Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Is it Bad News or Good News to realize how sinful your human heart really is? Suppose you have a pain inside your body, and you don't know what causes it. One physician tries to amuse you and gives you an aspirin and sends you home laughing. You are blissfully unaware of the cancer that is eating away at your very life, but at least you are smiling and happy.
Believe it or not, our genetic human nature likes that kind of medical care! The Great Physician Himself says of us: "You do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked" (Rev. 3:17).
Paul says he was happy as long as he did not realize the sin that was deeply buried within his human heart (Rom. 7:9-17). But when the Holy Spirit begins to enlighten our natural sinful hearts, we realize that the best Good News is always the truth, even though we naturally think of ourselves as being "rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing" (Rev. 3:17). That feeling "rich" and "have become wealthy" can apply to us individually, or to us as a church, and even to us as a nation.
If one has a mysterious pain deep inside, it is best to go to a sober physician who will make a thorough examination and then tell us the full truth--immediate surgery, or, possibly, death. The option to live would be immense Good News! So we should seek the diagnosis of the Great Physician, Jesus, our High Priest ministering in the heavenly sanctuary mentioned in Hebrews 7:24-27. He is concerned for reality, not mere appearances.
An unfaithful physician may give you a "Certificate of Health" to enable you to get a job when in fact you are mortally ill, but Jesus won't do that. For Him merely to "declare" you righteous when in fact you are sinfully selfish and polluted in heart will not prepare you to enter heaven! He wants the cancer of sin to be removed; and that ministry is what He is accomplishing on this great final Day of Atonement.
Don't be afraid to go to Him for a Diagnosis. He will not wound you, He will heal you. The removal of the cherished sin will be a blessing to you. But remember that just as the best physician in the world cannot operate on you without your written consent, so neither can Jesus do the blessed work of saving your soul without your consent.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 17, 1999.
Copyright © 2016 by "Dial Daily Bread."
