The Sin We Refuse to Admit, The God Who Keeps Calling Us Back

Jeremiah 2:23–37, 3, 4, 5:1–19

Friends, do you know what people are slowest to fix? It's not the wrong action itself. It's the sentence, "I haven't done anything wrong."

Near the end of chapter 2, God says this to Judah: "Yet you say, 'I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me'" (2:35). They had worshipped idols, abandoned God, and run about like a restless camel chasing after other gods — and yet the words that came out of their mouths were not repentance, but "I have done nothing wrong."

And yet, remarkably, chapter 3 doesn't move straight to judgement — it moves to an invitation. "Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness" (3:22). To a people who had left him and gone chasing after other gods, God was still holding out his hand.

But that invitation had one condition. "Only acknowledge your guilt... you have not obeyed my voice" (3:13). What God was asking for was not a formal show of regret, but honest confession.

In chapter 4, God pushes deeper into what that repentance actually means. "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts" (4:4). The men of Israel had already been circumcised in body. But what God actually wanted was not a mark on the skin — it was surgery on the heart.

Friends, we are exactly the same. We can keep up every religious form while our hearts remain entirely uncut — showing up to worship while our hearts stay just as hard as before.

Then in chapter 5, God runs an experiment. "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her" (5:1). God says that if he can find even one righteous person in the whole city, he will forgive the entire city.

And what was the result? "They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent" (5:3). Even when God struck them, they felt no pain. Even when God corrected them, they refused to be healed.

Friends, this is the most frightening face sin can wear — a heart so hardened it can no longer feel pain. A sinner who doesn't even know they are a sinner. From chapter 2 through chapter 5, this passage paints one single picture: God calling out "return" to the very end, while we say "I am innocent" to the very end.

But it's precisely here that we must look to Christ. The "one person" Jeremiah searched so hard for — the one who does justice and seeks truth — was never found in the streets of Jerusalem. But later, that one person came. His name is Jesus Christ. And he received, in our place, the true circumcision of the heart — through the tearing of his own body on the cross.

Is there still a voice inside you saying, "I am innocent"? Today, I want you to lay that down and stand honestly before God. He is still calling — "Return."