Written in the Heart

Article 48 of 48 from the Ponder This - 2003 series

December 2003 – WRITTEN IN THE HEART by Ray Pritchard No statement is regarded as more elementary to the student of the Bible than the statement that a day of judgment is coming for the human race. Hebrews 9:27 says, “Man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment.” That statement, as elementary as it might seem, is desperately needed in our time for we live in an age when men doubt that Judgment Day is coming. Ours is an age of relativism, of pluralism, of tolerance, of diversity, an age when every man does that which is right in his own eyes. The watchword of the age is, “If it’s right for you, go ahead and do it.” Without the slightest exaggeration we can say that most people today doubt that there is any such thing as absolute truth. All truth is relative, defined by the circumstances of time and place. Pilate’s question resonates through the air–“What is truth?”�”and no one seems to be able to give an answer. How can God judge someone who doesn’t believe in absolute truth? Or how does God judge a person who has never read the Bible or heard the gospel? One part of the answer comes from Romans 2:14-15 where Paul argues that the Gentiles have the law of God written in their hearts. That is, everyone has a moral conscience, an inborn sense of right and wrong. That moral conscience is part of the image of God in every person. If God judged you solely by your own moral standards, you will still turn out to be a sinner. You don’t even live up to your own morality–much less the high standard of God’s perfect truth. Even jungle tribesmen are convicted as sinners by their own standards of right and wrong because the “residue” of truth written in the heart has continued in them down through the generations. This week, Calvary missionary Bob Leland who served (along with his wife Amber) for many years in a remote region of Irian Jaya sent me a good example of how this works: “I was talking with Abdon (Ahb-done), our language/house helper in Senggo, one day about what the Citak (Chee-tuck) people believed about the spirits of those who died. Where do they go? Abdon replied, ’The spirits of the dead go to one of two places: the jungle, if they are bad (and those are the spirits that trouble us); or the sea if they are good. You know, we don’t know of anyone who has ever gone to the sea!’ Interesting! By their own standards, none are good enough; they ALL fail the test.” No one can say, “I’ve never done wrong,” because every person has violated his conscience at least once, and most of us many times. God has written his truth in every heart, and by that standard alone, we all end up as sinners. Thanks, Bob, for the reminder of why the whole world needs to know Jesus.