Proverbs 20:9, No Sinless Perfection Here!
December 28, Proverbs 20:9
Romans 3:10-20 “Though thou wash thee and make thee soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, says God.”
No Sinless Perfection Here!
The question is: Who can say? Not Who does say? or Who will say? or Who dare say (Pr. 30:12)? It is an unqualified, direct assertion that no one is free from guilt. “The depravity of the human race is not here expressly asserted, but it is taken for granted, as an incontestable truth” (Lawson).
1. God’s Sweeping Inquisition (9): Who can say that they were never defiled with original sin? Who can say they are pure from inward sins, the evils of the heart? Who can say they are free from every besetting sin (Eccl. 7:20)? As no one can so assert, the best of men stand condemned before a Holy God (1 Kg. 8:46)! The humanist denies the depravity of man, but his own life contradicts him at every turn (Ps. 51:5). An unclean heart still produces an unquiet conscience even in ungodly men (1 Sam. 26:21; Lk.15:18), silence it though they try. When Isaiah saw the thrice-Holy God he cried out: Woe is me! I am undone: … for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts (Isa. 6:5). Only the truly godly man can see himself as he really is before that Holy God, and confess, as did David, I have sinned against the Lord (2 Sam. 12:13; 24:10). Once Paul thought he was blameless before God (Phil. 3:6), but later had to cry, O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:24). He classed himself as the chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). As long as we remain in our sin, there can be neither fellowship, nor any peace with God. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).
2. God’s Saving Intervention: The whole man must be cleansed, but it begins with the heart, the seat of all sin and wickedness. In the very dawn of human history, Job faced the fact of man’s depravity. He asked the fundamental question of man’s birth, but it was merely rhetorical. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? His answer was given in two short words, No one (Job 14:4)! How can he be clean that is born of woman (Job 25:4)? David was facing the same eternal issue when he asked, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Then gave the answer, He that has clean hands, and a pure heart. Since not one can say, My heart is clean; I am pure from my sin, who then shall stand in God’s holy presence? How shall a young man cleanse (same word) his way? The answer is in the verses that follow (Ps. 119:9-16). A sinner thinks he can cleanse himself, but a saint, never! God must intervene. There was only one who knew no sin qualifying Him to be the One and Only Saviour of His people. It was for this alone Christ came, and on Calvary’s Cross “He interposed His precious blood.” None can say, I have made my heart clean, but thousands testify (by God’s Grace), The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn. 1:7). Paul gives the glorious answer to his own question (above), I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thought: “Holiness is not the way to Christ; Christ is the way to holiness” (Rodgers).
Prayer: Cleanse thou me, O Lord, from secret faults. (Ps. 19:12)