A Cure for the Incurable
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)
In the last post (An Incurable Diagnosis, 2/18/2021), we saw the condition of fallen humanity. It was a grim discovery. To be blunt, the idea that humanity is basically good is a myth, which is supported by neither Scripture nor historical evidence. Humanity has, as we said in the last post, an incurably terminal disease–the disease of sin and self. Because of sin, every person is born with what we might call the Sinful Heart.
The Sinful Heart, as we saw in the last post, is totally corrupted, and completely bent away from God. Its sole motivation is to find life apart from God and His ways. Because the heart is at the center of being, the Sinful Heart systematically programs every part of a person–mind, will, emotions, and body–in those same desires and strategies. And because every person is born with the Sinful Heart, the entire human race has been corrupted.
And this condition, according to the Lord, is terminal (leading to spiritual death) and incurable.
A Heart Transplant
It’s not enough to have a system of sacrifice in place. It’s not enough for people’s sins to be forgiven. It’s not enough to exhort people to obey the law. In order to save those doomed to separation from God, a radical solution is needed–a heart transplant. And that’s exactly what the Lord has provided. Let’s look at two passages that describe this transplant.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33–34)
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 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. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:25–27)
When we take these two passages together, we get a full and complete picture of how deeply the Lord responded to the plight of the human race, even beyond the needed heart transplant.
Preparation for the Surgery
The first thing the Lord says to Ezekiel in this passage is, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you” (Ezek. 36:25). To prepare us for the heart transplant, the Lord first cleanses us. As part of that, He also told Jeremiah, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:34).
This is an important statement, since sins were not fully put away under the Old Testament sacrificial system. The author of Hebrews tells us,
[The law] can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. (Hebrews 10:1–3)
Instead of putting away sin, the sacrifices actually reminded people that they were still under sin. Their sin was covered, not forgiven. Yet, the Lord says He would not only forgive sin, but would “remember it no more.” So, under the New Covenant that the Lord is making, His people are now cleansed of sin and totally forgiven. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven and cleansed.
A New Heart
After preparing for surgery, it’s time to actually do the heart transplant. The Lord told Ezekiel, “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” (Ezek. 36:26). Let’s unpack this a little. If you’ll recall, the heart of fallen sinful man was compared to stone, on which sin had been written. This resulted in a heart totally corrupted, hostile to God’s ways and determined to find life apart from God. This heart could not be changed (hence the idea of sin being inscribed with iron and diamond). It must be replaced.
This new heart, according to the Lord will be a heart of flesh, instead of the heart of stone that resides within fallen humanity. What this means is that, instead of the Sinful Heart, then, His people would have the Spiritual Heart–a heart that is bent toward following the Lord and His ways, as much desiring to live in dependence on God as the Sinful Heart desired independence from Him.
But that’s not all; the Lord goes further. Not only does He replace the heart, but he says, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33). Not only will His people have a new heart, but that new heart is inscribed with the Law of the Lord (the direct opposite of Jer. 17:1, “[their] sin . . . is engraved on the tablet of their heart”).
A New Way to Relate
In addition to changing the very nature of His people, the Lord does something else. He gives us a new way of relating with Him. Look at these statements:
I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
They shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
These promises all boil down to one thing: intimacy with God. An intimacy that was unknown before. Yes, the Lord called Moses His servant and friend, and He called David a man after His own heart, and walked and talked with Abraham. But even they did not have the intimacy that he offers His people now. As part of the New Covenant, the very Spirit of God will reside in His people! All of His people will know Him, from the least to the greatest. There will be no distinction between priest and commoner. All will be priests.
A Long-Awaited Answer
This is really the answer to the long-before prayer of King David. In Psalm 51, He prays:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. . . . Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. . . . Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:1–12)
When we compare David’s prayer to the promises of the New Covenant, we find that God did fully and completely grant David’s plea. Likewise, those of us who have repented and cried out for mercy can rest assured that, as He did for David, as He promises to Israel, He will give us that same new heart and a willing spirit, in order that we will love, obey, and walk with Him. We have been made new, cleansed, and forgiven by the New Covenant sealed by Christ’s blood.
