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The Evidence Of Faith’s Substance When I stand...
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The Evidence Of Faith’s Substance When I stand before God, for what will he hold me most accountable?
February 16, 2013
Ed Croteau
Ecclesiastes 11:9 “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your HEART cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your HEART, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment.”
Every January 21st in America we declare a federal holiday to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , a deeply religious man who, in his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech (August 28, 1963), included these words: “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” You can find history writers who interpreted these words by Dr. King to be his appeal that people should be judged on the merit of their achievements their talents, contributions, what they ‘bring to the table’, and not by their skin color. But that is not what he said, and certainly not what he meant.
What mattered to Dr. King was moral excellence the inner heart of a man or woman. He is echoing the words of Christianity, where God’s judgment is on the character (heart) of a man or woman. In Ecclesiastes 11:9, God says He holds me accountable for the ‘ways of my heart’. The good news is that God doesn’t expect me to reach some level of performance in order to please Him. His focus is on my character, which is the compass that sets my outward behavior. He will want to know from each person what did we do with the moral character He gave us, with which all of us were created equals.
Does it really look as though all people were created as equals? Dr. King thought so – here’s another part of his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” Did you notice what document Dr. King appeals to, as a ‘self-evident’ truth, that all people are created equal by God? Our Declaration of Independence. The equality our founding fathers wrote about wasn’t based on our talents or skills. It’s obvious people are not created equal based on their physical or mental abilities. The equality God has given all people is that all of us have been made in the image of His character. Christianity, unlike any other religion in history, places the value of human beings not on their power and possessions but on the virtue of their God-given moral character.
But now we run into a real problem, if we look at what the Bible says about our inner heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurably sick - who can understand it?” Proverbs 20:9 says “Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean, and I am pure from my sin’?” So what kind of God is this Christian God, that He would hold me accountable for a heart that He tells me in advance is full of deceit and beyond cure, which I can’t fix?
The real question I need an answer for is this: how did I end up in this mess? Either God’s intention in creating man was as a morally bankrupt creature, or God initially created man virtuous, as His special creation, and somehow along the way our character has been corrupted and needs restoration. This was the belief of Dr. King. People, created by God in His image of moral excellence, were purposed by Him to be in brotherhood, based on a mutual love for each other.
So back to the question: why is my heart so messed up? Listen to the ancient prophet Jeremiah, who spoke these words around 600 BC: “And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one walks according to the imagination of his own evil heart, so that NO ONE LISTENS TO ME.” (Jeremiah 16:12).
In Matthew 23:37, Jesus levels the same indictment against us: “…How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but YOU WERE NOT WILLING.”
We all tend to prefer to do our own thing and reject God as our Father. We think we can do a better job developing our character than He can.
If this convicts you, then there’s one final question we need to answer: How do I fix my broken heart? You can’t. But Jesus Christ can. And it’s a promise that is given in the Old Testament (Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord with all your HEART; don’t lean on your own understanding.”) and now fulfilled in the New Testament in Jesus Christ (John 14:23 “f anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come and make our home with him.”).
Ed Croteau is a resident of Lee’s Summit and hosts a weekly study in Lees Summit called “Faith: Substance and Evidence.” He can be reached with your questions through the Lee’s Summit Tribune at Editor@lstribune.net.
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