The Hardening Of The Human Heart

There are passages in the Bible that are frightening.  Heb. 3:12-13 is one such passage. "Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called 'TODAY,' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." (NKJV)  This is a passage addressed to Christians but the idea that the heart can be hardened by sin is applicable to all men.

The fact that a man can be hardened by sin is scary in that the implication is that a person might well get to the point where he/she is so hardened that they can no longer repent and thus lose all possibility of being forgiven and of salvation.  Sufficient hardening leads to damnation.  When your heart becomes so hard that you cannot repent, for your heart will not allow it, you are done.

The spiritual heart of man can be likened to cement in that when cement is wet, before it has settled and dried, you can fashion it in whatever manner you choose but once it has hardened it becomes a different matter altogether.

Once a person hears the truth, whether about the gospel as a whole or the truth as regards a particular sin, and that person refuses to respond to the truth obediently he hardens his heart in that very act. 

Sin is a hardening agent.  Every day away from God living for self, when one has heard the truth and knows better, is another day of sin, another day of the further hardening of the heart.  You say you can change but the desire to do so becomes less and less as time goes by and one grows ever more comfortable in a non-Christian or unfaithful lifestyle.  Sin becomes ever more comfortable as each day passes by.  This is a part of the deceitfulness of sin.  Things seem to go fine without God or without faithfulness.  That is until the day it is too late. 

In Heb. 6, the Bible speaks of Christians who have gotten themselves into a situation where it is impossible to renew them to repentance:

"For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame." (Heb. 6:4-6 NAS)

One does not fall away from God in a single hour, day, or week, but it is a process.  Let the leaven of sin do its work, let the heart become gradually hardened by it, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, and the end result may well be a heart too hardened to repent and who can say how long or short a time that may take.

The Bible speaks about God giving up on people.  No doubt they had become hardened.  In Rom. 1 we read words like "God also gave them up" (v. 24), "God gave them up" (v. 26), and "God gave them over" (v. 28) all talking about God giving those people up to sins of various kinds which means he ceased to exercise any restraining influence on them.  The New Living Translation says "God abandoned them" in verses 24 and 26, and in verse 28, "he abandoned them."  How would you like God to abandon you, to give up on you, to allow you to go on in sin with no more efforts to restrain you or bring you to repentance?  Would that scare you?  It should.

God says in Psalms 81:11-12, "But My people would not heed My voice, And Israel would have none of Me.  So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, To walk in their own counsels." (NKJV)  That God was long-suffering with his people in Israel and Judah no one can doubt who has ever read the Old Testament.  Time and again in the prophets one can see God pleading with his people to repent and turn back to him but they refused to do so.  There comes a time when it is too late to repent, too late because you cannot do it, because you become incapable of doing it.  The heart will not allow it.

A person's heart is not something to be played with.  "Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life." (Prov. 4:23 NKJV)  Adam Clarke says of this verse, "'Above all keeping,’ guard thy heart."  The New Living Translation reads, "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life."  Think about that, your heart determines the course of your life and so it does.  That is serious business.  If the heart wanders, if it is not steadfast, if it is not centered on God, on Christ, on the gospel, on God's will, what then?  It is then directing the course of your life towards hell.  There is good reason to "Guard your heart above all else."  One's eternal destiny is at stake.

Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matt. 6:21 NKJV)  If you look closely at the two verses just before Matt. 6:21 Jesus only offers two alternatives as to where a man's treasure will be, either on earth or in heaven.  He says without quoting it all, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." (Matt. 6:19-20 NKJV)  A man's treasure is either going to be found on earth in the things of this world, which means that is where his heart is, or his treasure is going to be in heaven, which means his heart is set on the spiritual life.  The one pathway is inevitably going to lead to sin for it does not lead to God. 

A man who has hardened his heart against God and his word is like a man carrying around a bottle of liquid nitroglycerin in his pocket.  He never knows when his life will end and total disaster befall him.  Solomon wrote, "He who hardens his heart will fall into calamity." (Prov. 28:14 NKJV)  Now I want you to take note of two things from this passage.  (1) There is no doubt about the calamity.  It is coming.  You will not escape it no matter who you are if you harden your heart.  (2) Secondly, who is it that hardens his heart?  It is the individual.  It is not something that has to happen.  You can prevent it.  It is in your hands; you have the ability to prevent your heart from hardening.

