“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you …” (Ez 36:26, NKJ)
The law is often referred to as “tablets of stone” in the Bible (e.g. in Ex 24:12). Scripture also at times refers to the heart as a “tablet” (e.g. Prov 3:3 and 7:3). The religious person’s heart is thus often a stone tablet filled with law. This “hardened heart” is one of the consequences of the trap of legalism in your heart (your heart being the well-spring of Christ in your life – Prov 4:23). The result of this is shocking – you cannot hear the voice of God (Heb 3:7-8).
Even in the time of the old covenant it was prophesied about the new covenant that was coming (Heb 13:8). In Eze 36:26-27 it is clearly stated that a day will come when mankind will stand in a new covenant relationship with God. It is, interestingly enough, explained especially in terms of a “heart of stone” that will be changed: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgements and do them.”
This change in a believer’s life brought about by the new covenant is especially found in the circumcision of the heart, through rebirth. It changes the religious, legalistic heart to a heart that cries out to God (Rom 8:15). “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” (Deut 30:6). In Eze 11:19-20 it is clearly stated: “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgements and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God”. On this is “written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Cor 3:3).
The believer in the new covenant no longer lives according to the external stone tablets of the law, but rather by the promptings of the Holy Spirit: “But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].” (Rom 7:6, Amp).
- Sela: Explain this important foundation of the new covenant to someone.
- Read: Judg 13; Ps 103; Acts 13
- Memorise: Ps 103:20
