After the commission of sin, or any eruption of our inbred malignity, we quickly heal ourselves again, and reinstate ourselves in our own good opinion. How much better would it be to let our nature appear in its frightful nakedness, and to consider that the cursed root of all still remains, and that, if not here destroyed, in another world it can produce nothing but essential, uninterrupted misery, when we have no longer the joys and comforts, cares and amusements of this life, to keep off the sight of ourselves! (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
Statements like the one from Thomas Adam just above combined with Jeremiah 17:9 should give all who read the two great pause. Perhaps even great, great pause. It should bring about a seeking from the Lord to show us our own hearts. It should cause us to think through what we are doing and why we do it. It should cause and arouse us to examine our actions and then trace them back to the motives and intents so we can see who we really are. How deceitful the heart is in turning from sin which is demonstrative evidence of the nature of the heart to simply cover it over and reinstate self to its own good opinion. The heart that begins to examine itself with any degree of closeness will realize how often it has done precisely that. Oh how the human heart wants to have a good opinion of itself and the lengths it will go to reinstate itself and maintain that opinion. The human heart will do this until it is uncovered and exposed as naked and bare by the Spirit or in hell.
There are only two real options. One, the soul can continue to heal itself (not that this is a real healing) and have a good opinion of itself, or (two) it can seek the Lord for a sight of its own heart. Indeed it will take a seeing of the frightful nakedness of self and the sinking knowledge of the vileness of our own hearts, but that cursed root that Adam speaks of is there whether we recognize it or not. The apostle Paul covered over his vile and covetous heart with many works and external morality, but when that blindness was taken away and he saw the depths of sin in his own heart he felt the curse upon himself. But as so many actually do, if he would have covered over the sin of his heart and refused to look at it, then he would have felt better about his own righteousness and not have found Christ who came to save sinners.
If the soul refuses to see what it is in truth and continue on in its blindness and pride, it will be uncovered for what it is and the person will see and feel the truth of its wickedness in utter misery for eternity. While on earth the soul can flee from a sight of its own heart and to some degree the sense of its own misery by the creature comforts and amusements of the world, but in hell there is no comfort and no amusement. There will be nothing but the unceasing, unending, and unmitigated misery of the soul beholding its own sin as it is under the wrath of the living God. The eye of God cannot be hidden from here but only ignored, so there it will not be ignored. That eye that sees all every moment can bring every degree of filth that the soul fled from on earth before it and show it in its extreme hideousness. There the soul will long for the briefest of respites from a sight of itself and its own vileness, but it will not be allowed. Throughout all eternity without one moment of cessation, the soul will see its own nakedness, vileness and utter malignity of heart. But for now there is the opportunity to seek the Lord for the malignant heart to be made new and for its nakedness to be covered with robe of the righteousness of Christ.
From mere self-love no one would want to think such things of themselves that one actually is dead in sin and has a malignant heart of hate toward God. Self-love and pride keeps people from wanting to see themselves as being at enmity with all who oppose them. Self-love so desperately wants to keep a good opinion of self, yet the harsh reality of the eruption of that malignity keeps vying for attention. But the self-love and pride that does not want to see itself is also joined with the deception that is natural to pride. The proud heart wants to think the best of self, but the proud heart is also deceived by its pride. God opposes the proud and so the proud heart is the most helpless and yet desperate thing in the universe. The pride of the heart must be crushed for the soul to be humbled and so receive the grace of God. But even worse for the proud heart, it cannot humble itself and it cannot do anything to move God to show grace to it. This proud heart must be broken by grace as well. Yet the proud heart does not want anything to do with real grace, thought it might want just enough to make up for what it perceives as a slight deficit. How our hearts must be opened to see what they really are in order to truly cry for true grace.
God Loves... Himself 
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