Renovation of the Heart
Radical Evil in the Ruined Soul (3|4)
Pages 49-53
• Denial and Its Effects
• Sensuality Becomes Central
• Still True Today
• Being Lost
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
1 Corinthians 2:6-10 (NIV) We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” - the things God has prepared for those who love him - these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
Romans 1:21-23, 28 (NIV) For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
Isaiah 64:4-9 (NIV) Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
Denial and Its Effects
”In a world apart from God, the power of denial is absolutely essential if life is to proceed. The will or spirit cannot - psychologically cannot - sustain itself for any length of time in the face of what it clearly acknowledges to be the case. Therefore it must deny and evade and delude itself. Paul’s brilliant and inspired insight into the root of human evil - Romans 3:18 NIV There is no fear of God before their eyes - must never be forgotten by those who would understand spiritual formation and would themselves be transformed into Christlikeness, or by those who simply want to be responsible leaders among humanity.”
What does this mean? What is Paul pointing out about the human condition?
Sensuality Becomes Central
Romans 1:25 (NIV) They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. “Because bodily enjoyment is what they want, what they choose to pursue, God abandons them to their pursuit of every pleasurable sensation they can wring out of the body. - But then it turns out that sensuality cannot be satisfied. It is not self-limiting. That is partly because the effect of engaging in the practices of sensuality is to deaden feeling. Then awakens the relentless drive, the desperate need, simply to feel, to feel something.”
How is God abandoning them to pursue their desires - a consequence of their actions? What happens to sensuality - that God created - when it is used and pursued for selfish purposes and idolized by the world? Is there a possibility of repentance and restoration of sensuality for those who decide to follow Christ?
”The drive to self-gratification opens up into a life without boundaries, where nothing is forbidden - if one can ‘get away’ with it. "‘Why?’ is replaced with ‘Why not?’ And because this is what these ‘gods’ want - total license - God abandons them to a worthless or nonfunctional mind - that is, a mind that simply doesn’t work”
Why does sensuality come to play such a major role in human ruin?
Still True Today
“The end stage of every successful human society that has arisen on earth. Invariably, such a society begins to believe it is responsible for its success and prosperity and begins to worship itself and rebel against the understanding and practices that allowed it, under God, to be successful in the first place. Underneath it all is the radical evil of the human heart - a heart that would make me God in place of God.”
Do you agree? If so, what does it mean for a heart to be radically evil?
Being Lost
“If you were lost in any sense, there is little likelihood of your arriving where you want to be. But the condition of lostness is not the same as the outcome to which it leads. We’re not lost because we are going to wind up in the wrong place. We are going to wind up in the wrong place because we are lost.”
What is your response to this statement? Have you felt a sense of lostness? How did you find your way - or a sense of finding your way?
“When we are lost to God, we are also lost to ourselves: we do not know where we are or how to get where we want to go. We may know we are lost or we may not. - Many are lost before God but do not know it. They sincerely believe that they know where they are, where they are going, and how to get there; but in fact, they do not, and they often find out too late.”
What does this mean? How do you explain or convince someone they are lost and/or going the wrong way if they do not know they are?
EXTRA READING:
Julian of Norwich (1343 - 1416) prayed, “God, of your goodness, give me yourself, for you are enough for me. I may ask nothing less that is fully to your worship, and if I do ask anything less, ever shall I be in want. Only in you, I have all.”