IN continuing this teaching concerning outward traditions, Jesus turns in verse 10 from addressing the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law to the crowds around him. No doubt he felt that the Pharisees had no intention of receiving his wisdom, and so he addresses the people directly that they may hear his wisdom and be saved from the false traditions of the Pharisees.

It is a very profound statement which Jesus gives, and it seems hard to appreciate why people find it so difficult to grasp. If the disciples found it difficult to grasp (v.15) how much more the crowd.

This teaching reaches deeply into what is real and good and saving to the soul. What we eat cannot make us good or bad. What we eat is food for the body which nourishes the body and not food for the soul which is nourished by spiritual food. Bodily food does not touch the soul in any way whatsoever. For this reason if our hands are dirty when we pick up food it can't do any harm to the soul, or effect the soul in any way. The dirt on our hands may poison our stomach and make us sick, but can't defile the soul. If we believe that we are doing a religious act by ceremonially washing our hands before eating, far from doing good to our soul, we are doing harm. Such a tradition is telling us that God's salvation depends on following outward rules and earning God's favour by our doing. This is the way to kill our souls rather than save them, for resting on our own effort means we are asking God to deal with us strictly in justice, and then God can do nothing else than condemn us because his justice requires us to be perfect.

The fact is that defilement comes from within us as human beings. Jesus speaks of defilement being caused by what comes out of our mouth - that is by what we say. The reason for this is that speech expresses the thoughts and aspiration of our minds and inner desires and motivations. Human beings find it hard to grasp this truth, this fact. The reason for this is the lack of teaching concerning what is called original sin.

These days it is felt that human beings are really good at heart, whereas the Bible tells us that human beings are bad at heart. There is nothing so offensive to human pride than this truth, and it is resisted vigorously. It is felt to be insulting. There is every acceptance that some people are bad inside, but to say humanity is can't be tolerated. There has been a belief ever since the beginning of the 20th century that human beings are wise and clever enough to improve, and only time and education is need to bring in perfection. This is still held by most folk even though events in the world and in our country tell us otherwise. It is still felt evil may be in some but not in most, and certainly not in ourselves.

The Bible reveals something quite different. Jesus speaks of human beings loving darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Deeds are an expression of what is inside us. Paul speaks of the world under the dominion of the evil one. He speaks of the spirit (Satan) who is now at work in those who are disobedient, and that all lived among such at one time before conversion by the grace of God.

The Bible teaching is that we are born dead in trespasses and sins, and that this corruption effects every part of the human personality. We may not be as bad as we could be, but every part of us is tainted by corruption, and we are very far gone from original righteousness as God created us.

All this death and corruption, the Bible tells us, was brought in when our first parent, Adam, sinned. He brought the sentence of death on humanity, and this is why we have this corruption at heart.

We hear being said, when viewing some evil reported in the news that "but for the grace of God there I go". This is true though few really believe it. The fact is that the world is not wholly given over to evil because God, by what is called his common grace, restrains this corruption. This is why God has ordained governments and authorities in the world. Paul tells us that these are ordained of God. When God withdraws his restraining power then evil grows, and there is no doubt we are seeing this in the world today, not least in Great Britain.

There is no explanation for the world as we see it, and the history of the world, with such predominance of evil when we deny this doctrine. People may laugh at us for believing in Adam and Eve, but their fall into sin is the only answer to the corruption in the human heart and in the world. People deny the historicity of Adam but they have nothing to put in its place to explain things as they are in the world.