Created According to God
I will give you a new heart…Ezekiel 36:26
Long before Paul wrote in his letters about becoming new, God had declared His new covenant through the prophets. God has declared the end from the beginning. For us and for the world.
The world has proven over and over, people need more than their best effort; their good intentions; their personal resolve. Nothing in the world proves man is capable of leading himself to do right. OK, there are glimmers of hope now and then. But on the whole the world is headed south. And the world wants to take us with them. But no longer.
That was then. At one time, we were going the wrong way also, until Jesus changed our heart and our spirit. Jesus fulfilled God’s promise through Ezekiel: 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, Ezekiel 36:26. This is the second birth. Your new creation. Your new hope. Your second chance. Your new reality. Your new mind-set.
Your new heart is from God. So, when your mind tells you that you are not new; the same old sinner, remember: God has given you a new heart and a new spirit. Your mind needs a new way of thinking. Your mind needs a bit more renewal, Romans 12:2: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Against God, the world doesn’t stand a chance! A real change in behavior comes from a change in thinking.
This is the new covenant. This is grace. This is who you are now; born of God—born of the Spirit—born from above—born again. Those of the world are walking in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness, Ephesians 4:17-19.
That is not you. You are described in Ephesians 4, verses 20 thru 24: But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. This putting off and putting on is what Jesus did. It is not what you do. It is by the Spirit of God.
This is you. You are not them. Don’t let them trick your mind into thinking otherwise.
