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“An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin” (Proverbs 21:4).
Here we find the reason why God cannot accept the good deeds of the natural man. He may do something good or nice, but it is always done from the wrong motive. When an unsaved person does something good, usually he or she is proud of it. Pride in man is always wrong, for it takes away glory that belongs to God, and gives it to man.
Even if it is only something like plowing a field, an unsaved person does it without reference to God’s claims. There is nothing wrong with plowing, but if I do not recognize that this world belongs to God as its Creator, then I am taking a place of ownership that does not belong to me.
The natural man disposes of this world as if it were his own, while God tells us in His Word that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). Not only did God create this world; He created us too, but man often forgets this, and acts as if he had no responsibility toward God.
When we come to Christ, we recognize God’s claims over us, and recognize, too, that we are sinners before God. Then we find that God is willing to forgive ours sins through the Lord Jesus Christ, His beloved Son.
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