THE LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

Any choice you make reveals what you truly believe to be right, at least what’s right for you, as some people would say. The option you decided to act on is the one you determined to be best, whether it’s a multiple-choice question, a new purchase, a change in jobs, lying, cheating, or stealing. This is the way everybody acts. Even if you know it’s a bad idea, some nagging desire convinces you that it could work out this time. The risk feels worth it.

All a person’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs hearts. - PROVERBS 21:2

Your various sins are symptoms of a deadly heart problem. Each day this week has probed a bit deeper into your own issues, moving from the general sin nature common among all people to unique manifestations of sin specific to your life. The diagnosis is fatal. Treating the symptoms by trying harder to do good works can’t fix the problem of sin in your heart. You have to be exposed in your shame and allow your Creator to restore you. Until you realize you have a problem, you’ll never stop hiding and following your heart:

You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. - EPHESIANS 2:1-3

The sickness of sinful hearts doesn’t lead only to eventual physical death. How would you summarize the diagnosis of the problem in the previous Scriptures?

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Paul diagnosed the problem this way:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. - ROMANS 3:23

Rewrite this verse as a personal confession, using I instead of All.

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A popular expression says the ground is level at the foot of the cross. In sports the expression is “to level the playing field.” Those sayings mean no person or player has an advantage over anyone else. By now you’ve seen that we all have the same need—salvation. We need saving from ourselves. We need a miraculous change of heart.

Read Romans 3:9-30. How are all people described in these verses? How does that description make you feel?

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Rewrite verse 24 as a personal confession, using “I am” instead of “They are.”

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Fortunately, God did not leave you in Romans 3:23 to your own failed rebellion. The good news of the gospel is truly wonderful once you recognize the desperately bad news of sin. Conclude your study by using the following psalm as your prayer. Thank God that He hasn’t left you helpless in your sin with a dead heart. He has come to you in Christ, the Great Physician. Listen for His voice. Follow Him.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way. - PSALM 139:23-24