
fell on the sinless man. So there is a colossal exchange
32:58
that happens. This is the concept of
33:00
imputation. The great exchange.
33:02
I like to think of it like a bank account.
33:04
I have a spiritual bank account that is billions of dollars in
33:08
debt because of my internal defilement.
33:10
Copelessly bankrupt. Totally bankrupt.
33:13
Christ has an account of infinite, perfect righteousness.
33:17
At the cross, my massive debt was imputed, transferred, and
33:20
credited to his account, and he paid it off with his life.
33:24
Simultaneously, his infinite righteousness is imputed to my
33:27
account. So when God looks at my Ledger,
33:30
He doesn't see my defilement. He sees Christ's pristine
33:33
record. He sees perfection.
33:35
And this exchange happens by faith alone, apart from any of
33:38
my own external works. That is the very essence of
33:41
justification by faith, and the beauty of this redemptive work
33:44
is that it doesn't stop a justification.
33:46
There is more. Yes, it connects directly to the
33:49
sweeping, miraculous promises of the New Covenant.
33:52
Like what we see in the prophets?
33:54
If we look back at the prophet Ezekiel, specifically chapter
33:57
36, God makes an astonishing promise.
34:01
He says I will take away the Stony heart out of your flesh,
34:04
and I will give you a heart of flesh.
34:06
A heart transplant. He promises to put his own
34:09
spirit within his people. The external washing of hands
34:12
and cups by the Pharisees in the Old Testament were only
34:16
typological shadows. They were.
34:17
Just pointing ahead. They were pointing to the
34:19
absolute necessity of an internal washing, a supernatural
34:23
regeneration brought about by the blood of the Lamb.
34:26
A defiled heart requires a holy Savior who can enact a complete
34:30
internal resurrection. Only God can change the heart.
34:32
This has been an intensely heavy but incredibly clarifying look
34:36
at these concepts. It strips away all of our
34:38
pretending. It leaves us with nowhere to
34:40
hide. If we wrap up this deep dive,
34:42
the text urges a direct, uncompromising application for
34:46
you, the listener. It calls for rigorous, honest
34:48
self examination. We have to look in the mirror.
34:51
If you are a believer, recognizing this ongoing
34:53
internal reality means you must ruthlessly mortify remaining
34:57
corruption. You cannot make peace with the
34:59
factory of idols. No truces with sin.
35:02
We have to take every thought captive.
35:04
We have to abandon any lingering reliance on our personal
35:07
morality, our denominational heritage or our external
35:11
respectability in the community. None of those things can alter
35:14
the heart. Furthermore, recognizing our
35:16
weakness should drive believers to utilize the ordinary means of
35:20
grace. God has provided specific
35:23
avenues for our continued sanctification.
35:26
Believers are instructed to engage constantly with the Word
35:29
of God, to maintain fervent prayer, and to participate in
35:33
the sacraments, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.
35:35
But not as magical external fixes.
35:37
Right. Doing so with faith and
35:39
expectation that the Spirit works through them to strengthen
35:42
the new heart. And perhaps most vitally, the
35:44
reality of our lingering internal struggle should cause
35:47
believers to look eagerly to the imminent return of Christ.
35:51
A blessed hope. We look forward to the
35:52
millennial Kingdom in the final state, because it's at that
35:55
point of glory that believers will finally be entirely,
36:00
permanently separated from the very presence of this internal
36:03
corruption. The battle will finally be over.
36:05
It will be finished. The final call from the text is
36:07
incredibly clear and counterintuitive.
36:10
You are invited to come to Christ exactly as you are
36:14
defiled. Don't try to wash up first.
36:16
Your do not wait until you think you have cleaned yourself up,
36:19
because as we've seen, you can't come confessing the true
36:23
terminal reality of your internal condition.
36:25
Trusting entirely in His perfect imputed righteousness.
36:29
That is the gospel. As we close, I want to leave you
36:32
with a final thought to consider long after the audio ends,
36:35
circling all the way back to where we began.
36:37
A parting thought. If our most dangerous defilement
36:40
truly comes from our own internal desires and reasonings,
36:43
how might the very things you consider your greatest personal
36:46
strengths, your sharp intellect, your rigorous discipline, or
36:49
your fear self-reliance actually be mastering the exact kind of
36:53
pride and foolishness that Jesus condemns here?