The Default Position of the Human Heart

Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

2 Peter 3:3

This is what the first Christians experienced; it’s what we experience today; and it will be the experience of the church until Christ comes.

When the New Testament refers to the “last days,” it includes all the days between Jesus’ first and second coming (see Acts 2). So, don’t be surprised by antagonism toward the gospel. By nature we do not seek God, we do not love God, and we cannot please God.

Rejecting God’s Word (scoffing) and choosing your own way go together. If you want to follow your own desires, you have to reject God. You have to put yourself and your own agenda in first place in your life. The sinner would prefer a world without God, because he wants to be his own god. Paul says, “Men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18).

Unbelief and rebellion are the default position of the human heart, “The mind that is set on the flesh [i.e., the nature we are born with] is hostile to God” (Rom. 8:7). “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh” (8:5). The idea that sinners really love God and are seeking after Him, if only they could find Him, is completely false.

Peter has been telling us that in Christ we have “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). That means we need to find in Christ the strength, patience, wisdom, and grace to live in a world that does not see His glory, does not believe His Word, and does not follow His way.

Are you prepared to follow Jesus in this Christ-rejecting world?