Pr 20:9 Who can say, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin"?
The answer to the question in this verse is "Absolutely, no one!" Two things are implied in the verse:
First, we have universal iniquity
No one, no not one can truly and really say that "I have made my heart clean and I am pure from my sin." The Bible says: "...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (see Ro 3:23) and "...there is no one who does not sin..." (see 2Ch 6:36).
Ro 3:10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."
Second, we have universal inability
It is not within the power of the sinner to make himself pure and clean. He has no ability and strength to do so. Just as a leopard cannot change its spots and a Ethiopian cannot change the color of his skin, so no sinner can make himself pure and clean.
Jer 2:22 “Although you wash yourself with lye And use much soap, The stain of your iniquity is before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.
Pr 27:22 Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, Yet his foolishness will not depart from him.
We are all guilty and powerless to atone for our sins and expiate our guilt. What we need is an acceptable atonement to wash us and cleanse us of all our sins. By the grace of God, we have Someone just like that---the Lord Jesus Christ.
He died for our sins and rose from the dead that if we put our trust in Him and rely on what He did on the cross we will be forgiven, cleansed and washed from our sins.
