Introduction
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” Psalm 95:7-8
When we think of a hard heart, we might initially get visions of criminals or terrorists, people who are belligerent and oblivious to the needs of others. But hard hearts happen to Christians too.
Think about it. Have you ever experienced a time where you felt unresponsive to God’s Word? You read your Bible, but it just seems like words on a page because you aren’t getting anything out of it. Maybe you even find yourself ignoring your Bible and neglecting your prayer time altogether. Your heart is hard, and you’ve forgotten Christ’s sacrifice to purchase you.
Or maybe you go to church, you sit, stand, and even sing at all the appropriate times, but you are not engaged at all; your mind is a million miles away. You think you’ve heard it all before. You believe the gospel message is for salvation but not relevant to your daily life. You hide or minimize your sins while judging others harshly, holding onto bitterness, nursing grudges, lashing out in anger and refusing to forgive. Your heart is hard; you’ve forgotten the great debt of sin that Christ paid off for you with His death on the cross.
Or perhaps temptation comes to you, but instead of taking the way out that God provides through Jesus’ death and resurrection, you shut your ears to the voice of the Spirit. You turn from the cross of Christ and choose to go your own way, indulging the cravings of your flesh as if you were alive to sin and dead to God. You think you deserve a treat. You are frustrated with God, thinking He isn’t meeting your needs. You covet what others have and complain about what you don’t have. Unbelief has hardened your heart.
But what are we to do when we realize that our heart is hard? Is there a remedy for this dreadful malady? Yes! Look to Jesus! The gospel, the great news of the atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus, is the only softening agent for a hard heart.
Much as bread goes stale and hardens when it is left out and unprotected, if we do not daily cover our hearts and protect our minds with the redeeming work of Jesus on the cross, sin will increase in our lives, and our hearts will grow hard. But if we come to Jesus and wash in the blood of His new covenant, then our hearts will be softened anew.
When we look to Jesus crucified, He opens our eyes and reveals Himself to us in His Word. As we hear again, the good news of our forgiveness that flows to us from Calvary, our ears become receptive to the voice of the Spirit. As we consider the humility of Christ, the Lamb of God, dying our death, our minds are renewed and transformed by Christ. As we behold the empty tomb of Jesus, unbelief is banished, and the joy of our salvation is restored (1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Luke 7:22, Romans 12:2, Hebrews 2:9, Hebrews 12:1-3).
Illustration
In the book of Exodus, we read how the Israelites were saved from God’s wrath through the death of the Passover Lamb, were “baptized” at the Red Sea, and then lived for over forty years in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses. At one point on their journey, they came to a place where there was no water to drink, so they complained to Moses, murmured against God, and “put the Lord to the test” (Exodus 17:2).
Psalm 95:8 tells us the reason they were complaining and murmuring: they had hard hearts. Psalms 95:8-9 (NIV) “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.”
What was the solution that God provided to these hard-hearted complainers?
Exodus 17:6 (NIV) I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
God told Moses to strike a rock, and out of it came water for the people. What a unique solution! We might consider digging for water but probably wouldn’t think of striking a rock for it. 1 Corinthians 10:4 provides this commentary:
1 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NIV) They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Ah, now we understand! The struck rock pointed forward to Christ, who was hung on the cross and struck to death for us. And from His death flows the river of the Holy Spirit, the Living Water, who meets all our needs.
What is the solution for a hard heart? It is to look to Jesus, see Him being struck and wounded for you, see Him lifted up to die, receive the Holy Spirit by faith, and drink deeply of the waters of life!
Like the Israelites, we have been saved and baptized, and are now living our daily lives under God’s leadership. But when times get hard, we might start to think that the message of the cross is no longer relevant. We might think we need something new or more than the gospel. And this is one of the errors that can foster a hard heart – believing that the message of the cross is merely for salvation and not for everyday life.
But the message of the cross is not merely the message of salvation; it is the message of transformation. We are to look daily, to see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, to find fresh living water every day at the foot of the cross. There, Jesus was crucified to put your sins to death; at the cross, your record of wrongs, that legal document that was against you, was nailed into the flesh of Jesus, where it was permanently removed from you (Colossians 2:14).
Application
Do you feel distant from Jesus today? Have the difficult circumstances of your life eclipsed the wonder of the cross of Christ for you? Has your time with the Lord fallen by the way? Is your faith stale? Have you fallen into a pattern of habitual sin and been hardened by it?
Oh, dear friend, come to the cross of Christ and let it strike your hard heart, let it wound you and heal you, let it raise you up and give you relief. Let the water and blood that flows from Jesus’ wounded side wash over and refresh you today. Remember God’s goodness to you in taking you out of the dominion of darkness and bringing you into the kingdom of His beloved Son, Jesus (Colossians 1:13).
Consider the wounds of Christ:
- A crown of thorns pierced His head so that your mind might be renewed and transformed.
- His back was struck and shredded to atone for your sins and to heal your heart wounds.
- His beard was plucked out; His face was struck; His hands and feet were pierced to pay for the wicked things that you have said and done.
- He hung naked and exposed in your sin and shame so that you could be clothed with His righteousness.
- His heart was pierced to save and sanctify yours.“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast” Psalm 22:14.
- He breathed out His last and gave up His Spirit to fill you and secure your eternal life.
Come and remember that you are loved, dear friend. Your sins are forgiven. There is abundant life for you in Jesus. Be comforted by the cross today. Let the water of the Spirit and the blood of Christ restore your heart today.
Hebrews 3:12-13 (NIV) See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Question: How does looking at the cross of Christ soften your heart?
Larry writes, “It helps me to realize just how fortunate I am and how much I have to be thankful for, and I am humbled at the cross to see my God dying for me, a sinful creature!“
Judy writes, “Dear Lord, help me to keep my eyes on the gospel of Christ. I always knew it was the key to salvation, but only recently the key to daily living. Help me to open my mind and heart to keep me focused on You. Amen“
Wendy writes, “It shows me that God sees me as a worthy enough daughter that He would die for me. It shows me that God respects me and takes me seriously. It shows me that God means everything He says. He is willing to endure suffering and death for me. So it is very important that I am willing to die to my sin for Him! Sin is harmful to me and will harden my heart against Him if I let it. I must put the little foxes to death.“
Mike L. writes, “It’s truly overwhelming to think of Jesus hanging on the cross, the creator of everything giving His life for the thing He created, its hard to understand that someone could be so loving, especially toward His enemy, I put Him on that cross, I crucified Him! Looking at His example of humility and love, it truly does melt your heart and I know that when bitterness or sinful thoughts start to creep back into my life it’s because I haven’t spent time sitting at the cross. The cross is life-changing, I have a welling up inside me that words just can’t do it justice! Lord Jesus thank you for Your love toward me!“
Reprinted by permission from the Looking to Jesus study at www.settingcaptivesfree.com. SCF exists to help men and women find freedom in Christ through the gospel.