Jeremiah 17

Tucked away in this chapter of Jeremiah is one of the well-known verses of the Bible: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (vs 9) And anybody who’s lived for very long with their sinful human heart knows that’s definitely the case!

Paul echoed this sentiment in a different way in Romans: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Rom 7:15, 18-19)

As sinful human beings, we certainly have a heart problem! What I never noticed before about this verse in Jeremiah, however, was that it says the deceitful heart is beyond cure. That stopped me in my tracks today. Especially since I think of salvation as being healed from my sinful condition, what can I do about my heart being beyond repair?

Actually, the answer is nothing. I can’t do anything about it. And, in fact, neither can God. That’s right. Our hearts—such as they are—are dead. The cure for our condition is not a repaired heart, but a new heart. God is a heart surgeon, but He never performs bypasses. He only does transplants.

C.S. Lewis put it this way: “Christ says, ‘Give me ALL. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you My self.’” (from Mere Christianity)

Above all, our hearts are desperately wicked. There is nothing good in them; they cannot be salvaged. Fortunately, we know someone who is able and willing to give us a new heart and a right spirit. It’s time to make an appointment with the Heart Surgeon!