My Heart Is...Good???

Here's what I've been wrestling through these past few days... the author is intentionally left out (for the time being) to avoid natural biases - biases that I've been struggling with too...

"There is a widespread belief among Christians today that the heart is desperately wicked - even after a person comes to Christ... it is UNTRUE."

Dan Nichols' Reaction: "What - that's not true at all!!! Our hearts are desperately wicked!!! How can there be so much sin in my heart and such a battle in my heart if my heart is good???"

Here's why I'm starting to think through this more:

"It's not just that the Cross did something for us. Something deep and profound happened to us in the death of Christ. Remember - the heart is the problem."

Eph. 2:4-5 - "But because of his great love for us, God... made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions."

Rom. 6:4,11 - "We were therefore bured with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life... In the same way count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

1 Cor. 6:19 - "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have recieved from God?"

1 Cor. 3:16 - "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"

"Okay - each of us is now the temple of God. So where, then is the Holy of Holies? Your HEART. God cannot dwell where there is evil."

Ps. 5:4 - "You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell."

"He gives us a NEW heart. And he comes to dwell there, in our hearts."

Luke 8:15 - "The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop."

Dan Nichols' Reaction #2 - "Where on Earth is all this crap that I'm seeing in the world and in myself coming from if my heart is good???"

Romans 7:21-23a - "So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my INNER BEING I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war..."

Present Interpretation: Sin is waging war against my BODY; but my HEART has been completely changed and transformed. My heart is good. Only through the transforming power of God Himself and the resurrection of Christ.

If that is true - the implications of our potential for God are through the roof... larger than any of us have ever imagined.