Try answering all seven questions before looking at the answers. (Scroll down to see answers - after you’ve given it a good shot!)

The truth may surprise you!

1. True or False? The Christian’s heart is just as sinful after becoming a Christian as it was before becoming one. We are just as ‘prone to wander’ after becoming a Christian as we were before.

2. True or False? The Christian’s heart is a mixture of good and bad.

3. True or False? A Christian’s heart is totally good and pure.

4. True or False? Christianity is a set of principles used to guide people’s lives.

5. True or False? Christianity is about right behavior and morality.

6. True or False? God is interested in fixing us.

7. True or False? Jesus’ primary offer to us is life.

(answers below)

Answers:

1. True or False? The Christian’s heart is just as sinful after becoming a Christian as it was before becoming one. False: God has given the Christian a new heart. (Ezek. 36: 26) - with a new purity, new desires, and new power. Our hearts have been circumcised to Christ. He has purified our hearts (Acts 15: 8-9) Our hearts are no longer ‘desperately wicked.’

2. True or False? The Christian’s heart is a mixture of good and bad. False: Jesus said a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Jesus has given us a good heart, with new desires, inclinations, and power.

3. True or False? A Christian’s heart is totally good and pure. True: Sin still occurs in the Christian’s life, but does not originate from his good heart. It comes from his flesh (the old nature that is now dethroned;) and from suggestions and thoughts thrown at us by our Adversary.

4. True or False? Christianity is a set of principles used to guide people’s lives. False: The Bible does contain helpful principles, but stories reach the heart. That’s why Jesus delivered truth within parables. We’ve lost a sense of the biblical narrative - the Larger Story God is telling. (note: By “story,” I do not mean fiction.) Today’s version of Christianity has reduced the bible to self-help techniques and sets of principles for successful Christian living. Might as well watch Dr. Phil.

5. True or False? Christianity is about right behavior and morality. False: Right behavior and morality are important, but are not the point. The Law - standards of right behavior with God and others, cannot save. It cannot bring life. “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Cor. 3:6)
The Christian life is about…. a new life. Bonhoeffer says that Jesus does not come to bring a new religion (set of behavioral principles), but a new life.

6. True or False? God is interested in fixing us. False: Jesus is not interested in fixing us - i.e. tinkering with our old nature in order to improve it. Dallas Willard calls this, ’sin management.’ Jesus is interested in releasing something - releasing the new heart he gave us at conversion, with it’s new desires, inclinations, and power.

7. True or False? Jesus’ primary offer to us is life. True: We are desperate for life - not simply forgiveness, as true and stunning an offer as that is. He came to give us life, and even saves the already-forgiven believer by his life. In other words, it’s his life, even for already-saved Christian, that heals us, restores us, and sets us free!

(To understand why you may have gotten some of these answers wrong (It’s not your fault, by the way), see Jim’s new book, Recover Your Good Heart — Living Free from Religious Guilt and the Shame of Not Good-Enough. Click here to read an excerpt.)