Again, "He who is often reproved, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." (Prov. 29:1 NKJV)  While the text is correctly translated "hardens his neck," we understand that is a figure of speech referring to the hardening of the heart.  The New Revised Standard version reads, "One who is often reproved, yet remains stubborn, will suddenly be broken beyond healing." (Prov. 29:1)  It is the heart that is stubborn, but who makes it that way?  Who is responsible for not listening to the word of God that reproves a man of his sins?  To ask is to answer.  What happens to such a man?  He is destroyed without remedy.  That ought to scare us.

Without the word of God we would not even know there was such a thing as sin or that we were going to be judged by God's word.  It is God's word that reproves a man, that tells him he is wrong and needs to change, that he needs to repent?  What do you think, should a man harden his heart against the things he reads in the Bible?  It is just a matter of time for the hardened man who refuses to listen to the word of God, just a matter of time.

"But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." (Rom. 2:5 NKJV)  The impenitent heart is a hard heart.  It will not obey God and its reward is wrath.  That reward begins on the day of death.  He will be as was the rich man who desired of Lazarus some water for his tongue for he said, "I am tormented in this flame." (Luke 16:24 NKJV)  That time of torment for the hard-hearted man or woman could begin in the next few minutes for no one knows the minute of his death.  My niece died in apparently perfect health while asleep on a couch at the age of 33.  The autopsy found no apparent cause of death.  According to the autopsy report she ought to be alive but she is not.  When your heart quits beating you are dead no matter what state of health you may think you are in or your doctor says you are in.

An impenitent heart is a choice.  A hard heart is a choice.  God knows a man's heart.  Peter said at the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 in speaking of God's acceptance of the Gentiles, "So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them." (Acts 15:8 NKJV)  The Psalmist, David, said, "He knows the secrets of the heart." (Psalms 44:21 NKJV)  Then we are told, "All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." (Heb. 4:13 NKJV)  David, in speaking to his son Solomon said, "The Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts." (1 Chron. 28:9 NKJV)  One can fool other men as to his motives and as to what he thinks.  He can mislead, deceive, and even tell outright lies but he cannot fool God for God knows--he has searched out every man's heart.

One of the big questions that a man faces is am I honest with myself?  Am I honest with God's word as it applies to me?  If I am not I am simply going to die in my sin or sins.  There is no way around it.  In God's eyes it is the wicked man who "hardens his face." (Prov. 21:29 NKJV)  We can please men or we can please God.  We can please self or we can please God.  Whatever we do we must remember the question Job asked, one which we must answer, "Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?" (Job 9:4 NKJV)

I want to close this article with a short discussion of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, a man who hardened his heart against God.  I quote the following text:

"Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.  He also did evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the LORD.  And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD God of Israel." (2 Chron. 36:11-13 NKJV) 

The kingdom was at that time a tributary to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.  Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar paying no heed to Jeremiah, God's spokesman.  Jerusalem was laid siege to around 18 months before being taken.  When the city was taken, Zedekiah was captured while trying to flee.  All of Zedekiah's sons were executed before his very eyes and then his own eyes were put out and he was carried captive to Babylon.  I remind you of what Job said, "Who has hardened himself against Him and Prospered?" (Job 9:4 NKJV)  Not Zedekiah. 

Zedekiah "hardened his heart against turning to the Lord."  Was there a reason he could not have turned to the Lord?  Was there something preventing such a turning?  Not a thing in the world.  Jeremiah was there urging just such a turn all the time.  Until a man gives in to the word of God and is willing to come into compliance with it there is no hope for him.

In this same chapter, where we read about Zedekiah in 2 Chron. 36, just 2 verses below where we left off in our reading above, we find the following as a follow-up.

"And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.  But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy." (2 Chron. 36:15-16 NKJV)

Zedekiah was not the only Jew with a hardened heart.  But I have quoted this passage to make some points from it.  (1) God is compassionate.  He sent warnings via the prophets but they were more than warnings.  Often, as one reads the prophets, it is as though God is begging, pleading, as though his heart is broken over his people who have left him.  He yearns for them and desires their return much like a parent over a child, a child who has turned his back on the parent and broken the parent's heart.

