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Glory · Our Walk with Him
God promised through the prophets to give His people a new heart: not just better behavior but a changed inner life, with the heart of stone replaced by a heart of flesh, His law written on the heart, and His Spirit put within to enable obedience. That promise is fulfilled in the new covenant in Christ, where God gives us new hearts and puts His Spirit in us, working in us both to will and to do His good pleasure.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/what-is-the-new-heart-that-god-promised · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Ezekiel 36:22-32
As you read: God promises to cleanse His people, give them a new heart, put a new spirit within them, and set His Spirit within them to cause them to walk in His statutes.
22Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I don’t do this for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, where you went.
23I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, says the Lord Yahweh, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
24For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.
25I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
27I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.
28You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
29I will save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you.
30I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.
31Then you shall remember your evil ways, and your doings that were not good; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
32Nor for your sake do I this, says the Lord Yahweh, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel.
Ezekiel 11:14-21
As you read: The same promise: one new heart, the stony heart taken out, a heart of flesh given, so that they walk in God's statutes as His people.
14Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
15“Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far away from Yahweh. This land has been given to us for a possession.’”
16Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come.
17Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
18They shall come there, and they shall take away all the detestable things of it and all its abominations from there.
19I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh;
20that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
21But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads, says the Lord Yahweh.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
As you read: God will make a new covenant, writing His law on the heart, so that all know Him and their sin is remembered no more.
31Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh.
33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
34and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Psalm 51:1-12
As you read: David, after his sin, begs God to do the very thing Ezekiel promised: create a clean heart, renew a right spirit within him.
1Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.
3For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.
4Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.
5Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.
6Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.
11Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.
Deuteronomy 30:1-14
As you read: Moses points forward: the Lord your God will circumcise your heart so that you love Him with all your heart and soul.
1It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Yahweh your God has driven you,
2and return to Yahweh your God, and obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;
3that then Yahweh your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where Yahweh your God has scattered you.
4If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there Yahweh your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.
5Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you will possess it. He will do you good, and increase your numbers more than your fathers.
6Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.
7Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies, and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.
8You shall return and obey the voice of Yahweh, and do all his commandments which I command you this day.
9Yahweh your God will make you plenteous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good; for Yahweh will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers;
10if you will obey Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law; if you turn to Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.
11For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you or too distant.
12It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?”
13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?”
14But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
Ezekiel declares the promise in God's own voice: 'I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.' The new covenant is written deeper than tablets of stone: 'I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it.' The promise is not a better list of rules but a transformed inner life.
“I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”Ezekiel 36:26
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:”Jeremiah 31:33
Everything about the promise is what God will do: 'I will give them one heart... I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh.' When David begged for a clean heart after his fall, he prayed the same way, 'create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.' We cannot manufacture a new heart; it has to be given.
“I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh;”Ezekiel 11:19
“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.”Psalm 51:10
Jeremiah calls it by name: 'Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.' And its heart is inward and forgiving: God writes His law on the heart, all know Him from the least to the greatest, and 'I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.' Ezekiel joins cleansing and the Spirit to the same promise: God washes, gives a new heart, and puts His Spirit within.
“Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:”Jeremiah 31:31
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:”Jeremiah 31:33
“and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.”Jeremiah 31:34
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.”Ezekiel 36:25-27
The new covenant promised through the prophets is inaugurated in Christ. Jesus told Nicodemus that to enter the kingdom you must be born of water and the Spirit, and in Christ, Paul says, 'if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.' The heart of stone replaced by a heart of flesh is what regeneration is: God giving us a new heart in the new birth, and it is God who works in us 'both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.' The promise comes true in everyone He makes new.
“Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into the Kingdom of God!”John 3:5
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.”2 Corinthians 5:17
“For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.”Philippians 2:13
The new heart is for relationship. Moses pointed to the end: 'Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart... to love Yahweh your God with all your heart.' Ezekiel says the Spirit within 'cause you to walk in my statutes... and do them,' and David's prayer moves from a clean heart to the joy and ready spirit of salvation. The change of heart is not an end in itself; it is new hearts, enabled by the Spirit, that love God, obey Him, and find their joy in Him.
“Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.”Deuteronomy 30:6
“I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.”Ezekiel 36:27
“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.”Psalm 51:10
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.”Psalm 51:12