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“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 36:26–27
There is something wonderfully direct about this promise from God. Again and again, God says, “I will.” “I will give you a new heart.” “I will put a new spirit within you.” “I will remove the heart of stone.” “I will give you a heart of flesh.” “I will put my Spirit within you.”
God is the One doing the work.
That matters because Scripture teaches us that the problem of sin goes deeper than simply making a few bad choices or needing to try a little harder. The problem reaches all the way to the heart. Ezekiel describes it as a heart of stone.
A heart of stone is hard toward God. It rejects Him. It does not naturally trust His Word or desire His ways. It wants to be its own lord, determine its own truth, and live according to its own desires. That is the condition of sinful humanity apart from the gracious work of God.
And a stone cannot make itself alive.
That is why the promise of Ezekiel 36 is such good news. God does not simply tell the stone to try harder. He does something entirely new. He removes the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh.
A heart of flesh is a heart made alive by God. It is a heart that hears His Word and receives His promises. It is a heart that looks to Jesus and trusts what He has done. It believes that Christ has carried our sins to the cross, that His blood has been shed for our forgiveness, and that because He lives, eternal life belongs to all who trust in Him.
And God tells us how He does this: “I will put my Spirit within you.”
The new spirit God gives is not simply a new attitude or a renewed determination. God gives His own Holy Spirit. The Spirit works through the Word of God to create faith in Jesus. He takes hearts that could not believe and makes them alive. He turns hearts away from rejection and toward trust. He gives faith to receive what Christ freely gives: forgiveness, righteousness, life, and salvation.
This means that the Christian faith begins not with what we give to God, but with what God gives to us.
He gives the new heart. He gives His Spirit. He gives faith. He gives Christ. He gives forgiveness. He gives life.
And from that new heart comes a new life. Ezekiel continues, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.” Our obedience does not create the new heart. It flows from the new heart God has already given. The Holy Spirit continues His work in us, shaping our desires, turning us toward our neighbor, teaching us to love, forgive, serve, and live according to the Word of God.
So much of life reveals what is happening in the heart. Our words, our priorities, our fears, our desires, and even the things we cling to can reveal where our trust has been placed. Yet the Christian hope is never that we will somehow repair our own hearts.
Our hope is the promise of God:
“I will give you a new heart.”
And He has. Through His Word and Spirit, God continues to turn hearts toward Jesus, where forgiveness is certain, salvation is accomplished, and life is freely given. The heart that once could only reject God is made alive to receive Him.
That is the miracle of faith. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. And that is the gracious promise of God: a new heart, a new spirit, and a new life in Christ.
~Pastor Dan
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