(2) The second point is that God had done all he could.  There comes a time when everything has been done that can possibly be done for an ill patient.  So it is with the spiritually ill.

(3) The third point was that God's word was despised.  When you get yourself in that position, where you despise what God says, how can you expect help from God for you have basically said I will not accept such help?  His help is found in his word that tells us what we need to do but we are unwilling to accept his prescription.

(4) The final point, there comes a time when there is no remedy.  Why not, because of the hardness of heart.

I close now with the best advice you will ever get.  It is not mine.  It is God's.  "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts." (Heb. 4:7 NKJV)  How is your heart today?  How is mine?  It is the pure in heart that will see God (Matt. 5:8).  They do not harden their hearts against his word.  We will either see God or Satan in time to come.  It is our choice.  It is our heart that will make the difference. 

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Hypocrites In The Church

Are there hypocrites in the church? Surely, there are some. Paul dealt with such in his day for he said in 2 Cor. 11:13, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ." (NASU) In Gal. 2:4 he speaks of "false brethren secretly brought in." (NASU) Hypocrisy is an age-old problem. There are hypocrites about everywhere you look so why be surprised or shocked to find some in the church?

The question to be dealt with in this article is what shall we do about hypocrites in the church? Some people lay all the blame for their own failure to obey the gospel on hypocrites in the church. They talk as though they want nothing to do with such a bunch of hypocrites and it is beneath them to associate with such. They are better than that.

Certainly, the Bible condemns hypocrisy. What may surprise the reader is that the actual word "hypocrisy" is found only in 9 verses of the New American Standard Bible Update edition and "hypocrite" is found in only 2 verses of the same translation. Does that mean there is not a lot written on the subject? Not at all!

One has to remember that in defining a word one learns much by studying words that are the antonyms of the word being defined. We all know that one who is guilty of hypocrisy is one who pretends that which is not true; he pretends to be what he is not; he is a pretender and deceitful. Well, what is the opposite of that? The antonyms for hypocrisy given by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary are genuineness and sincerity. Thus, every time your Bible commands honesty and sincerity of heart it condemns hypocrisy.

One needs to read no further than Matthew to get Jesus' take on hypocrisy. He calls the Pharisees and scribes hypocrites and then says to them, "You, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." (Matt. 23:28 NASU) When Jesus calls a man a hypocrite, as he did the Pharisees and scribes in verse 27, he did not mean it as a compliment. It is a condemnation.

In Luke 12:1, he says, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." (NASU) He goes on then to say they will not get by with it for "there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known." (Luke 12:2 NASU) What was true for them will also be true for you and me if we do not guard our hearts closely and act out of sincerity. It is easy, for example, to worship out of duty rather than sincerely from the heart, out of obligation versus desire.

Peter says to all Christians that we are to put "aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander." (1 Peter 2:1 NASU) The words Joshua spoke to the children of Israel in Joshua 24:14 are just as applicable to us today as they were to them. He said, "Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth." (Joshua 24:14 NASU)

Paul's desire for the Philippians (and for us) was that they might be "sincere and blameless until the day of Christ." (Phil. 1:10 NASU) The writer of the book of Hebrews instructs us to draw near to God "with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb. 10:22 NASU) God demands of us honesty, sincerity, and not hypocrisy.

No one can defend a hypocrite, nor would it be right to try and do so, but to those who complain about hypocrites in the church and use them as an excuse to not obey the gospel we ask this question, can you live the Christian life better than those you criticize or will you even try? You do know, do you not, that living the Christian life is easier said than done? Do you know that the apostle Peter himself was guilty of hypocrisy for a time? Are you making a claim to be better than Peter?

Paul said of Peter, called Cephas in this passage, that "when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy." (Gal 2:11-13 NASU)

Did David not for a time, after committing adultery with Bathsheba and after having her husband killed, act as though (pretending) he had done nothing wrong? Was he not being a hypocrite? It took Nathan the prophet with a direct message from God to get him to face up to his own hypocrisy.

I wonder, will either of these hypocrites be in heaven? Since one does not want to be with hypocrites in the church one supposes that one feels the same about being with Peter and David in heaven. Yes, we are sure that these men repented of any and all wrongdoing doing but the point is that for a time they were hypocrites. Just because a man is a hypocrite today does not mean he will be one tomorrow or that he will never repent. Maybe if you were to become a Christian and play the role of a Nathan you could save him. Do you care enough to try?

