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Frank Allnutt
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The Promise of a New Heart The heart of the Greatest Commandment In Old Testament times, God’s model of the heart was foundational in teachings about our origin, who we are, our spiritual relationships, and why we behave as we do. For example, Moses, the venerated leader of the ancient Jews, admonished his wayward people by exhorting them to function out of their hearts in the most noble of ways: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7). The faithful among the ancient Israelites took heed of Moses’ instruction, yet they could not truly love God with all their heart, or overcome sin in their lives, or consistently obey the laws given by God to His people through Moses. But why would God give them commandments that are impossible to obey? The dilemma must have been frustrating for those who sincerely wanted to know God as their Lord and to walk in His ways. (Figure 1-1. Note: Illustrations in the printed book are black and white line drawings.).
Figure 1-1: The Greatest Commandments: Impossible for natural man to obey. We could not obey the Greatest Commandments as unsaved people. Natural man: (A) does not experientially know that God loves him (1 John 3:1); (B) is incapable of truly loving God; (C) is incapable of truly loving others; and (D) is incapable of truly loving himself (Mark 12:30, 31). _______________
Figure 1-2: The two sides of King David David was at times sinful and at other times faithful to God. He eventually realized that he had a heart problem, and that he needed a new heart. David’s heart problem Long after the days of Moses, a young shepherd poet named David grew up to become the king of Israel. At times sinful and at times faithful to God, David became exasperated by repeated failures to consistently please God and experience fellowship with Him (Figure 1-2). Eventually, David came to some astounding conclusions:
God’s primary purpose in giving His law to man was not because He expected compliance by men who were unable to comply, but rather to reveal sin and man’s need for salvation and all that came with it—including a new heart. What a discovery! What insight! David must have trembled with excitement over so profound a discovery. David asked God for a new heartDavid realized that he, like all natural people, had a spiritual heart problem. He knew from ancient teachings that he had been made by God in His image, but he also knew that he had been born with a heart that was irreversibly corrupted by sin: “Behold,” he prayed to God, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). And so he asked his Creator to give him a new heart! Sometime afterwards David scribed his prayer for the enlightenment and encouragement of his people and their posterity: “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy loving kindness; according to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.... Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, and do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit” (excerpts from Psalm 51). God promised His children a “new heart”Notice that David not only asked for a “clean” (literally pure or new) heart, he asked for a “steadfast spirit” and a “willing spirit,” and for the ever-abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. David was no different from other people: Every naturally-born person needs a new heart, a new spirit, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Long before David’s request, God promised to give each of His children a new heart and a new spirit, and for His Spirit to indwell them. Unlike David, those of us who are Christians do not have to ask for those miraculous blessings--God already gave them to us! We find God’s wonderful promise recorded in the book of Ezekiel. It was a magnificent, prophetic promise to all believers that ultimately would be fulfilled through the person and works of his son, Jesus: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit 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 you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:26, 27). Similar wording is found in Ezekiel 11:19, with two exceptions: God promises “one heart,” or an “undivided heart” (NIV). “One” is from the Hebrew echad, which means “altogether” or “united.” This rendering, along with the wording “new heart” in Ezekiel 36:26, conveys the idea of an ontological new heart that is whole, pure, clean, and complete in God’s terms. Hezekiah, for one, “walked...with a whole heart” (Isaiah 38:3). The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is promised in Ezekiel 36:27, but is not mentioned in Ezekiel 11:19. Note that most English translations render “spirit” in “new spirit” in lower case. This correctly regards the “new spirit” as something other than the Holy Spirit, which is always capitalized, even when Spirit appears by itself in reference to the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel 36:26, 27 is an excellent example of this distinction between two of several meanings of the term. The wonderful promise of Ezekiel 36:26, 27 is a high point of the Old Testament. It is an essential part of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ that all believers should understand, but of which few are aware. For without our new heart, there would be no new spirit, no indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and no new life. In effect, there would be no “new creatures”--no Christians--and no Church. And no one would have the ability or motivation to love God. The New Covenant Because God loves His Chrildren, salvation, redemption, re-creation, justification, sanctification, and reconciliation with God were established under the promised New Covenant (Jeremiah 32:38, 40; Ezekiel 36:26, 27, 37:26), and are fulfilled through the person of Jesus Christ. Through co-crucifixion and co-resurrection with Christ (Romans 6:3-9; Galatians 2:20), we believers are taken out of the old realm of darkness, sin, and death, and placed into the new realm of God’s light, love, and life. We are substantively new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17), each of us having a new heart, the indwelling of His Spirit, and a new spirit of faith, hope, and love (Ezekiel 36:26, 27). It is the believer’s new heart upon which God writes His law:
