Desperately wicked Christians
Around 2011 or so (such a long time ago now!), I posted a discussion question on Facebook as to whether Christians could be desperately wicked.
And by “Christians,” I mean those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit with the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to live and walk in the Spirit according to the will of God.
Those people. Do those people have desperately wicked hearts?
Many leaders in fundamentalist and evangelical circles will say yes. In fact, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard it.
And isn’t it Scriptural?
The Scripture they base this conclusion on is Jeremiah 17:9.
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
(That’s the KJV; some other versions say “desperately sick.”)
But there’s a problem with that thinking.
Romans 6:14 says,
For sin shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
And 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 says,
Thanks be to God Who always causes us to triumph in Christ . . . we are unto God a sweet fragrance of Christ.
There are quite a few others along the same lines. How can they be compatible with “desperate wickedness”?
Well . . . they aren’t.
So how can preachers preach the “desperately wicked” passage to born again believers?
Here’s how the teaching typically goes:
“Positionally” and “legally,” in Christ, a Christian is holy and righteous. That is, “positionally,” not practically. “Legally,” you’re free from sin, but practically you’re still a sinner. Holy and righteous and free from sin is the way God sees you because He’s looking at you through the filter of the blood of Jesus, but obviously it’s not the way you really are in this life. In fact, you are the worst sinner you know, and if you think otherwise it’s evidence of your arrogance and pride.
And so, Christians—those blood-bought sons and daughters of God—find themselves incapable of living the Christian life. They find themselves crying out, like the moralist of Romans chapter 7, “Woe is me! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
It’s this inability to accomplish the Christian life that leads them to apply the Jeremiah 17:9 desperate wickedness and completely deceitful hearts even to the ones who have been given the new hearts of Jeremiah 31.
A Christian friend said, “Believe you’re wicked, and you’ll probably live that way.” Well, that’s a possibility, surely, and I’m sure some people do.
But there’s also the possibility that if you believe you are desperately wicked you’ll live under hopeless condemnation, continually trying to gain the smile of God, but continually feeling under his condemning frown.
You’ll be grateful for the change of destination that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have accomplished for you, but you won’t see any hope for yourself in this life other than just being grateful that you, such an utterly wretched sinner, have received a change of destination.
No place for the Holy Spirit or faith
This is one of the most crucial ways the teachings of the nouthetic counselors (who now call themselves “Biblical counselors”) fall short, and by extension, much of evangelical Christianity.
In their teachings, there is little to no place for the power of the Holy Spirit in the living of the Christian life. There is little to no place for continued, ongoing faith in the sanctification of the Christian life. There is little to no place for ongoing salvation in the living of the Christian life.
Instead, they advocate trying to fight that desperate wickedness with the works of our own flesh (such as developing habits), when Romans 8:8 says so clearly, “They that are in the flesh [trying to accomplish their righteousness through their own efforts] cannot please God.”
The Scriptures make it clear that we are both clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and indwelt by His Holy Spirit. So then what? Preachers will tell you, “So live like it!” But how? In our own strength? Or by His? Or is it a joint effort? The Lord and I each hold up our half of the burden, so to speak?
I believe Christians’ inability to accomplish the Christian life themselves is what leads them to apply the Jeremiah 17:9 desperate wickedness and complete deceitfulness to the ones who have been given the new hearts of Jeremiah 31.
Another form of sin leveling
What are we to think of the ones who call themselves Christians but actually do live lives of desperate wickedness (in secret, of course, because what person calling himself a Christian is going to live a life of desperate wickedness in public)?
I’ve heard some say a Christian’s actions “may be desperately wicked because they choose to disobey, but their position is still one of holiness.”
I believe it’s impossible for this to be true. The one who has come to Christ is changed in a core, fundamental way.
But when all Christians are told “We’re all desperately wicked,” then the one who has committed great wickedness in secret is seen as no different from the one who was sinned against.
“Positional” vs. practical?
Look at the typical teaching once again:
“Positionally” and “legally,” in Christ, a Christian is holy and righteous. That is, “positionally,” not practically. “Legally” you’re free from sin, but practically you’re still a sinner. Holy and righteous is the way God sees you because of Jesus, but obviously it’s not the way you really are in this life.
For the moment—putting aside the fact that the Bible never makes a distinction between the positional and the practical—I want to just look at that statement.
Some of those who have trusted in Jesus Christ believe it to be audacious to say they are righteous in any sort of practical way. That is, they believe that their “positional” righteousness has no actual effect on their lives. (Hence, “desperately wicked.”)
But if you stopped to think about it, you might consider it “audacious” to say that God sees you a certain way, but for all practical purposes, He’s wrong, because you’re not really that way.
Which one is more audacious?
So then if a Christian comes to the place where he or she can say, “Maybe I am really—practically—as righteous as God says I am on paper. Maybe all true Christians are. Maybe if I see myself as otherwise, maybe that’s when I’m lying to myself.”
Rather, desperately righteous
“God has declared you righteous,” some preachers will say. “Now go live like it.” This is the quandary. We are incapable of “living like it.” We simply can’t do it in our own efforts.
THAT is why God has given His Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit of power that empowers the people of God to “live like it.” How does that happen? By faith. By faith alone. By His Spirit, our Lord Jesus Christ both indwells us and empowers us.
We often read that it’s a cooperative effort, but that makes it sound like God is holding part of the heavy load and I’m holding part. And if I slip, it’s all over.
