Create in me…

We have all sinned, to one degree or another, as an inherent part of our human nature. Not that we want it to be so, but that it is something that became a part of us from the moment that we were conceived. It isn’t something that we can wish away, or even ignore to the point of it not existing…. “If I don’t acknowledge it, it doesn’t exist.” The same is true of God, and of our salvation in Christ. It is there, whether you choose to believe it to be true or not. It is a matter of accepting Truth no matter the cost, and doing the next right thing to overcome the sin nature within.

Paul summarized it best in Romans 7:15-20 when he stated “¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”

Looking at verse 18, Paul states that good does not dwell in me. This reminds me of 2 Samuel 11-12 when King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, what today would amount to rape, and impregnated her. In an attempted to cover up his sin, he went through an elaborate scheme to deceive her husband Uriah which ultimately ended in his death. When the prophet Nathan confronted King David of his sin, he was wrecked with guilt and shame for he knew that he had committed a grievous offense against God.

Psalm 51 is the outpouring of King David’s heart, knowing that he could not outrun the penalty of his sinfulness. He acknowledges the need for God’s mercy, the greatness God’s compassion, the need to be washed and cleansed due to the prevalence of his sin. His adultery, any adultery, is evil in the sight of God, and would be in every case a guilty verdict when standing before the Righteous Judge. Although we have this inherent sin nature, we are called by God for greater things that are blessed in our faithfulness to Him.

As we continue in Psalm 51, we get to the “heart of the matter” in verse 10. “Create in me a pure heart…” To me, this implies that God must create something that does not exist. Something, that without petition, we would not possess otherwise. Jeremiah 17:9 goes as far as to say that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” He then proceeds to ask God to “…renew a steadfast spirit within me.” This tells me that the spirit is always with us, but a quickening of spirit must occur at this point in order to move into alignment with God in His will for us.

The order of precedence is clear though: Come to the Father, through the Son to wash away the sins, ask Him to create a pure heart, renew the spirit within, and begin to walk with the Father….