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).
It may be supposed that the eruptions of inbred malignity would be crass and open sin, but perhaps we should not jump to that conclusion so quickly. If the attitude and words of Jesus toward the Pharisees are to teach us, then we must wonder what it is about the Pharisees that pushed Him to be so critical of. One could even say with a great deal of accuracy that Jesus was more critical of the Pharisees than those who lived in open sin. Even in our most religious acts the eruption of inbred malignity can occur.
Romans 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Romans 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
The verses above serve as a reminder, even a remarkable one, that modern Evangelicalism (as such and as a movement) is flat wrong. People have no good in their hearts and they need more than a little prayer or a walk down the aisle to be converted. They need new hearts and a new nature. They are not just those who have decided to do a little wrong here and there, but they are wicked people with wicked hearts and they hate God. The hearts of open sinners and unconverted religious people are all hostile toward God.
The hearts of unconverted people, then, in the very best things that they do, are nothing less and nothing more than fountains of constant eruptions of an inbred malignity. We hear of the great doctrine of the total depravity of man and we either brush it off or accept it in the intellect. But it is far more than that, at least as it is found in the Bible. It is not just that men don’t do things as well as God expects, but that they don’t have one bit of good in them. In other words, all the righteous acts of men don’t have the slightest bit of good in them. But not only do they have no good at all in them, they are full of hate for God. Surely, people say, this is not right. How can it be that the nice acts and religious acts of my neighbors, my family, and myself are hatred of God? The religious acts of the Pharisees were acts of hatred for God when they did not subject themselves to God and they did this by bringing the law down to where they thought they could keep it in their own strength. All unconverted hearts do the same thing and justify themselves in doing it.
The heart that does not (See Rom 8:7-8 above) subject itself to the law of God is a heart that is acting in open hostility of God. The very religious person that does not subject himself to the law of God is acting in open hostility to God and as such his very religious acts are eruptions of inbred malignity against God. The human heart hates God and all it does is in hostility toward Him and that includes (perhaps especially so) the religious actions that water down the law of God and are done with love for self rather than love for God. Even the most pious actions of the most pious in appearance person is nothing more or less than the eruption of an inbred malignancy. The most pious actions of the unconverted have no love of God in them, no grace of God giving strength to them, and no blood of Christ covering them. Those pious actions of the unconverted come from a heart that hates God and is at enmity with Him. If only God would give us eyes to see what our hearts are really like we would cry out to Him for His mercy. It is a terrible burden to have a heart that is the offspring of the devil. The proud heart does not want to believe that and so flees from the truth of it.
God Loves... Himself 
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