Another point that needs pursuing is this--the fact that a man is in sin does not necessarily imply that he is a conscious hypocrite. It would be easy to look at a church like that at Corinth in the New Testament and read about all of the sins in that congregation and just say that church is full of hypocrites and sinners. I want nothing to do with them. Does that attitude save them?

What if Paul had felt that way about them--just a bunch of hypocrites that I want nothing to do with? Would they not all have been lost who were caught up in sin there? Instead, what did Paul do? He says he wrote to them in tears (2 Cor. 2:4), speaking of his first Corinthian letter, teaching, begging, pleading, exhorting them to repent. Did any of them do so?

Paul says in his second letter, speaking of the results wrought by his first letter, that "though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it--for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while--I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation." (2 Co 7:8-10 NASU)

When we say we will have nothing to do with hypocrites, we are really saying we have no concern for them; we do not love them as people; let them go to hell; I don't care. Love does not run away from people but rather toward them.

There are probably not too many Christians who have lived so faithfully for a full lifetime that they can honestly say there was never ever any hypocrisy in their lives. It may be that the public did not see it but in our inner self we have known we were not right with God. We were tempted for a time and fell. Can you do better than we have done? Great! It is time to get started.

Finally, where is the compassion? A lot that passes for hypocrisy is merely ignorance of Bible teaching. True, given time, we ought to study and gain knowledge on our own but it takes time. Many simply do not know better. I only argue for a bit of patience and compassion on all of these hypocrites that it is said the church is full of.

Yes, we all despise the idea of hypocrisy and do not have any desire whatsoever to defend true hypocrites. Much of my arguing in this piece has been for the purpose of showing that there is room for love and compassion and that even good and great men are capable of falling into hypocrisy for a time.

But are we not hypocrites ourselves when we say we are too good for all of them, when we say we are too good for the gospel, when we say we are too good for the church? Are we not pretending to be better than we really are?

In closing, I want to mention the conversation Jesus had with Peter after his resurrection when he found Peter and a few of the disciples on the sea having fished all night and caught nothing. You will find the account in John chapter 21 beginning in verse about 15. When Jesus told Peter about what kind of death Peter would die, Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved and said to Jesus, "Lord, and what about this man?" (John 21:21 NASU) Please hear Jesus' response. "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!" (John 21:22 NASU)

My final words in this piece--if there are hypocrites in the church what is that to you as regards your own salvation? You follow Jesus. I think that is exactly what Jesus would tell you. Don't worry about the other guy unless it is for the purpose of helping him. You follow Jesus. 

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Repentance--How Hard It Is

It is hard to repent, no doubt about it. I remember the comment made by a well-known preacher of the nineteenth century that the hardest thing to do was to get men to repent. By contrast, it was easy to get men to believe. He considered his greatest failure was in convincing men to repent.

He was not the first preacher to have that problem. The Bible calls Noah “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5 NKJV). Most Bible students believe Noah preached 120 years (based on Gen. 6:3) and yet the only ones converted by his preaching were members of his own family. Only 8 people were saved from the flood—Noah, his wife, sons, and their wives.

The Bible says of those who died in the flood that they were “disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.” (1 Peter 3:20 NKJV) It was the “world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:5 NKJV) that perished in the flood.

I take from the passages quoted above that Noah preached repentance. Why? Because Peter said of those people that they were “disobedient.” They therefore had law from God, whether written or unwritten. They were “ungodly” and Noah preached “righteousness”. By definition, repentance is a turning from ungodliness to righteousness.

However, one greater than Noah had trouble getting people to repent and this one worked miracles in the presence of men in confirmation of his preaching. Hear Jesus:

“Then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. … And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.’” (Matt. 11:20-23 NKJV)

How hard is it to repent? We learn from this passage that even the preaching of the Lord himself, accompanied by miracles, would not get some to repent. Remember also Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. It was another city that did not repent at his preaching.

Remember the account of the rich man and Lazarus as told by Jesus? Both had died but the rich man now found himself in torment due to his ungodly life. He makes the plea to Father Abraham to send someone to his living brothers that they might repent. “And he said, ‘No father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:30-31 NKJV) In recounting this, Jesus gave his endorsement to the conclusion given by Abraham. Not even a preacher risen from the dead could convince a certain number of people to repent.