Instead, our part is a responsive effort. God works in us, empowering us, and that power flows out of us in our lives, through the Holy Spirit.
Even the one who falls can still find victory over sin through the power of Christ. Hence, “desperately righteous.” All our righteousness is through Jesus Christ, and His righteousness is very powerful.
The heart of the unregenerate person is desperately sick, feeble, weak, incapable, as the Hebrew in Jeremiah 17:9 indicates. But we who look to Jesus Christ in faith can remember that we, in the very core of our beings, are not desperately wicked.
He has delivered us, redeemed us, and placed us into His family. As His children, we have been fundamentally changed, we can rejoice that we are not wicked but righteous.
And in that righteousness, we continue to be desperately dependent on Him.
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Great study! When I questioned this verse (as being for us) I asked what about the New Covenant that JESUS PROCLAIMED & what about the new hearts & the new spirits that God has given us? That clinched it for me. And yes, Jer. 31 speaks about the new hearts & His law within us, but still, we are to look to Jesus’ words in the New Covenant. Praise God who is Almighty & King over all.
Amen!
Excellent article, Rebecca.
Thank you! I really needed to read this today! The accuser of the brethren has been trying to undermine my faith. This was a blessing from the Lord!
Praise God!
I’m 65 and lived under the load of Jeremiah 17:9 ever since Sunday school in my independent fundamental Baptist Church upbringing 🙂
I’m going to proclaim and work on believing that I am righteous and that the Holy Spirit can continue to do a work in me and discard that old thinking that I am so desperately wicked. How would a child of the king ever live vicariously believing that he is so desperately wicked? He can’t.
Thank you so much once again, Rebecca and thank you Holy Spirit.
Yes, amen, and thank you Jeanette.
Thank you.
Thank you for this reminder, I struggle at times to explain my biblical justification for walking away from abuse because I often run into well-meaning (however misguided) “Christians” explaining to me how I can’t trust my feelings and how evil my heart is. Thank you for reminding me that “sin leveling” is another tactic of control which misrepresents the true character of the Lord!
It’s easy to forget that we’re so deeply loved: In this is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us.
Thank you for pointing to the gift and work of the indwelling Spirit. I remember someone explaining that the Spirit carries both one end of the log and helps us carry our end too. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but it falls in line with the word study of God as our Ezer “ strong helper” – same word used for woman.
https://oasisfortheabused.wordpress.com/category/worm-theology-lies/
The Holy Spirit has been unsettled within me for a very long time and this is another example of the types of things that didn’t sit well with me. Even this very topic permeated the teaching, preaching, and counsel even I sat under and received from my pastors- unprecidented pervasiveness these twistings throughout this nations churches! But this is evidence to my soul and spirit that I move to His urgings and not my own desires or preferences, praise God! Thank you again Rebecca, for the skill God has equipped you with to be able to clarify and put into words that which my soul knows to be so but cannot compartmentalize succinctly. Bless you.
Thank you, Daina.
Good and encouraging words! Thank you!
Hello Rebecca,
Good one.
You wrote:
“THAT is why God has given His Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit of power that empowers the people of God to “live like it.” How does that happen? By faith. By faith alone. By His Spirit, our Lord Jesus Christ both indwells us and empowers us.
We often read that it’s a cooperative effort, but that makes it sound like God is holding part of the heavy load and I’m holding part. And if I slip, it’s all over.
Instead, our part is a responsive effort. God works in us, empowering us, and that power flows out of us in our lives, through the Holy Spirit.“
The only thing I would suggest in further pondering is that our “response” to His Grace (His power, strength, ability) is complete surrender. Humility. With out which we can’t receive anything that He has provided for us.
Blessings,
Warren M.
South Carolina USA
“God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.” Yes, I would think of pride as saying I can do this myself in my own strength and humility as knowing that I am desperately dependent on the Lord. I didn’t use the word “humility” in this article, but I believe it was implied.
Regarding “surrender,” would you say that our willing response to the Lord’s work in us is the kind of “surrender” He’s looking for?
Thanks Rebecca for exposing a false teaching that has become bread and butter in our Evangelical churches.
I never linked this to the possibility that it could be a tool for wicked people to manipulate others into thinking that their wicked deeds are not as bad since “we’re all wicked sinners” anyway.
As Barbara mentioned earlier: “‘sin leveling’ is another tactic of control which misrepresents the true character of the Lord!”
May the Lord judge this and vindicate His Name! His judgment has already started at His house. Many prominent leaders are being exposed for the wicked people they truly are: Ravi Zacharias, Ted Haggard, Bill Gothard, Tony Alamo, Doug Phillips… and the list goes on.
Well did the Lord speak truth when He said:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness”
Lord help those who have been wounded by these wolves to find their home in You.
Yes, for sure, absolutely. That’s an undergirding truth in all my Untwisting Scriptures books: that wicked people use the twistings to keep the oppressed in a place of oppression. Book 4 is the one that very specifically addresses sin leveling.
The original word is DEEP–“the heart is DEEP, who can know it.” Completely different meaning, isn’t it??
The original word for “desperately wicked” is “deep”? Just in case that’s what you’re saying, this is what I see in Strong’s:
אָנַשׁ ʼânash, aw-nash’; a primitive root; to be frail, feeble, or (figuratively) melancholy:—desperate(-ly wicked), incurable, sick, woeful.