Regarding to our nature, a big question remains: can a leopard change its spots? Is the heart (self) capable of genuine change? This seems like kind of a silly question given all we’ve talked about regarding our nature because we’ve already spent a lot of time establishing the fact that, with God’s help, we can change. Yet I think it’s a valid question. I can see how I truly have changed, initially through my born again experience and then more slowly over the many years since. But in many ways I’m the same person I’ve always been. I know I’m still that same old me because of what sporadically surfaces in my heart when confronted with something that challenges the self-will still residing at the deepest levels of my being.

Moreover, there seems to be a paradox in Scripture as to whether or not the heart can change. On the one hand there are passages such as: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”(Jeremiah 17:9) Here the heart appears to be stubborn to the point of being incapable of fundamental change. And in fact our flesh does seem to be precisely that way—controllable maybe, but not entirely changeable. Paul seems to agree that this is so in his teaching in Romans 7.

On the other hand, The Bible implies that we have the power to change our heart by our choices—for both good and bad.(Hebrews 3:12) And not only that, but Scripture also seems to imply that our heart can actually in a sense be pure.(2 Timothy 2:22)

Can both be true? I think they can. The changed lives of millions of Christians down through the centuries are proof that the heart can indeed change. But unfortunately, there are millions more whose attitudes and behavior shed doubt on it. What’s the difference between the two? Choice. Our choices, made in response to each opportunity presented to us in life, make all the difference.