The question then naturally arises as to why men will not repent. I might suggest a few things, although my list is far from exhaustive.

Repentance and belief are two separate things. Some who believe will not repent. “Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12:42-43 NKJV) Here we have men who believe but are unwilling to repent, unwilling to give up their lifestyle.

I want to deal with that in just a minute, but first I want to suggest this. While belief and repentance are two separate factors they are closely tied together. If a person truly had the depth of conviction (call it faith or belief) that hell was real and as bad as the Bible teaches it is, and believed they were going there, I think most men would repent. Who volunteers to be tortured? None, if they believe it will happen.

Jesus said in his day via the account of the rich man and Lazarus there is no use to send someone back from the dead for they will not repent. Why not? He does not say but we can figure it out pretty easily. They see no need to repent. You will never convince them of their need. I am satisfied that was the case with the rich man’s brothers.

It seems to me nearly everyone is of the opinion that one way or another they are going to get by when the Day of Judgment comes. Whatever their degree of faith and obedience is (should I say disobedience?) they are of the belief that they will scrape by. Most simply do not believe they need to repent. They are good enough just as they are. Thus, belief (or lack thereof) is tied closely to repentance.

People argue today over how the American constitution should be interpreted and there are two points of view (bear with me--I am not getting off the subject). One is that of the strict constructionist who says the constitution tightly binds us as to laws and powers. The other view is that of what I will call the liberal constructionist. The liberal constructionist does not feel bound by the strict wording of the constitution but feels at liberty to kind of update it, for want of a better way of phrasing it, to the changing times and society’s values. It is like a rubber band that you can stretch allowing more things inside.

The Bible is the same way as regards how men view it. I would suggest that a rubber band can be stretched to the breaking point. We can get so liberal with our interpretations of the Bible that there is indeed no need to repent.

Whatever the merits of this type of interpretation might be with regards to our constitution it will not work with the Bible without destroying the commands of God. When they are destroyed, ceasing to be viewed as commands for our time, then who needs to repent? My point is that what you believe has a great deal to do with whether or not you will repent. What do you believe about yourself? What do you believe about the Bible?

But, I want to get back to the rulers who would not repent, being unwilling to confess Jesus, as found in John 12:42-43. Belief was not the problem but the joy of the things of this world, in their case the praise of men in the synagogues.

The simple fact of the matter is we enjoy sin. I do not say all sin is enjoyable but much of it is. The writer of the book of Hebrews, in speaking about Moses, says he chose to “suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” and spoke of the “treasures in Egypt.” (Heb. 11:25-26 NKJV)

As the son of Pharaoh’s daughter Moses could have readily enjoyed all that money, fame, and position or power could offer. The Hebrew writer called these things “the passing pleasures of sin.” What we have (position, power, fame, money, luxury, prestige) has, for the average man or woman, a great deal to do with what we believe and what we think about repentance. We do not think these things color our perspective but they do.

Paul spoke in 1 Corinthians about these things when he said, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” (1 Cor. 1:26 NKJV) What did he mean by that given the fact the gospel call is for all men (2 Thess. 2:14)? We are all called by the gospel. It is obvious he was saying that not many of such a class of people would respond to the call.

Jesus said of a rich man that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (be saved). (Luke 18:25) Why? Again, the answer is obvious--the pleasures of the world. See also 1 Tim. 6:9.

In 2 Cor. 4:3-4 the Bible talks about people being blinded. Paul says, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” (NKJV) What is it these people do not believe?

We would say the gospel, the message about Jesus being the Christ, the Savior of the world, “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4 NKJV) True, but the gospel is not good news unless it can be obeyed and salvation obtained. That means that part of what was veiled to these people who did not believe was their need for repentance. Who was hiding it from them? The god of this world.

Finally, in closing, I add this. Human pride plays a big role in making repentance hard to do. It takes a big man or woman to confess they are a sinner. Humility is a hard thing to come by but it is the very thing required of any person who would be saved.

“And Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:2-4 NKJV)

It is hard for a successful person, by this world’s standards, to humble himself to the degree necessary to repent. However, pride is a killer and we must be humble not just by outward appearance but in our heart--truly be humble. The Bible says “a proud look” (Prov. 6:17 NKJV) God not only hates but it is an abomination to him.

