O LORD, I yield myself to the clear radiance and full discovery of they word, to be convinced by it of sin. I know, with infallible certainty, that I have sinned ever since I could discern between good and evil, in thought, word, and deed—in every period, condition, and relation of life; every day, against every commandment. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
It is easy (more or less) to confess our belief in inerrancy and a belief that men are sinful. It is relatively easy to express outrage when people deny that men are sinful. We are amazed when we see people justify their sin and themselves before God and others. But perhaps we shouldn’t be so amazed. It is true of us all, but just to differing degrees. How many people really and truly want to see the depths of his or her sin? How many are willing to have others (aside from jokes and things like that) see that they are anything less than perfect?
In this short confession we see a brutal reality concerning ourselves. We are not yielded to a full searching and discovery of the Word of God. We don’t want to be convinced of sin in many areas as we don’t want to repent. It is easy to read the Psalms as long as we don’t take them too seriously. In Psalm 19:12 the Psalmist realizes that he cannot discern his errors and yet knows that he must be forgiven those. In Psalm 26:2 he cries out to God to examine him and try him in both his mind and heart. In Psalm 32:5 he did not hide his sin but confessed them. In Psalm 139:23-24 the Psalmist is praying for God to search him and know his heart. The Psalmist knew that God knew all things, so he was clearly wanting to know his own sin or hurtful ways.
Psalm 19:12 Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.
Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.
Psalm 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.
Psa 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
The challenge of Thomas Adam and the Scriptures is to know our own hearts, or at least know them much better. There is nothing beneficial about hiding sin in our hearts from ourselves and God. As Proverbs 28:13 tells us with no real hidden meaning, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” There is no spiritual prosperity when a person conceals his sins rather than confesses them and turns from them.
We are left with two options. One, we can ignore the teaching of Scripture about our own hearts and go on in a spiritually lost or impoverished way. Two, we can begin to seek the Lord to open the hidden parts of our hearts to our own eyes so that we can repent. After all, Jesus said more than once that if we love Him we will obey His commandments. If we are not willing to search our hearts and repent so that we can obey, that is a telling sign that we don’t love Jesus. Do we really, really want to know God more? Then we must know more of our sin so we can repent of it. Do we really, really want to be in His presence more? Then we need to seek to know our sin in order to repent of it and see a pure heart. Jesus promised that the pure in heart will see God (Mat 5:8).
Sure enough it is easy at the moment just to go on in a nice way of life and perhaps a nice external Christian way of doing things. But if we love Christ we must go to war against sin in our own hearts and minds. The place to start is by praying that God would give us a desire for these things and then give us an increasing desire. We say we love the Scriptures, but do we love them enough to bow before the Lord who speaks in and through them to show us how they are His sword to stab deeply into our hearts to show what is there? It is easy to love the beauty of Scripture or perhaps its majestic doctrines, but there is the other side which cuts away at the darkness in our hearts by the shining of light. When that happens we must repent regardless of the pain. To do any less would be to keep hurtful things in our hearts that are directly against God.
God Loves... Himself 
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