“Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin’?” (Proverbs 20:9).
Who indeed!
A careful consideration of the subtleties within this question can make the answer more difficult than expected. For example, it is a true statement to say that no one using his own resources can make his heart clean of sin. The stain and guilt of a past sin can in no way be cleansed by good behavior in the present or by the accumulation of many good works over a lifetime.
In addition, it is also a true statement to say that no one using the blood of bulls and goats in obedience to the Old Testament’s sacrificial system can make his heart permanently cleansed of sin (Heb. 10:1-4).
It is also a true statement to point out that Jesus never had to make His heart clean. He never sinned; therefore, He never had any uncleanness in His heart. “My sin” was never a phrase Jesus used.
Though Solomon lived on the Mount Sinai side of the cross, his question casts a brilliant foreshadow on a fundamental truth about the gospel: Becoming and being cleansed, pure from personal sin is only possible by the blood of Christ and the good news of spiritual victory in His gospel.
