A New Heart

“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.”—Ezekiel 36:26

Last week, I received a call from one of the ladies in my church who said, “We’ve got it! Kendall’s got a heart coming!” I was a bit stunned at first, but quickly recovered once I realized what her news meant. She was talking about her little granddaughter, who is just a little over a year old and was born with a heart defect. Doctors were optimistic about her condition, but the reality was that without a heart transplant, she didn’t have long to live. She had only been on the donor list a short time, so I was a bit surprised to receive the phone call that a heart was already available. I was overjoyed to know this little girl would be getting a new heart, but the joy soon gave way to sadness as I realized that someone’s little child had to die in order to make that heart available. I wondered about the family and what the circumstances were for that child. I will never know the details, only that one child died in order that another might live.

It’s a joy to report that the heart transplant was a success. The surgery took six hours, but this little girl made it through and is doing fine. As I thought about her heart transplant I realized that we all need a spiritual heart transplant. Jeremiah summed up our heart condition when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”—Jeremiah 17:9. And Jesus, who is the Great Physician and knows what is in our heart, said that out of the heart comes “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander”—Matthew 15:19.

With such a diagnosis, it is easy to see that we have spiritual heart disease. Each person in the world needs a spiritual heart transplant. It doesn’t matter how good or bad they are, because according to the Bible, they are still desperately sick. Every single one of us needs a spiritual heart transplant. But who can do it? I can’t. You can’t. Imagine performing heart surgery on yourself! Impossible!

Only God can perform the surgery. And only He can supply the heart. In our passage for today, God was speaking to Israel during a very difficult time. They had become idolaters, choosing to worship the creation over the Creator, and were suffering the consequences thereof. God had had enough and finally given them over to what they wanted, which resulted in them being exiled from the Promised Land as they were forced to live in the land of Babylon. But even in the midst of judgment, God gives hope. He speaks through the prophet Ezekiel about a time when God would perform spiritual heart surgery—He would remove their diseased and unbelieving heart and give them a new heart—one totally inclined to do what God desired and required.

As believers in Christ, we know that this new heart was only made available through the death and resurrection of Christ. After Christ ascended into heaven, He sent His Spirit to live among His followers, quickening them to understand everything He had taught while on earth. In other words, His followers would be born again (John 3:3) and become new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Just as a child died in order that the little girl might live, so too did God’s Son die for us. He died in order that we might have His heart, and with God Himself performing the surgery. Jesus’ death meant that we can live—that we can be freed from the shackles of sin, self and Satan. And we no longer have to fear death! God’s Son died for your sins and mine. He paid the price for your and my wicked and deceitful heart. He desired to give us life, even when we didn’t deserve it.

Little Kendall didn’t know, and will never know, who the donor of her heart was. But with respect to our own heart transplants, we do. We know that God gave His Son for us, while we were still His enemies. Imagine giving your son or daughter’s heart for the life of your enemy! Incredible, but that is exactly what God did! Before you ever knew or cared about Him, He gave His Son for you so that you might live, in order that you might be transformed! What an amazing love! What an amazing God!

My brother or sister, I pray that if you don’t know Christ, you might place your faith and hope in Him and in Him alone! He alone is able to give you a new heart, His heart, but will only do so when you come to Him in repentance and faith. And for the rest of us, who have already received this new heart, may we all respond in obedience, love and gratitude for Him who did not “spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all”—Romans 8:32. Amen.