The Gospel Of the Heart

It’s all about the heart. The only place you have ever lived, and the only place you will ever live, is in your heart. That goes for both here and hereafter. That’s where it’s all at. If you’re happy it’s because that is how your heart feels. If you’re sad, discontent, angry or anything else, it’s because that’s how your heart feels. Proverbs 4:23 says “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” The “issues of life” means everything that your life shows forth, and it all comes from, or issues forth from the heart. Jesus said that all sins come forth from the hearts of men (Mk. 7:21-23). He also said that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Mat. 12:34). God said by Jeremiah that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”(Jer. 17:9). This is why Jesus came, so he could make the way for the heart of man to be transformed from that state, into the state of true sanctification, or holiness. This is why he said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mat. 5:8). And because Jesus made the way for man’s heart to BE pure, that is why the apostle Paul said that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). Sin is a condition of the heart, and ‘sins’ are the symptoms of that condition. The suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son of God provided a real cure for the evil condition of sin. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:2-4). And again, "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God"? (Heb. 9:13,14)

So as we see powerfully confirmed by the scriptures, this truly is the Gospel of the heart. Sin is in the hearts of men, and the law just didn’t have the inherent power to literally deliver from sin (Gal. 3:21; Heb. 10:4). But the blood of Christ, which is in effect his Spirit, does have that power, and will deliver from sin and its symptoms in those who believe in Jesus for that power. As Romans 8:3 says, Jesus condemned, or passed judgment on sin "in the flesh” so that we would be able to put sin to death [pass judgment on] in our flesh (Rom. 6:1-7). And as Romans 6:3,4 says, this is accomplished only by being baptized with God’s Spirit, which literally buries our old man [sinful nature] and raises our spiritual man from a state of death, unto “newness of life” in his holiness (Eph. 2:1-6). When someone comes fully clean with God, Jesus baptizes them with the holy Ghost right where it’s needed - in the heart. And “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Rom. 5:5). And that leads us to the following: "For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law" (Rom. 13:8). So if we are able to love with God’s holy love, it is because that holy love has been infused into our heart by his Spirit, if and when we receive it. And we see again that it’s all about the condition of our heart. Oh, and I absolutely love this: "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philip. 4:7). I love it because it is reality, not just an empty recital of words written on paper! So wherever we go or don’t go, whatever we do or don’t do, whatever we have or don’t have, and whoever we’re with or not with; one thing stands sure: The way we feel about our life is not dependent upon external circumstances, but rather on where we are in our hearts with God, or where we are not at. It’s that simple, our heart is where we live every moment of our existence, and Jesus died so that we could live in peace in this life and beyond. "For I have learned, in whatsoever [worldly] state I am, therewith to be content" (Philip. 4:11). Amen.