“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
Ezekiel 36:26
What is the difference between stone and living tissue? A stone is cold, lifeless, and void of relationship; it does not absorb or respond. But the heart made of living nerve and tissue is sensory and responsive. God does not just promise to take out a heart that is stone-cold, calloused, and unresponsive. He also promises to replace it with a heart of flesh—a living, sensing, responsive heart. This newness that God creates is the seed of God—the spora of which Peter wrote, and the sperma that John talked about. This is the new creation of the believer, that “new self” to which the apostle Paul appealed (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10).
The Spirit of God is the one who regenerates. God promises that when we come to faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the believer. “I will put my Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:27). The Spirit is the one who empowers us and transforms us into genuine obedience to Christ. In that way, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Paul affirmed repeatedly in Romans chapter 8 that the Spirit of Jesus dwells in the believer. God’s purpose is to develop the character of Jesus Christ in me.
Because I have Christ’s righteousness,
I should focus on pursuing and walking with God
to nurture and bring to outward expression
the divine life now within me.
This process of life change is God’s purpose in the new covenant (Jeremiah 31; Ezekiel 36; 2 Corinthians 3; Hebrews 8). This newness was launched by Jesus in his perfect life, his death, and his resurrection. The night before his death on the cross, Jesus instituted a rite of remembrance for his followers to keep. When he took the cup of wine, Jesus said, “this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). Jesus wanted us to remember this covenant; it follows that we should know and understand it.
There are three benefits of the new covenant for us. First, in Christ, there is full forgiveness of our sins, whereas only a covering for sin was offered under the Law. Second, there is newness. The stone-cold heart has been replaced with a living, sensing heart capable of relating to our Creator and Redeemer. The heart is a metaphor for the seat of thought and desire in the person bearing God’s image. God is transforming us and grants us newness in our attitudes and affections. Third, there is the empowering presence of his Holy Spirit for we who are reconciled to God.
God’s purpose to transform my life is not about me cleaning up my act, it is about God’s transforming life and power within me that will flow upward to love and adore him and outward to point people to him.*
It will be a special pleasure on this Sunday night to witness the baptism of believers who want to publicly identify with Jesus Christ, and to come together at the Lord’s Table by his invitation to participate in a living picture of our union with Christ in his death and resurrection.
And, by the way, since some have inquired or assumed, this is not a “combined service” with Vienna. Sunday night’s baptism and gathering at the Lord’s Table will be a Grace Bible Church worship service using the facilities of Vienna Baptist Church. Some of our dear brothers and sisters from Vienna may choose to worship with us.
My God be glorified, and Christ magnified in his church.
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* The preceding was taken from 7 WORDS that can CHANGE YOUR LIFE, p.102-103
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