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A Quote
- 03/30/04
- 6
I’d like to get some thoughts on the following quote, pulled ruthlessly and free from all context from John Eldredge’s book Wild at Heart.
Too many Christians today are living back in the old covenant. They’ve had Jeremiah 17:9 drilled into them and they walk around believing my heart is deceitfully wicked. Not anymore it’s not. Read the rest of the book. In Jeremiah 31:33, God announces the cure for all that: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” I will give you a new heart. That’s why Paul says in Romans 2:29, “No, a man is a Jew is he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit.” Sin is not the deepest thing about you. You have a new heart. Did you hear me? Your heart is good.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (6)
Following is an excerpt from Randy Stinson’s July 2003 review; the full article can be found at; http://www.cbmw.org/resources/reviews/eldredge_wah_review.php
“These descriptions of the life and heart of the believer drastically misconstrue or overstate the principles behind the doctrines of justification and sanctification. First, to say that the heart of the believer is “good” is not even biblical language. Eldredge makes a jump from the Bible’s use of terms like “saint” and “child of God” to the conclusion that the heart must, in its converted state, be good. The Bible never uses language like this to describe the heart of the believer. Eldredge has confused the biblical concept of newness with complete goodness.”
Indeed, rebirth and regeneration of the Christian’s heart does occur, but just as a newborn baby is expected to ‘grow into’ his manhood, so too a christian’s spiritual journey is one of grow. We are not instantly perfected (except in that we are perfected in Jesus and are clothed in His rightousness, therefore acceptable to the Father through Him), but we are expected to grow. In fact, our ultimate adulthood must await His second coming at which time we will be perfected in Him and like Him. Until then we all struggle, and through struggling we grow. The concept of instant purification of our own selves apart from Christ would have been foreign to Paul:
Romans 7:14-2514 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Hmmmmm I think it is good for us to reflect upon the fact that God has regenerated out hearts (EZK 36) but I think it is an overstatement to call ourselves “good.”
Thanks for the thoughts. Keep them coming if you’ve got more!
Dick Staub (Christianity Today) interviewed John Eldredge and asked him about his “You have a good heart” theology. John’s answers don’t sit well. As much as I like John’s writing style, I cannot find any Biblical support for the stance he has taken.
Dick Staub: “So if I have such a good heart, why do I, like Paul, find that I do the things I don’t want to do and I don’t do the things I want to do?”
John Eldredge:”Twice in Romans 7, do you know what he says? It’s absolutely incredible. He says, “So this is not me. It’s my battle with sin, but this is not my true heart.” And this will make a huge difference as people battle with flesh, sin, and temptation. You’re walking down the hall and there’s a gorgeous woman. The evil one says, you want that. My good heart says, No, I don’t. That’s a lie.I desire the things of God.
The restoration of your heart is primarily what God’s up to. Jesus first day in the synagogue, the first sermon he gives announcing his ministry, he goes back to Isaiah 61, which says, “I’ve come to heal the brokenhearted and set the captive free.” We are all the brokenhearted. Life will shatter your heart from childhood on up with disappointment, loss, abuse, and setback. It’s not just sin (although sin is such an issue that the Son of God had to die for it). It’s also brokenness.
What’s astounding is that any time Jesus gets hold of a person, no matter what their difference, what he does is always the same. The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear. He restores them. So this is the other half of Christianity: not just pardon, not just forgiveness, not just heaven. God restores the human being How does he restore the image-bearers that he created? Well, four strands, I think: healing, counseling, deliverance, and discipleship.
These four strands have long existed in different places in the church, but really need to flow together in order for us to see people genuinely restored, which is what we’re about. I want to see people restored as image-bearers of God.”
The rest of the interview can be found here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/145/21.0.html
John 14:12
12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.