New life of the heart

John at Scotwise speaks this week about new life in Christ. That life is much more, he notes, than simply behaving ourselves better:

CULTURE and REFINEMENT and outward correctness of life will not take the place of the New Birth. The trouble is not merely with our outward life; the trouble is in the heart, in the deepest depths of our inward life. Our attempt to simply reform our outward life will not save us.

Suppose I had a rotten apple, I could take it to an artist and have him paint it until it was the most beautiful looking apple on canvas that you ever saw, and then have him coat it with varnish; but it would just be rotten to the core as ever. One bite into it would be a bite of decay. The trouble is that without Jesus Christ, you are wide of the mark in the heart.

Changing our behavior is so much easier than changing our heart. That's why heart change is God's work. Our job is to quit fighting and cooperate with the process.