Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn says, “If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
When I first read Solzhenitsyn’s poignant question in college, it struck me as the starting point of redemption. He names the most painful aspect of pursuing transformation without ever using the word ’sin’ or ‘the fall’ or other types of theological terms that can increasingly abstract the sense of need, thirst, and pain that accompanies the call to redemption. After all, who will destroy a piece of his own heart? Who wants to lob off integral aspects of her identity? Who wants to admit to being evil, even if that evil be mingled with good? And who wants the pain that change incites?
And yet it’s a visceral part of the grace of God that he sends his Spirit to bring destruction to the evil in our own hearts so that we might know the goodness embodied in Jesus the Christ.
