A scene from one of
George MacDonald's children's books — called The Princess and Curdie—
illustrates this point.
Early in the novel the young boy Curdie thoughtlessly
shoots an arrow into a white pigeon. Suddenly overcome by remorse, he
carries the wounded bird to an old, old princess to see if anything can be done
to save it. But the woman is even more concerned about the boy than she is
about the bird. Gently she tries to help Curdie recognize that his evil deed
sprang from the all-pervasive wickedness of his heart. When finally he confesses
his sinful condition, he says, "I see now that I have been doing wrong
the whole day, and such a many days besides! Indeed, I don't know when I
ever did right. . . .
When I killed your bird I did not know I was doing wrong,
just because I was always doing wrong, and the wrong had soaked all
through me."
The problem, however, is not simply that we keep committing this or
that sin; the problem is that we are sinners to the very core. Until we surrender
to Jesus Christ, our entire orientation is sinful.
--Phil Ryken
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