Through the new heart and the indwelling of God’s Spirit in it, we are given the enlightenment, motivation and enablement to fulfill God’s law. Of all God’s laws, Jesus said the Greatest Commandments are: “‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30, 31). The Greatest Commandment was first given to the Jews of the Old Covenant, then to Chosen Ones in the Church Age, to reveal sin and to state God’s perfect standards for man, but also to prepare them for the everlasting promises of the New Covenant. Natural man is unable and unwilling to observe the Greatest Commandment because he is “in the flesh” (as opposed to being “in the Spirit”) and is therefore incapable of obedience to God. Furthermore, he is spiritually dead in his sins (Ephesians 2:1), is motivated by sin, and is predisposed to disobey God. Some natural people are Chosen Ones. However, prior to salvation, a Chosen One in the natural man state: 1. does not experientially know that God loves him (1 John 3:1), 2. is incapable of truly loving God with all his heart, 3. is incapable of truly loving others, and 4. is incapable of truly loving himself (Mark 12:30, 31). God’s perfect nature dictates that He never gives a command that cannot be fulfilled. So, when God gives a command to His Chosen Ones, it carries with it His promise of grace to enable us to obey. God has been faithful in fulfilling His New Covenant promises to all His children. The Apostle Peter, in reflecting on the completed work of Christ at the cross, wrote of God: “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3, 4). If you are a true Christian, you are a partaker of the divine nature. One moment you were a sinner, and the next moment you were a partaker of the divine nature of God. That did not make you a god, of course, but rather a child of God. Concurrent with partaking of the divine nature, the believer is delivered by Jesus from the dark realm of sin, and is placed into “His marvelous light”—into Himself and His righteous kingdom (see 1 Peter 2:9). Many of God’s children are unaware that He has given them a new heart. Without a new heart, we would not be Christians, God’s Holy Spirit would not indwell us, we would not have eternal life, we would not partake of the divine nature, and we would not be capable of loving God with all our heart. Paul confirms that, “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our [new] hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). And “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant to you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your [new] hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19. See also Ephesians 1:17, which refers to “a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him”). Now, let’s return to the “new spirit” promised by God in Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26. In David’s prayer for a new heart (Psalm 51), he also asked God for a “steadfast spirit” (faithfulness) and a “willing spirit” (obedience). And, in Ezekiel 36:26, we read that God promised to give all His children a “new spirit.” As we have discussed--and will further discuss--this new spirit is neither the Holy Spirit nor the spirit “part” of us. This new spirit is a spirit of love (agape)--a new disposition of love that motivates us and reflects our moral nature and shapes our true character. As such, it is the love dynamic of the moral essence of Christ eternal life, which also has become the believer’s new life. The new spirit is also a functional feature of the believer’s new heart--sometimes called a “spirit of discernment” or “spiritual discernment”--that is expressed through the personality and behavior. While all believers have the gift of godly love, when expressed by the Half-Hearted Christian it lacks the dynamics of the Holy Spirit, who is “quenched” or functionally shut out--and can be counterfeited by flesh-like behavior. With the Whole-Hearted Christian, the Spirit of Christ is dynamic in the believer’s life so that the believer can experience knowing the mind of Christ, experience joy and other spiritual emotions, and is empowered to discern and to do the will of God. Paul prayed for the Christians at Ephesus “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might” (Ephesians 1:17-19). Paul wrote to Timothy: “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline [sound judgment] (2 Timothy 1:7). In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us that the greatest of all spiritual gifts is the gift of love--and it is a gift given to all who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. But to love is also a choice, and we do not always choose to exercise this wonderful gift. With your new heart you can “know the love of Christ” through fellowship with Him. Through your new heart and the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ you have new life and a new “love nature” or predisposition. Paul tells us that, “Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10), which means you also have a “righteous nature” from a law-perspective. You as a person, because of the love nature of your new heart, fulfill God’s law. And because love characterizes your nature, you are love-enabled and can be love-motivated by choice to obey the Greatest Commandments. Love is dynamic in many aspects of our fellowship with God: Love expressed in steadfastness, love expressed through faithfulness, love expressed through obedience, love expressed through patience, and so on. If we walk in the Spirit, we experience the dynamic of God’s love in our lives; if we do not walk in the Spirit, godly love is inoperative in us and cannot be expressed through us. The manifestations of godly love in our lives is the greatest evidence that the Holy Spirit indwells our new heart, and that Jesus lives His life in our heart and throughout our entire being (Ephesians 3:17). John wrote: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:1-3).
The ability to know and to do God’s will The new heart enables the believer to love God, the new spirit gives the believer supernatural motivation to love God, and the indwelling Holy Spirit “cause[s] you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:27). Those “statutes” and “ordinances” refer to God’s law--to His commandments. And the Greatest Commandments--those that supersede all others--according to Jesus are:
The believer, with the new heart and new spirit, is caused by the indwelling Spirit of Christ to be obedient to God. Conversely, natural man can neither obey God, nor is motivated to obey Him. Figure 1-3 is a chart that correlates David’s requests with God’s promises, and God’s promises with New Covenant fulfillment.
Figure 1-3: A correlation of David’s requests with God’s promises, and God’s promises with New Covenant fulfillment. The Greatest Commandments, like all of God’s commandments, are to be obeyed--they are not optional. God’s commandments are also promises. I like to think of the Greatest Commandments as not only commandments but also as the Greatest Promises. As we progress through this study, we will see that the Greatest Commandments were not given to us as options or to perform through self-strength and legalistic religion; rather, they are God’s enabling will for us:
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