Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"? (Proverbs 20:9).

Just in case you're wondering:  it's a rhetorical question.  The answer should be obvious.  Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?  Nobody!  Nobody can make such claims of personal holiness.  Not just purity of action, but purity of heart as well?!?  That's impossible for any natural-born human being.  Sin and brokenness are just a natural part of our genetic code, ever since the banishment from Eden.  "To err is human" (Alexander Pope)... "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Psalm 14:3)... "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)... Simply put:  there is no one who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin."

I guess I can't really speak for anyone else -- but personally, this verse hits me like Rocky's right uppercut.  It convicts me of my own wrongdoing and reminds me to be gracious toward others in their wrongdoing.  It can be so easy to judge others, to begrudge others, to withhold love and respect from others because of their sinfulness.  But when I am confronted with a verse like this, I'm stopped dead in my tracks.  How foolish I am to try to pass myself off as a better person!  Can I say that I've kept my own heart pure?  No!  Can I say that I'm clean and without sin?  No!

I kind of wonder if this might have been the verse that Jesus used to confront the lynch mob who came to him with a woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:1-11).  The mob had asked (well, actually, kind of demanded) Jesus to pass judgment on her and (according to old Mosaic law) let the stoning begin.  But then Jesus wrote something on the ground.  We honestly don't know what exactly might have happened there at the proposed scene of the stoning -- other than the fact that Jesus did not condemn the woman and that whatever he wrote in the dust of the ground apparently convinced the mob to abandon their own condemnations and disperse.  Scholars have long theorized about what Jesus might have written:  maybe the instructions from the Mosaic law stating the fact that both the woman and the man were to be stoned... maybe the instructions from the Mosaic law condemning some of the acts committed by members of the mob... maybe the names of the rabbis' mistresses... But to me, it seems like Proverbs 20:9 would have been a pretty powerful Scripture in such a situation:  After all, who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?  Nobody could say that.  Not then and not now.

This realization and admission of one's personal sin and imperfection is one of the most critical elements of the Gospel.  My heart is not pure; I'm marred by sin and brokenness.  And there's no amout of Mosaic law (or any other kind of moral law) that's able to completely address that problem.  The only way for that situation to be addressed is to own up to the problem pay the penalty for my sin.  Which happens to be <gulp> death.  But this is where -- thank God! -- Jesus comes in.  Yes, it's true that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)... but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  When we realize our wretchedness (and stop trying to divert attention from it by condemning other people for their shortcomings), we can call out:  "Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24) And then, just a split second later, we can remember:  Ah yes; "thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord!"