"Deceitful"

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Many Christians do not realize how self-deceiving the heart is. (1) It is inherent to human nature. As Jeremiah wrote, we are desperately sick; our hearts are deceitful. The mystery of self-deceiving [2] originated in the Garden and was infused into humanity through the rebellion of Adam, if you can call it rebellion.

Adam willfully ate without thinking about God. He did not say, “Okay, God, I’ll show you.” In his self-deception, and upon seeing his wife eat of the apple, he ate too. While the serpent was purposely deceitful, as the instigator, it was man's heart that let him eat without regard to God. Adam saw his wife did not die, at least a human bodily death, yet neither realized they did die in their spiritual relationship with God. That was the goal of the serpent: to bring evil into the world through the deception of the heart.

We often do not hear this from the pulpit. What we do hear is that Scripture is our guide and helps us to overcome our sins, which it is. However, if we are unaware of the deception of the heart, we are missing the truth about ourselves. Paul wrote, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 10:15-20) This text is so important to the believer because Paul is speaking of the deception of the heart.

Many do not understand their actions. We are saints who will still commit sin. It is irresistible to the heart. And yet, we sit there and say to ourselves, why am I still drawn to this sin? In some cases, we may even ask ourselves, “Am I really saved?” We are, and yes, the deception of the heart still pulls us back into our sinful nature, our essence of sin, as some call it.

Worse off is the one in the pew who does not even realize or understand their heart. In many cases, their salvation may be questioned. It is a lack of understanding of the heart or the depth of their depravity that hinders their efforts to walk the narrow path of Christ. They will continue to sin without remorse, although praying for forgiveness; their sin was okay because they are saved. I liken this to Romans 6, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (6:1-2) This is a whole other situation and a dangerous one for the believer at that.

As Dyke wrote, the deception of the heart is a mystery. But the battle of this deception has already been won; many are just not aware of it. You see, to fight our self-deception, we must come to accept that our heart will continually lead us astray and tell us it is ok. It is inevitable. It is Christ who lives in us. He fills our body with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. We must call on the Spirit to minister to our hearts, teaching us to turn to Him alone in times of worldly desires. I do not want to make this seem simple because it is far from it, as we learned from Paul in Romans 6.

We must follow what James said, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.” (1:23-24) not forgetting that we are vile in our nature.

Many push back against the doctrine of total depravity, and this is because of self-deception. No one wants to call themselves a monster, evil, or depraved, but that is what we were; that is what I was, and I know it. Although saved, that propensity for evil still hungers in us, controlled only by Christ who resides in us, overriding these sinful urges. Fear not; a few more weary days, and we will all fly away, justified, fully sanctified, and glorified, only to be seated at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:6–9)

In the meantime, do not forget what you were and what still hungers inside you—a ravenous animal longing for sin. Recognizing self-deception is the first step to a powerful surge in sanctification. It helps us pray, find hope, and rely on the one who saved us, Christ Jesus.

Do not know Christ as your Savior? Is your heart actively deceiving you in your everyday life, leading you further and further toward the pit? Seek Christ today and start fighting back against self-deception using the power of Christ, for we cannot do it on our own.

Grace and Peace.

[1] Contributor Brother Mike Donnelan

[2] David Dyke, Mystery of Self-Deceiving, published by his brother J.D at the sign of the Greyhound in Paul's Church yard, 1614.