"Everyone's a Sinner..."

I just read Homeschool Will Not Save Them on the Desiring God website.  The author homeschooled her daughter, thinking that a homeschool education would ensure that her daughter became a Christian.

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6 

However, during her first year in college, the daughter decided that she didn't believe the Bible anymore.

And I couldn't help thinking about my youngest son, who'll be going to college this fall.
 
Like the girl in the article, he knows his Bible, he's educated in the creation vs evolution debate, and he's capable of defending his faith. 

In the end, the mother concludes that a Christian education doesn't make a person become a Christian but "only Christ can move upon human hearts inclined toward sin and do a work of regeneration." 

And I ask, "What does she mean by that?"

It doesn't mean that a heart just needs to believe the Bible, believe in creation, and know and obey the commandments, or just be a good Christian with a Christian philosophy.

The heart that needs to be changed is a heart that doesn't recognize its own sin and sin nature.  That truth and the depth of sin often get lost amidst Christian learning, morality, and good works.  

My sin nature is the ugliest thing about me, the thing I hate, and avoid admitting or thinking about.

But God's Word comes to me, when I hear it proclaimed or when I read the Bible...and it's like God is ripping my chest open and saying, "Look."

For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. Psalm 38:4

Ironically, what drives a person to Christianity is a very real and very personal recognition and understanding of his or her own sin, a recognition that a person isn't good, and can't be good...apart from Christ.  

In other words, in hearing God's Word and His Law, the heart becomes tenderized to its own sin and knows it's not good...and despairs...

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. Romans 7:18a

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Romans 7:24

The heart despairs...until it hears the good news of Jesus.

...Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.  1 Timothy 1:15

And my college-bound son...in the midst of his sins and struggles, I often remind him of the fallen world, the world he lives in.  And he'll resist and mope for awhile.  

But eventually he'll recognize his own sin and confess, "Everyone's a sinner."  And then he'll add, "Except me.  I'm perfect."  Even in his sarcasm, he knows the sweetness of the cross.