Written on Our Hard Hearts

If we were not blinded by sin, we would see 
that God's law is clearly written in our own 
hearts, embedded so deeply in our nature that 
it cannot be effaced.  The more eagerly we 
seek our lusts and desires the more we are 
judged.  

The reason that we do not understand is that 
our hearts are very hard, unless we are 
renewed by the Spirit, given a new heart 
that can understand and fear the Lord.  We 
are naturally first in our own causes, seek 
them eagerly, and men who are most 
energetic in this endeavor are praised and 
rewarded by the world and held up as 
examples for the rest of us.


Philippians 2:21 "For all seek their own, 
not the things which are Jesus Christ’s."

Jesus is the Light of the world, and the 
Light that penetrates into the darkness of 
our hearts, showing us that the more 
energy and effort we devote to our own 
interests, the more we are judged by His 
holy law.

How can this be.  These are the words of 
Christ in Matthew 7:7-12, the latter 
portion of the Sermon on the Mount: 


7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, 
and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be 
opened unto you:
8  For every one that asketh receiveth; 
and he that seeketh findeth; and to him 
that knocketh it shall be opened.
9  Or what man is there of you, whom if 
his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10  Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a 
serpent?
11  If ye then, being evil, know how to give 
good gifts unto your children, how much 
more shall your Father which is in heaven 
give good things to them that ask him?

This is the proper way of seeking the 
desires of our heart.  We are to come to 
our Heavenly Father and trust His wisdom, 
love, and dominion, for He will give the 
Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
[Parallel Passage in Luke 11:13]

Instead of asking of our Father, we strive 
on our own.  We bite and devour,we 
contend and steal and murder.  We slander 
and destroy, and we have not because we 
ask not.  But our very striving, our very 
contending, the hot lusts that burn within 
us.  In fact, the hotter our desires, the 
strong we contend for them, the stronger 
our condemnation.

Because we have this wonderful promise 
from our Heavenly Father, we should read 
our desires and lusts in an entirely knew 
direction.  In the words of our Lord, for 
He follows the above promises  by saying:

12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them: for this is the law and 
the prophets.

The measure of our desires is the measure 
of our duty toward our brother and sister, 
and this is the very requirement of the law 
and the prophets.  Do I strive to defend my 
life; then I should strive with the same 
measure to defend my neighbor's life.  Do 
I oppose theft and seek to secure my title 
to my possessions  then I should do so for 
my neighbor.  Do I love my wife and resent 
attentions paid to her by other men;  then I 
should not pay attention to other men's 
wives.

For love is the fulfilling of the law and the 
second great commandment is to love my 
neighbor as myself.  My love for myself 
that I have naturally is the very measure 
by which I must love my neighbor.

Jesus is not teaching us in the passage how 
to go to heaven, for salvation is not by the 
law, but by faith in Christ.  But He is 
teaching us the true meaning of the law 
and the prophets and the measure of the 
good we are to seek to do as the children 
of God.  

Jesus fully engaged the law and kept it 
perfectly, and His righteousness is the 
only sufficient righteousness that can 
open the door to heaven and admit us into 
the presence of God, but this is what He 
did in laying down His life for us.  We 
also ought to lay down our life for our 
neighbor, for this is His commandment.

1 John 3:16 "Hereby perceive we the love 
of God, because he laid down his life for us: 
and we ought to lay down our lives for the 
brethren."