From Darkness to Light, A Journey of Faith
This week my wife had triple bypass surgery. She didn't receive a new heart, but with 99% blockage in one artery, in the 90s in another, and 80% in another, the functionality is dramatic. Her heart is good, but the plumbing was so seriously clogged that she was on the brink of death. Nevertheless, 85% were repaired after surgery, and they did so without an open heart. It was clear to my wife and me that it has been a week of answers to prayers and God's providential love for us. She was perilously close to death, which would have put her in the presence of Christ, her mother, and her grandma, but in God's plan, she remains with me.
Hemoglobin carries 98% of the oxygen in our blood. Without oxygen, we cannot live long; the blood is useless without hemoglobin.
The Covenant of Life Means a New Heart
Jeremiah 31:33 gives us the most precise understanding of who controls our salvation. From start to finish, not just the provision, but salvation in total. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
The God of the New Covenant set its terms, "...this is the covenant that I will make..." God made the covenant and not us. He made it with the house of Israel, but only the remnant could keep it. Again and again, the nation went into bondage until; finally, they rejected the Messiah and were thrown out of the promised land. The key to correctly understanding covenantal salvation is that the first covenant is for the damned, and the second is for the recipients of Grace.
God did not have to save anyone. The entire race is lost in Adam, and apart from God's intercession to save, in every part, men can only be lost.
The Covenant of Death Left the People with a Dead Heart
On the day that Israel received the covenant through Moses, God said in Deuteronomy 31:16, "The LORD said to Moses, "Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them." As the Apostle Paul wrote, it was always the day of forsaking God; sinful men can do nothing else.
Romans 7:9-12, "...when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good." Therefore, what's the difference between the first and second covenants? It couldn't be clearer. One changes the heart, and the other does not.
Well-meaning Christians Often Leave Out a New Heart
The devil's lie is to make salvation easy enough for people to want to choose Christ. Just believe, just ask Christ into your heart, just confess your sins, and they will be forgiven. Jesus never used "just" in any invitation He gave. Jesus did say to "the" teacher in Israel (The definite article used signifies his high standing among teachers) that a man must be born again.
At the outset and throughout The Great Awakening, a revival lasting 34 years gave rise to the democracy and light of freedom that the world has marveled at for over three centuries. The term you must be born again came to significant prominence. Today psychology has replaced spiritual warfare and self-achievement with brokenness before the Holy Spirit. Last but certainly not least, easy believism has altered the terms of the New Covenant, bypassing godly repentance that can only rise from a new heart and a transformed mind.
Man in a sinful condition could no more choose Christ without rebirth than my wife could have lived last week without having heart surgery. The proof of salvation is a transformed life as a result of a new heart fashioned to love God and keep His law. Transparency about our sin in a fellowship of loving concern for righteous living (1 John 1) is essential to church life. People that become offended when asked about their spiritual walk with Christ send up a red flag that should warn any member of a healthy church.
Comments