The most remarkable thing about self-deception is that those who are practicing it don’t know it. The Bible says that the human heart “is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) According to God, every inclination and intention of the human heart is evil. (Genesis 6:5) Our hearts are grievously incurable. When describing the condition of the heart John Calvin said, “The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself.” (Online Source)
My, what a sad state of affairs! Whatever could we do to overcome such a hopeless condition? Only one thing.
Ephesians 5:26 tells us that Christ sanctified His Bride and cleansed her by the washing of water by the Word. He does not cast her out because of her filth. He sanctities her in the Truth. The Word of God is Truth. (John 17:17) He sends forth His Word and she is healed of all her diseases. (Psalms 107:20) He applies the medicine of the Gospel of Christ crucified. Let us submit to this truth. It is the only way. Our Lord suffered that we would be made holy through his blood. (Hebrews 13:12)
“No one enjoys being cross-examined, or accused of having something wrong in their lives. But as we grow as Christians we come to the painful recognition that we have an almost unlimited capacity for self-deception. We slowly learn that we need to be stopped in our tracks by God. He uses Scripture to do this…We cannot reach our destination if we are traveling in the wrong direction.”
Sinclair Ferguson, Healthy Christian Growth, page 5.
So very sobering and so very true! A sad state of affairs that greets me every morning and tries me ’til I close my eyes. And what’s really sad is how I use even more deception to wiggle out from under it. “I didn’t really mean it that way” being one of my favorites. The father of all lies, oh, how well he has taught me! BUT, glory be to God, through Christ, for stopping me in my tracks and for showing me the disease of my heart, and for His ever-effective, everlasting remedies–the Word of Truth and blood of Christ! Where would I be without Him?!
Thank you for the reminder and encouragement, Christina! Love and blessings!
Your comment brought to mind a scripture I wish I had included in the post somewhere. Revelation 12:11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Lord bless you Petra! Hope you are feeling better tonight! Love and blessings.
Thanks for posting this, Christina. Our capacity for self-deception is frightening thing. How much I need the Word of God!
Amen!
“deceitful above all things”
This has always struck me because one would conclude that ALL THINGS includes the devil himself. If that is correct, then I have to ask how that could even be. Perhaps because man was made in the image of God and the angels were’nt? Therefore our potential for evil and deception could be potentially greater. Just thinking out loud here.
Wonder what brother Jon would say.
I shutter to think of all my own sin being totally revealed all at once to me. I’d die on the spot, I think!
Love you!