From the desk of Pastor Ben

One’s True Heart: Jesus Personalizes the Reality

“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good?”
                        (Matthew 12:34a)

Jesus did not hesitate to personally condemn people, especially when, like the Pharisees, their sins were cruel, self-righteous, hypocritical, or blasphemous. He came to save sinners, not to confirm them in their evil ways or minimize their guilt. Christ was not engaged in a popularity contest or a campaign to win votes. He was concerned only to please His Father, not sinful people.
Calling the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” was a severe reprimand the people of Jesus’ day would understand. Because those poisonous snakes blend into surrounding rocks and wood debris, that can attack their victim’s with complete surprise, as one did Paul on Malta (Acts 28:3, 6). The Pharisees’ unscriptural traditions poisoned the minds of other Jews to the purity of God’s Word, and their arrogant hypocrisy also drew others to that evil attitude.
Jesus knew that the Pharisees, “being evil,” couldn’t possibly “speak what is good.” So, He exposed the personal evil in their hearts which couldn’t produce anything but ungodliness and blasphemy. Evil is the general legacy of fallen mankind, due to Adam’s sin. As Paul expresses it, “Both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. . . . There is none righteous, not even one. . . . There is none who does good, there is not even one . . . . For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:9-10, 12, 23; Ephesians 2:1).
There is no escaping the real existence of man’s evil heart — “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 51:5) —and the gospel is the only remedy.

Ask Yourself:
How does a deep awareness of our sin and inadequacy benefit us as we seek to follow Christ? What kind of traps are avoided when we know that nothing good can originate from our own initiative? How can Satan twist this truth to continue defeating us?