LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
A New Heart
"And I will give them an heart to know that I am the LORD; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God" (Jeremiah 24:7).
Every man is born under the bondage of sin, and with a heart as hard as stone, deceitful and perverse. In the Scriptures, when speaking of the heart, the term has a moral and not a physical sense. The heart is synonymous with the nature of man, because whenever the Word refers to it, it attributes to it the moral qualities such as understanding, decisions, feelings, intentions, etc.
The Lord Jesus, who knows human nature well, says that out of this perverse heart come all evil things, which defile man (Mark 7:20-23). He himself refers to his own divine nature using the word "heart", when he says: "I will raise me up a faithful priest, who will do according to my heart" (1 Sam. 2:35).
In many passages of Scripture, the Lord refers to the heart as the great problem of sinful man, and He promises to do a work of circumcision, an operation to change that heart; not a circumcision in the flesh, but the circumcision of Christ, made in the heart (Rom. 2:29).
This is the work of regeneration done by the Spirit. By faith in the work accomplished and consummated by Christ on the cross, the Holy Spirit performs in us this circumcision of the heart. He causes us to be born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5), removing the heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh and a new spirit. After the Spirit does this work of regeneration, he himself dwells in this new heart, impressing his law upon it (Heb. 8:10).
From regeneration, we receive from the Lord a new heart, and we share the same heart with all the brethren. One heart and one way, with the fear of the Lord in it. This new heart is the dwelling place of Christ by faith (Eph. 3:17), the sanctuary of the Spirit. It is no longer a corrupt heart, but now life flows from it (Prov. 4:23).
This new heart is the security of the new creature. Our body needs to await redemption, the soul needs to be sanctified, the mind needs to be renewed; but the heart is the throne of the Lord, the Holy of Holies, from which flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). Thanks be to God for this new heart, through which we can turn completely to Him and know Him (Jer. 24:7).