Hebrews 9:14-15
¹⁴How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ¹⁵And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
In Christ, a new covenant is established, replacing the old ineffective laws. The old law was unable to make man righteous with God, but in Christ, everything is made new. A new heart and spirit that seeks after God and longs for His ways is given to believers. Christ is the mediator of this new testament, ushering in a fresh start and a renewed relationship with God.
2 Corinthians 5:17
¹⁷Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The new man desires not the things of old; the new heart craves for godliness and seeks after God’s heart. The new spirit seeks to worship Him in spirit and truth. He seeks to break the limits of the flesh and relate spiritually with God.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
²⁶A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. ²⁷And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
The prophet Ezekiel writes as by God to Israel (us) revealing; “A new heart will I put within you and a new spirit…” and this implies a heart that is responsive to God’s will, one that is not hardened but is willing to do God’s will, and so David prays:
Psalms 51:10
¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
“Create in me a clean heart.” God creates and makes your heart new. To create is to make from nothing. It is not just a changed heart, it is one created afresh, brand new, a new beginning as at the creation when God made man in His image. Therefore, once you have confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, being born again, you become that new creature with a heart that knows God as written. I will give them a heart to know that I am God.
Jeremiah 24:7
⁷I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
A hardened heart is a rebellious one, which does not want to do the will of God and not hearing His words as Zechariah explains in
Zechariah 7:12
¹²They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.
The new covenant brings a shift in perspective and understanding. It ushers us into a “New teaching”, new not because it changes what was taught but because it is bringing out the real essence of the new man. It realigns one to the new man and gives a real understanding of the law or word of God unlike before, thereby guiding us into a more authentic way of living.
Mathew 5:27-28
²⁷Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: ²⁸But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Jesus’ first teaching at the mountain was to realign the old teaching to God’s intention, unlike what was previously taught, pointing us to the real thing to be dealt with, being on the inside, say; anger springs from within, lust springs from within the heart.
Jesus redirects us to something better, he shows us how that the law was just preparing us for something new, the new covenant. For when the law said do not murder, it meant, deal with your inside, being the anger which only faith in the finished work of cross could calm or eradicate.
A new heart, a new spirit, out of the heart come the issues of life. God herein had to deal with the root of evil, the heart! Therefore, Christ shows us the way. The old covenant shows our inability to have a new heart; instead, it only gives us the way to the new covenant.
That by means of death, the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament have been fulfilled. Under the law, there is sin as the law makes known your sin but, in Christ, there is no sin but justification and continued sanctification.
Where there is a “Do not”, there is a temptation to it. In Christ, His law is imprinted on our minds. We live consciously with his law, walking in His will and the works of redemption, knowing that we are redeemed and reformed, a new breed, with no trace of sin because the blood He poured was not mere blood but precious, pure and perfect to atone for all sin, not just some.
In Christ, all our transgressions are cast away, and in Him, we gain ourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Israel on her own could not cast away her transgressions and neither can we but Christ makes this possible for we are all called to partake of this work of redemption.
Hebrews 10:22
²²Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Prophetic Utterance:
Father Lord I thank You for your pure, precious blood that has redeemed me and given me a clear conscience and an assured eternal inheritance, a new heart and a new spirit. Let my renewed heart follow after you as deer pants for water Lord.
My soul thirsts for You.
Guiding Text:
Proverbs 4:23
²³Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”