It is not hard for the man who has been a failure to repent in comparison to the successful man; nevertheless, we all must fight the battle against pride. None are exempt from pride. It is tough to say I have sinned.

Yes, it is hard to repent but it is necessary. For the man or woman who succeeds in doing it there is a peace, joy, and rejoicing unknown to those who have not repented and thus not experienced it.

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When Did Obedience Become Legalism

We seem to be living in a time in the present Christian era where people seem to feel that all that matters in Christianity is love and God’s grace, when obedience is seen as legalism, and where it is felt that people do not have to obey biblical commands for salvation except, of course, for the command to believe in Jesus as the Savior.

Grace is made cheap. Live as you like, call yourself a Christian, and God’s grace will cover you. It is said it is what is in the heart, generally defined as the emotions, that counts. Feelings and emotions are defined as love for God. God’s grace will cover a life of sin just so a person believes in God in some abstract sense. I might add if you doubt this just attend a few funerals and see if you can learn of any deceased who are not already in heaven based on the conversations you hear and the preaching that is done there.

People talk about love for God all the time. It is in their heart (their emotions). Yet, quote a passage to them like 1 John 5:2-3, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (NKJV) and you immediately have problems for that is not what they want to hear. It is not how they want love defined. Love is emotion, not obedience, in their way of looking at things.

In 1 Cor. 13 we have Paul discussing love in verses 4-8. In verse 6 of that chapter he says love “does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth.” (NKJV) Iniquity is the opposite of obedience. One can no more join love with iniquity than he can a lamb with a lion. But we have come to believe God’s grace covers everything and obedience is not necessary. We now accept iniquity because we are no longer willing to accept the Bible as the standard of authority for what is holy and right versus what is wrong.

To condemn sin as did John the Baptist, Paul, and Jesus is today seen to be unloving, intolerant, and judgmental, and thus unchristian in the minds of many. Yet, in the New Testament, Paul by the Holy Spirit, commanded Timothy to reprove and rebuke (2 Tim. 4:2 NAS) and not go along with or hold his silence in the presence of men sinning. Titus was told not only to rebuke but to do so sharply (Titus 2:13, see also Titus 2:15). The Ephesians were told, thus meaning it is applicable to us as well, to “take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Eph. 5:11 ESV) But today that is seen as sticking your nose in where it does not belong and we are no longer to call anything short of murder, rape, or robbery and such like as sin.

Yes, obedience to Bible standards of conduct (commands) is now seen as legalism. Sin is renamed and given polite names or, as is often the case, simply dropped off the radar altogether. Fornication is an example of a sin that has dropped off the radar screen and out of sight. Hardly anyone takes it to be a sin today. It is commonly expected that just about every young person is going to engage in it and certainly every unmarried adult. It is just taken for granted as being a normal part of society and not a serious sin at all. What happened to the Bible?

Homosexuality has disappeared from the American consciousness as sinful. The majority approve of it and applaud it and gay marriage. To those who object we speak of their intolerance and hate. We call it a civil right. However, the Bible says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.” (Isa 5:20 NJKV) And surely, those who read this know the New Testament condemns homosexuality. If not, read 1 Cor. 6:9-10.

Adulterous marriages are celebrated as God-approved despite the Bible’s teaching on adultery. This listing of sins could go on almost endlessly, sins that in our culture are no longer considered sinful despite what the Bible teaches. Sin is no longer considered a serious thing in our culture.

The religiously liberal Christians (if there is such a thing) say God loves all men (true) so we say we can rejoice in Christian fellowship with those actively practicing these and other sins--no repentance required. Of course, in doing so we destroy the Bible as written but the national desire today is to abandon the Bible altogether as a standard and make our own Bible even if unwritten.

The way we do that is by making the Bible we have mean anything we want it to mean and abandon all rational exegesis. We simply say it does not mean what it seems to say. It means what we say it means, not what it says. In that, we are much like the Catholics who say Jesus was the only child Mary ever had. Of course, all our conclusions are based on love, love the way we, not God, define it. We are perverting the faith and making up our own religion as did the Jews of Jesus’ day. They were “seeking to establish their own righteousness” (Rom. 10:3 NKJV) and we seem to be doing the same thing.

