Timothy Keller

We're all trying to cleanse ourselves, or to cover up our uncleanness by compensatory good deeds. But it will not work. The prophet Jeremiah puts this very vividly: "'Although you wash yourself with soda and use and abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,' declares the sovereign Lord" (Jeremiah 2:22). Outside-in cleansing cannot deal with the problem of the human heart.