Learning4Comfort

The Inner Being

14. Made new

If the heart is where things go wrong, it is also where God promises to begin putting them right. Heart, spirit, soul, conscience, mind and body are all named, and none is left out.

A new heart and a new spirit

The central promise comes through Ezekiel, twice, almost word for word:

"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; compare 11:19–20)

Heart, spirit and flesh are all named, and they are renewed together. Stone is taken out and flesh put in. And God's own Spirit is put within, and the result is a changed life: "cause you to walk".

The same prophet also speaks of it as something people must do: "make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?" (Ezekiel 18:31). Scripture holds both together. The new heart is God's gift, and it is also what I am called to take up.

David prays for it: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). "Take not your Holy Spirit from me" (51:11). "Uphold me with a willing spirit" (51:12).

Written on the heart

Renewal is also a writing. "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" (Jeremiah 31:33). Hebrews repeats it twice (Hebrews 8:10; 10:16), once with "minds" and "hearts" in one order and once in the other. The fear of God is also given. "I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever" (Jeremiah 32:39). "I will make with them an everlasting covenant … And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me" (32:40). And forgiveness is given to that end: "But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared" (Psalm 130:4).

Paul calls the believers in Corinth "a letter from Christ … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Corinthians 3:3).

A circumcised heart

"The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live" (Deuteronomy 30:6). The covenant sign cut in the flesh has its counterpart in the heart. Paul picks this up: "circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (Romans 2:29). The circumcised heart is what makes the great command possible: love with all the heart and all the soul.

The Spirit given into the heart

In the New Testament, God's Spirit is given into the very centre of the person.

  • "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Galatians 4:6).
  • "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5).
  • God has "given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 1:22).
  • "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16).
  • "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you" (1 Corinthians 6:19).
  • "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6).
  • God "saved us … by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).

The Spirit is placed in the heart, bears witness beside the spirit, and lives in the body. Renewal is not confined to one part of the person.

The hiding of God's face ends with the Spirit poured out: "I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel" (Ezekiel 39:29; 10.9).

"Within" is already the Old Testament promise: "I will put my Spirit within you" (Ezekiel 36:27; 37:14). And the Spirit already changes people there: "you will … be turned into another man" (1 Samuel 10:6).

Revived, restored, renewed

Every inner word has its own renewal.

  • The lowly spirit and the contrite heart revived: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite" (Isaiah 57:15). God's reason is tender: "I will not contend forever … for the spirit would grow faint before me" (57:16).
  • The soul restored: "He restores my soul" (Psalm 23:3). "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul" (Psalm 19:7). "Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21). "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth" (1 Peter 1:22).
  • The conscience cleansed: "the blood of Christ … [will] purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:14). "Let us draw near with a true heart … with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience" (Hebrews 10:22).
  • The mind renewed: "be renewed in the spirit of your minds" (Ephesians 4:23). "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God" (Romans 12:2).
  • The inner self renewed daily: "Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16).
  • The whole person transformed: "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
  • The straying spirit and the murmuring mouth taught: "those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction" (Isaiah 29:24).
  • The life kept hidden: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).
  • Born again to a living hope: God "has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). Paul: "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection" (Philippians 3:10).
  • The mortal body given life: "he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:11). The body itself is still waited for: "we … groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23). Chapter 2 ("The body raised") gives the account.
  • The dead in trespasses made alive: "you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses" (Colossians 2:13). "Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life … has passed from death to life" (John 5:24).
  • Died to sin, and to the law: "How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:2). "For one who has died has been set free from sin" (Romans 6:7). "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God" (Galatians 2:19). "we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit" (Romans 7:6).
  • What is earthly put to death: "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Colossians 3:5). "if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Romans 8:13).
  • Resting on his death: "we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Romans 5:10). "he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Corinthians 5:15). Chapter 2 ("Made alive") gives the account.
  • Turned, and living: "For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live" (Ezekiel 18:32). Chapter 2 gives the account.

Thoughts taken captive

Renewal reaches thinking too, and here Scripture speaks most directly to what I can do.

  • Return begins with thoughts. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him" (Isaiah 55:7).
  • A hostile mind is reconciled. "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death" (Colossians 1:21–22).
  • Thoughts are taken captive. "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).
  • The mind is renewed. "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Romans 12:2).
  • I am told to reckon as God reckons. "Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11). The word is the reckoning word: I am to count myself as God counts me.
  • Thinking is directed. "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable … think about these things" (Philippians 4:8).
  • The leaning is kept. David prays: "keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you" (1 Chronicles 29:18). "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you" (Isaiah 26:3).
  • The mind is made ready. "Preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you" (1 Peter 1:13).
  • Thinking grows up. "When I became a man, I gave up childish ways" (1 Corinthians 13:11).

And renewed thinking reaches the feet: "When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies" (Psalm 119:59).

Anger put off, and turned to good

Renewal reaches anger too.

  • It is put away. "On account of these the wrath of God is coming … But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth" (Colossians 3:6, 8). In its place: "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).
  • Heat is replaced by stillness. "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself" (Psalm 37:7).
  • Vengeance is left to God. "Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God … if your enemy is hungry, feed him" (Romans 12:19–20).
  • Indignation is turned to good. Godly grief produces "what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal" (2 Corinthians 7:11). The same word that names provoking is used for stirring "one another to love and good works" (Hebrews 10:24).
  • Children of wrath are made alive. "We … were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy … made us alive together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:3–5). Chapter 13 follows those who know they are delivered from the wrath to come.
  • The heart is rent. "Rend your hearts and not your garments" (Joel 2:13).

No one to make them afraid

Many of the promises of restoration carry the same phrase: no one will make them afraid. What comes with it in each verse is what fear had taken away. "They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid" (Micah 4:4): a home and its fruit, held without threat. "Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid" (Jeremiah 30:10). In Zephaniah the promise comes with a changed people: "they shall do no injustice and speak no lies … and none shall make them afraid" (Zephaniah 3:13).

Fear is not simply removed from those who are restored. They come back trembling (Hosea 11:10–11), and after forgiveness they "fear and tremble because of all the good" God does for them (Jeremiah 33:9; 10.9). What they fear has changed.

Kept whole

And so the prayer that closes Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians is not a diagram of three parts but a blessing on one person: "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

The same God who "weighs the heart", who turns hearts "wherever he will", and whose own heart "recoils" with compassion, is the one who promises to give a new heart and to keep the whole person.