I recently wrote about “the righteousness of Christ” that is imputed or counted to all who have placed their faith in Christ… without works; that they might be saved from God’s judgment. This He does for us by His grace.

“ ⁵ But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him (Jesus) that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. ⁶ Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth (counts for) righteousness without works, ⁷ Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. ⁸ Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute (count) sin.” (Romans 4:5-8)

Yet, we all know that we at heart are not righteous people in our daily living even after so great a salvation. So, God has a second work of grace to do, this time in the believer’s soul. He proceeds in a “work” to now impart “the righteousness of Christ,” who already indwells our spirit, now into our heart’s soul.

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13 (KJV)

I’ve sometimes been disappointed in myself in that I have sinned after knowing not to, even while knowing so much Bible. The question then becomes; “How could I do such a thing?” and then “How can I not sin?” The fact is that after our salvation we soon recognize that we have a stubborn ‘heart condition’ that needs ‘righting.’ “Keep (preserve) thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

Thankfully, God’s grace and His ongoing work in our soul, over time, ‘repurposes our heart.’ We should first consider the awful condition of man’s heart as it is when he is first born into this fallen world.  

“… henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, ¹⁸ Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: ¹⁹ Who being past feeling (calloused) have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:17-19)

“But the natural (Gk. psuchikos, soulish) man receiveth ‘not’ the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

The verses above describe the heart condition of the unregenerate man, one who has not yet received “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” into his “spirit of man” and so he is yet without “the light” of the Lord.

Man’s heart consists of his soul (his mind, emotion, and will) as it is under ‘the light’ of “the spirit of God.” Since the fall of man, “the spirit of man” is dead toward God, cut-off from “the light of God,” his heart is in utter darkness, being deceived by the lies of the Evil One. The “natural” or ‘soulish man’ lives by his sin-laden deceitful mind and emotions that influence his will, he’s unable of himself to “receive the things of the Spirit.” Thus, secular education may be good but it never brings that necessary life-giving light of God to man.

With the fall of Adam and the entrance of “Sin (the Sin nature) in the flesh” of man, Adam and all mankind with him became twisted representations of God. Thou created “in the image of God,” who is the giver and lover of men’s souls, man became exclusively ‘a lover of self,’ and blinded to the things of God. But there’s hope.

While the Scripture says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9), there is hope. While in this condition of man not even knowing the depravity of his own heart, God had already made a way for His light to shine out of the darkness in which man lives. God had created a channel within every man that is able to receive “the light of God.” That channel is “the spirit of man within him.”

“The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.” (Zechariah 12:1)

In his fallen condition man needs the light and truth of the Lord, but man’s sins have separated him from God (cf. Isa. 59:2). Jesus’ Cross took those sins, clearing the way. While God’s light doesn’t indwell fallen man, and it is not found of man’s own resources, his spirit-receiver can hear and discern the truth of God’s light by hearing “the gospel of the grace of God.” (cf. Rom. 10:17)