The Grace of a Clean Heart

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp. The devotional is indented and abbreviated.

Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Psalm 51:10

Could there be a more fundamental prayer request than this? Could there be anything more essential than this? Could there be any hope more beautiful than to believe that someday your heart and mine will be totally free from impurity of any kind? This is the most radical claim of all the claims of the gospel. This is the epicenter of what the cross of Jesus Christ alone can produce. This is the thing that the keeping of the law could never do.

This is the hope of every true Christian – to be pure before God. We keep the rules but we know it’s not just about the rules. We keep the rules because that’s what is in our heart.

Let's think about the theology of the heart that's behind David's request. Human beings have been made by God in two parts, the inner man and the outer man. The outer man is your physical self, your body. The body is the house you've been given for your heart. The inner man is given many names: mind, emotion, will, soul, spirit, to name a few. All of these terms are collected into one big basket term, heart. The heart is the control center of the human being. It's the center of your emotions, cognition, and desires. Essentially, what the Bible says is that the heart is the steering wheel of the human being. The heart controls, shapes, and directs everything you choose, say, and do. What controls the heart will therefore exercise unavoidable control over your behavior.

As a parent I’m always reminded (by my wife) that what’s important is the heart. We can force kids to do “right things” but what we really want is obedience from the heart. If the kids have right hearts the right behavior will follow. Now if only I could make their heart change.

What does this have to do with David's courageous request? David understands something that's fundamental to repentance. It's that sin isn't first a matter of behavior; it's first a matter of the heart. That's why Jesus said that to look at a woman and lust after her carries the moral value of the physical act of adultery. You see, since your heart guides your actions and words, if you allow your heart to lust, it won't be long before you commit the physical act.

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? In the same way it’s hard to understand heart versus behavior. Speaking of lust, you may innocently come across an image in a magazine or billboard. To look away and keep looking away may signify a pure heart or it may show incredible discipline when all inside wants to look. To take a second look may lead to lust. Where did the lust start? Was it already in the heart or did the behavior of a second look bring it about?

Or we could look at the other side of the coin. Worship is not first an activity. No, worship is first a position of the heart. It's only when my heart esteems God above everything else that I'll serve him with my time, energy, money, and strength. Impurity of the heart is not primarily about bad thoughts or bad desires. No, impurity of the heart is really about love for something in the creation replacing love that I was only ever meant to have for the Creator. And when I love something in creation more than I love God, I'll think, desire, say, and do bad things.

Again, there are many times we may have all the outward appearance of devotion to God but it may all be for show. We have to be careful how we look at other people. Do we judge them by the outward? I am surprised how many times people are elevated to various positions such as elder and deacon in churches because they are successful in business and wear a nice suit. In some cases their personal and home life are a mess but having them on the board looks good and may bring in some contributions. And many times the better qualified are overlooked because they don’t fit the image of success.

Now, what all of this means is that our biggest, most abiding, most life-shaping problem exists inside of us and not outside of us. What we actually need to be rescued from is us. What needs to be transformed in our lives is not so much our situation and relationships (although they need transformation as well). What really needs to be transformed are our hearts.

This is where we need to examine ourselves. With the help of God and good friends we can discover what our hearts are like.

Here's the gorgeous message of the gospel: even though I've bowed again and again to an endless catalog of God replacements, even though I've loved myself more than I've loved God, even though I've rebelled against God's kingdom and sought to set up my own kingdom, God comes to me in grace and wraps arms of love around me and begins a process that will result in the total transformation of the core of my personhood, the heart.

It’s encouraging that He pursues us and doesn’t give up. Sometimes it is a long, hard road.

So we wake up every morning knowing that by his grace our hearts are purer than they once were, and by his grace they'll be purer than they are today. So with thankfulness for the transformation that's already taken place and with the courage of hope of the transformation that's yet to come, we wake up, look to heaven, and say with David, "Create in me a clean heart."

Each day can be a little better than the one before.

Take a moment:

Celebrate the reality that your heart is purer than it once was as you pray for a further cleansing from the impurities that are still there.

Sometimes it’s hard to see change from close up. It’s easy to think that no progress is being made. Failures sap us of hope. The reality is that God is doing a work in us. I know I can look back through time and see the work He has done.

Philip


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