Understanding How God Made Us
Table of Contents
The Gospel and Heart-Level Transformation
The Bible consistently teaches that the heart is the control center of human life. Jesus said that “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery…” (Matthew 15:19). Solomon wrote, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). Paul commands us to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
But what does this mean practically? And how does the gospel address the deepest issues of the human heart? This framework explains the biblical view of human nature and how transformation happens from the inside out.
The Heart: Our Control Center
The Bible uses “heart” to describe our deepest longings, core beliefs, and fundamental orientation toward God or self. It’s not merely our emotions—it’s the command center of human life where we process the most fundamental questions of existence:
Significance: Who am I? Do I matter? What gives my life meaning and worth?
Security: Am I safe? Will my needs be met? Where do I find stability in an uncertain world?
These questions drive everything we think, feel, desire, and do. The heart operates largely beneath conscious awareness, shaping our lives through beliefs, images, and assumptions about how to meet our deepest needs. We may not articulate these beliefs consciously, but they function as the operating system of our lives.
When Scripture speaks of the heart, it refers to this control center—the place where we worship, where we make ultimate commitments, where we decide what will give us life.
Biblical Foundation:
- Proverbs 4:23 declares that “everything you do flows from” the heart
- Matthew 15:18-19 teaches that sin originates in the heart, not in external circumstances
- Luke 6:45 shows that our words and actions overflow from what fills the heart
- Romans 10:9-10 locates saving faith in the heart, not merely intellectual agreement
The heart is not neutral. It’s always oriented toward something, always seeking satisfaction and security somewhere. The question is not whether we have heart-level commitments, but whether those commitments are rightly ordered toward God or disordered toward created things.
Below the Waterline
Like an iceberg, most of what drives human behavior exists below the surface of conscious awareness. We typically focus on what’s visible “above the waterline”—the symptoms we can see and experience. But the causes lie hidden beneath.
Above the Waterline (Visible):
- Behaviors and actions
- Emotions and feelings
- Conscious thoughts and decisions
- External circumstances and situations
Below the Waterline (Hidden):
- Core beliefs about significance and security
- Functional gods (idols of the heart)
- Unconscious assumptions and operating images
- Deepest longings and desires
- Ultimate loves and commitments
When we only address “above the waterline” issues—trying to change behavior without addressing heart beliefs—we’re practicing mere behavior modification. We tell ourselves to “try harder,” “be more disciplined,” or “just stop doing that.” This approach is exhausting, produces either pride (when we succeed) or despair (when we fail), and doesn’t produce lasting change.
Why? Because we haven’t addressed what’s actually driving the behavior.
A man might struggle with anger. He can learn anger management techniques, memorize verses about patience, and commit to counting to ten before responding. These aren’t bad things—but if his anger flows from a heart that demands respect and feels threatened when it doesn’t receive it, he’s only treating symptoms. The anger will keep returning because the heart belief hasn’t changed.
The gospel goes deeper. It addresses what’s below the waterline.
This isn’t a counseling technique—it’s biblical anthropology. Understanding how God designed us helps us understand why the gospel is such good news and how the Spirit transforms us from the inside out. It’s also why we need to read Scripture carefully—because the biblical authors are consistently addressing the heart, not just behavior.
How the Gospel Transforms
True and lasting change happens when the gospel addresses the heart at multiple levels:
1. The Gospel Exposes Our Idolatry
The gospel reveals that we’ve been seeking significance and security in things that can’t deliver—career success, financial security, relationships, reputation, control, comfort, approval. We’ve made these things ultimate. We’ve asked them to do what only God can do.
These become functional gods—idols of the heart. We may not bow to statues, but we worship nonetheless. We worship by organizing our lives around these things, by sacrificing for them, by feeling devastated when they’re threatened, by experiencing our sense of worth and safety rising or falling based on their status.
The first work of the gospel is exposure: showing us that we’ve been asking created things to be our creator.
2. The Gospel Reveals Our Futile Independence
Deeper still, the gospel exposes the root of all idolatry: we’ve been trying to meet our own deepest needs apart from God. This is the essence of sin—not just rule-breaking, but self-reliance. We’ve been functionally declaring, “I will be my own source of significance and security. I will construct my own identity and protect my own life.”
