Our world has it all wrong. They assume the outward can change the inward. A celebrity has a sex-change in hopes a glossy exterior will make him a “better person”; another enters rehab in an attempt to fix his adulterous heart; while the Red Cross vainly tries to counsel terrorist organizations on how to have compassion.
But God says human hearts cannot be changed by outward attempts at transformation, any more than a leopard can change his own spots. The “nature” must be changed, and this takes a creative act of God.
Jesus said the root of murder is a heart filled with hatred, and adultery is rooted in hearts filled with lust. The desire to be a “better person” is good, but it is only obtained through a new nature of righteousness, offered by God to all who repent and place their faith in Christ: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you: I will take out your heart of stone and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and be able to do them.” – (Ezekiel 36:26, 27)
Self-reformation attempts are as useless as a Band-Aid on a patient in need of open heart surgery. God is the surgeon who must be allowed inside the heart to do His work: “I will put MY laws in their hearts, and in their minds I will write them…” – (Hebrews 10:16).
The “Good News” for our world is that God, who cannot lie, made this great promise: “If anyone puts their faith in Christ, they will become a new creation; old things will pass away; behold, all things will become new.”
