Whitewashed tomb!

 ²⁷ “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. ²⁸ Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:27-28

Much as I hate to admit it, I fear that I too can be a whitewashed tomb.  As a Christian, I know the things that please and displease God and, perhaps more so, I know what other Christians expect from me.  So I make my behaviour meet these expectations and become a whitewashed tomb..

Surely fighting sin is a good thing?  Yes it is, but if all I do is alter my behaviour my deepest problem remains:

²⁰ And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.²¹ For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

Mark 7:20-21 

If my heart doesn't change then all I've done is painted over the problem.  I become proud that I've achieved x,y and z and judge people who haven't.  This is the best I can achieve with my own efforts and it's not good enough.  I need Christ. Only Christ can change my Heart.  Only He can cause me to desire Him above all else.

Repentance must start in the heart and work outwards.  My desires need to change first and then my behaviour will follow. When I value Christ above all else then the temptations that I face seem less attractive.  When I realise that my heart is the problem then I won't beat myself up for giving into temptation (though there's still no excuse to sin) because that failure is just a symptom of my problem.  When I realise my heart is the problem I know that any change in me is by God's grace.

There's no room for boasting.