This is the echo of Genesis 3. The serpent’s temptation wasn’t primarily about fruit—it was about autonomy. “You will be like God,” the serpent promised. You won’t need to depend on Him. You can secure your own flourishing.
Every idol is an attempt at self-salvation, an effort to live independently from God while still getting what we need.
3. The Gospel Offers True Security and Significance
Against our futile attempts at self-construction, the gospel announces stunning news:
Your significance is settled: You are chosen before the foundation of the world, adopted as God’s child, redeemed by Christ’s blood, sealed with the Spirit as a guarantee of your inheritance (Ephesians 1:3-14). Your worth is established by God’s choice and Christ’s sacrifice, not by your performance or achievement.
Your security is certain: Nothing—not death, not life, not angels, not rulers, not things present, not things to come, not powers, not height, not depth, not anything in all creation—can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). Your safety rests in God’s unbreakable commitment, not in your circumstances or your ability to control outcomes.
Your identity is established: You are who God says you are. You are a saint who sometimes sins, not a sinner trying to become a saint. You are righteous in Christ, not working toward righteousness. You are fully known and fully loved, not auditioning for acceptance.
The gospel declares that what you’ve been frantically seeking—significance and security—has already been given to you in Christ. You can stop striving and start resting.
4. The Gospel Transforms from the Inside Out
With the gospel addressing our heart’s deepest needs, transformation becomes possible—not through willpower, but through the Spirit’s work:
False beliefs are replaced with gospel truth. The mind is renewed (Romans 12:2) as we learn to think God’s thoughts after Him, to see ourselves and our circumstances through the lens of what’s true in Christ.
Desires are reordered toward God. What we love changes as we come to see God as supremely valuable and satisfying. Our hearts are drawn toward what we treasure, and the gospel reveals God as the treasure that truly satisfies.
The mind is renewed through Scripture. God’s Word exposes our false beliefs, corrects our distorted thinking, and implants truth that transforms from within. This is why biblical literacy matters—we need to know what God has said so the Spirit can use it to reshape our hearts.
Behavior changes as the fruit of heart transformation. External change follows internal change. We don’t muster up better behavior; we find that transformed hearts naturally produce transformed lives. The obedience that flows from the gospel is joyful, not begrudging—because we’re responding to grace, not working for acceptance.
This is why Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Transformation happens from the inside out, as the gospel does its deep work on our hearts, minds, and desires.
Why This Matters for Discipleship
Understanding how God designed us changes everything about how we approach Christian growth:
For Personal Discipleship
We stop settling for behavior management and pursue heart-level transformation. When we struggle with sin, we don’t just ask “What should I do differently?” We ask deeper questions: “What am I believing here? What am I seeking for significance or security? Where am I looking for life apart from Christ?”
This moves us beyond the exhausting cycle of sin, guilt, resolution, failure, repeat. Instead, we identify the false beliefs driving our behavior, bring them into the light of the gospel, and ask the Spirit to change what we believe and desire at the deepest level.
For Community
We create churches where it’s safe to admit struggle—because we’re all believers with remaining sin, all recovering idolaters, all learning to trust Jesus more fully. We help each other identify the false beliefs that drive our besetting sins. We remind each other of gospel truth when we forget. We speak God’s promises into each other’s fears and insecurities.
Transformation happens in community, not isolation. We need each other to see our blind spots, to speak truth we can’t generate on our own, to demonstrate Christ’s love in tangible ways.
For Understanding Scripture
When we read the Bible with this framework, we see that Scripture consistently addresses the heart, not just behavior. The biblical authors assume that lasting change requires changed hearts, renewed minds, reordered loves.
Biblical literacy means more than memorizing verses or knowing Bible stories—it means learning to read Scripture on its own terms, understanding the context and flow of argument, tracing themes through biblical books, and seeing how every passage points to Christ and addresses the human heart.
