New Morning Mercies #70

The stuff outside you, no matter how troubling, is not as dangerous as the mess inside you, and for that you have the grace of Jesus.

Listen to the words of Jesus:

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:14–23)

Jesus is making a very powerful point. You don’t defeat the disaster of sin by separating yourself from sinful people, places, or experiences. Now, that may be a very good thing to do, but it will never eradicate your sin problem. If you could defeat sin by separating yourself from its external manifestations, Jesus would never have needed to come. Look, we’re not the medieval monastics, who thought that the way to defeat sin was to separate oneself from the sinful world behind big walls. We know that those monks replicated all the evils that were present in the world they sought to escape. You know what the big mistake of the monasteries was? It’s an easy answer—they let people in. When people walked inside the walls, they brought their sinful hearts with them, and because of that, they re-created all the things they were seeking to escape.

In his words, Jesus calls us to humbly admit that the biggest danger to each of us is not the sin that lurks outside us, but the iniquity that still resides in our hearts. Once you admit this, you begin to get excited about God’s grace in Jesus Christ. If your biggest problem lives outside of you, you don’t really need grace, you just need situational or relational change. I understand why many people who call themselves Christians are not excited about grace. If you think your environment is your problem, you won’t esteem grace, but once you admit that you’re your biggest problem, you will celebrate the grace that rescues you from you.

For further study and encouragement: Romans 3:21–31