Jesus said, “But why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46 NKJV) Does anyone have an answer? Love means obedience and obedience, despite the cry to the contrary, is not legalism.

Did you ever give it thought that if obedience is legalism Jesus was the biggest legalist of all time? He kept every commandment and never sinned once. He said, “I always do those things that please him.” (John 8:29 NKJV) He was obedient to death (Phil. 2:8). He was the only one who ever kept the law of God perfectly, obedient in every detail.

Jesus never condemned the Pharisees for keeping the law, not once. He condemned them for hypocrisy, for not keeping the law, for making commandments and adding them to God’s word and making them of equal force with God’s word binding them on men. We often today say they were legalists and I do not object to that designation of them but I add this for clarification--their legalism was not for God’s law but for the law they had made and added to his law.

Jesus said, “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:19 NKJV)

Yes, in the passage just quoted Jesus was speaking to an audience who were living under the Law of Moses but where, oh where, have people come up with this modern-day idea that Jesus just does not care about obedience anymore? Put another way, or phrased another way, what has happened to sin? When did it go out of existence? But that is where we are today and it is an idea that is fairly prevalent among a significant number of people who consider themselves to be Christians.

I give people credit in a place where perhaps some others would not. Some would say we have come to this place because people today are just ignorant of God’s word. Well, there is truth in that for sure but why is it so? Is there a shortage of Bibles? No, that is not it. There is a lack of will to read them--that is for sure. And there is a lack of a will to believe them and obey them. Peter said there was such a thing as people who are “willingly…ignorant.” (2 Peter 3:5 KJV) If we do not read and study how can we keep from falling into the category of those who are willingly ignorant?

But, as I said, I am more inclined to give people credit in the knowledge department than some others believing for the most part, people do know right from wrong. I believe the cry “legalism” against the teaching of obedience is in reality a smoke screen to cover up and make an excuse for a life lived for self, a worldly life. It is my life and I want to live it the way I want to. The claim of being saved solely by love and God’s grace provides the cover one needs for such a life to legitimize it before the public.

We all tend to try and hide the wrong we know we are doing and one of the best ways (?) of doing that is to legitimize it--get everyone else to think what we are doing is not wrong. Hey, everybody else is doing it--right? How can it be wrong then? The Pharisees of Jesus’ time were full of sin and yet to the general public they appeared to be righteous. “Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men.” (Matt. 23:28 NKJV) They had gotten the people of their day to swallow their religion with all the additions and man-made commandments they had made.

The standard for a righteous man has been so lowered over the years that in the public’s eyes even if you have not worshipped the Lord in a regular assembly of the saints for the past 20 years you are still headed straight to heaven just so you are a believer.

If you had the opportunity to get a hold of an old church roll book from say 100 years ago you would probably be shocked as you would see notations made in the margins of people being withdrawn from as per 2 Thess. 3:6, “But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.” (NKJV)

Since we today have decided what love is and have taken it out of God’s hands it is no longer considered to be an act of love to withdraw from sinners who will not repent even though the purpose was “that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Cor. 5:5 NKJV) That is about as noble and as loving a reason as one could have and yet today if we were to practice discipline in the church by withdrawing fellowship from those living in sin and who will not repent it would be considered unloving and unchristian even though an inspired apostle commanded it. It would be considered legalism gone wild. Have we made our own religion as did the Pharisees and scribes and lawyers of Jesus’ day?

It is getting very hard to be a preacher today unless you do not mind going along with the crowd. The trouble is the crowd is heading to a hot, hot spot and the preacher will be going with them if he does not preach against sin. The preacher is to preach the truth and support it, not go along with the crowd.

My whole point in this article is how we have come to the point in faith where the faith we have is no longer associated with obedience and obedience is now seen as legalism. The truth is disobedience is sin. Obedience is faithfulness. There are far worse things that can happen to a man than to be called a legalist by one who does not want to obey.

“And having been perfected (Jesus-DS), he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him.” (Heb. 5:9 NKJV)

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21 NKJV) Do you want to be like Jesus? If so start condemning sin and be obedient. You will not be working your way to heaven in doing so. You will simply be an obedient Christian, not a disobedient one. Of the two whom do you think will receive God’s grace on the last day?

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