When we understand the heart as Scripture describes it, we read passages differently:
- Commands aren’t merely rules to follow, but calls to reorient our hearts toward God
- Biblical narratives show us the human heart in action—its idolatries, its faith, its rebellion, its redemption
- Wisdom literature diagnoses our heart’s condition and prescribes the fear of the Lord as the remedy
- The Psalms give us language for our hearts’ struggles and teach us to preach gospel truth to ourselves
- Paul’s letters address beliefs before behaviors, knowing that heart transformation is the key to life transformation
This framework helps you become a better reader of Scripture because you’re asking the same questions the biblical authors assumed.
For Cultural Engagement
We understand cultural trends not just as moral failures but as entire societies seeking significance and security in things that can’t deliver. Every cultural movement reflects collective human hearts searching for satisfaction, meaning, and security somewhere.
This gives us compassion—we see that people aren’t just “bad,” they’re like us: made in God’s image, seeking what only God can give, looking in all the wrong places. It also gives us clarity—we can name the idols, expose their futility, and point to the only One who satisfies.
The gospel critiques every human system precisely because every human system is built on some claim about where life is found. And every system except the gospel eventually fails to deliver what it promises.
The Gospel for the Whole Person
The gospel isn’t just about forgiveness of sins (though it’s certainly that). It’s not merely a ticket to heaven (though it secures our eternal destiny). The gospel is God’s power for the redemption and restoration of the whole person—heart, mind, will, emotions, relationships, and behavior.
Sanctification is God’s progressive work of conforming us to Christ’s image. It’s ultimately His work through His Spirit—we cannot transform ourselves. But we cooperate through means of grace that He’s given us:
The Word: Scripture renews our minds with gospel truth, exposing false beliefs and implanting God’s perspective. Biblical literacy is essential—we need to know what God has said so the Spirit can use it to transform us.
Prayer: We express our dependence on God for transformation, acknowledge our inability to change ourselves, and ask the Spirit to do what only He can do.
Community: We grow together in the church, encouraging one another, confessing to one another, speaking truth to one another. The Spirit works through the body of Christ to conform us to the Head.
Spiritual Disciplines: We use means like worship, Scripture memory, fasting, and celebration not to earn favor, but to position ourselves where the Spirit works. The disciplines are channels of grace, not merit badges.
This is lifelong work. Growth isn’t linear—there will be setbacks, struggles, and seasons of failure. We’ll discover layers of idolatry we didn’t know were there. We’ll fail at the same things repeatedly. We’ll wonder if we’re making any progress at all.
But God is faithful to complete what He began (Philippians 1:6). He who started the good work will bring it to completion. Not because we’re capable, but because He’s faithful. Not because we work hard enough, but because Christ’s work is sufficient and the Spirit’s power is effective.
We pursue holiness with diligence while resting in God’s faithfulness. We’re honest about ongoing sin while confident in progressive change. We cooperate with the Spirit’s work while acknowledging that all genuine transformation is ultimately His doing, not ours.
Three Questions for Reflection
- What are you currently seeking for significance or security apart from Christ? What would devastate you if you lost it? What would make you feel like your life is meaningful or safe? That’s likely where your functional worship is directed.
- How does understanding your heart’s deepest longings help you make sense of your struggles? Can you trace your besetting sins back to beliefs about where life is found? What are you believing below the waterline that produces the struggles above the waterline?
- Where do you need the gospel to address not just your behavior, but your beliefs? Where are you trying to change through willpower and self-effort rather than through heart-level transformation by the Spirit?
Resources for Going Deeper
Check back often as new content is being added. Also see the Resources page.
Books
No Other Gospel
Explores what it means to live from our identity in Christ rather than striving to earn God’s favor through performance. Addresses the heart-level implications of justification.
Keys to the Kingdom
Asks the crucial question: “Why do we seek change?” Examines our motivations for pursuing spiritual growth and challenges us to root our obedience in the gospel, not self-improvement.
From Blessed to Transformed
Challenges the assumption that material comfort and prosperity are God’s ultimate blessings, calling us to pursue Christ-likeness over comfort.
Bible Studies on Identity and the Heart
Living Out Our Identity in Christ (Ephesians)
How to Study the Bible
Learn principles of biblical interpretation, how to read Scripture in context, and how to develop biblical literacy:.
Coming Soon
The Gospel Lens: Cultural Engagement
See how this framework applies to cultural engagement—examining contemporary issues through the transforming lens of the gospel: Link to The Gospel Lens