“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 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. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Have you ever wished you could change something about yourself?
Perhaps you’d rather be taller or thinner or maybe you’d wish you were blonde or brunette…or had hair. Maybe there’s a bad habit you’ve struggled to break, a tendency to lose your temper, or a pattern of thinking that keeps leading you in the wrong direction. You know what you should do, and you genuinely want to do it, but somehow you keep falling back into the same old patterns.
It’s frustrating when our actions don’t match our intentions.
The people of Israel had a much deeper problem. Throughout their history, God had repeatedly called them to turn away from their idols and live according to His Word. He had delivered them from Egypt, given them His Law, and sent prophets to warn them when they wandered away.
Yet they continued to rebel.
By the time Ezekiel was prophesying, many of God’s people had been carried into exile in Babylon. They had lost their homes, their land, and the temple where they had worshiped. Their unfaithfulness had brought devastating consequences.
But God wasn’t finished with them.
Through Ezekiel, God promised something remarkable. He would cleanse His people from their uncleanness and idolatry. He would remove their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh. He would put His own Spirit within them and cause them to walk in His ways.
Notice who is doing the work.
God doesn’t tell the Israelites He’ll give them another shot and this time they need to try harder until they become worthy of returning to Him. No, He promises to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
That is the heart of the Gospel.
Our problem with sin isn’t simply that we occasionally make bad decisions. Sin reaches much deeper. By nature, our hearts are turned away from God. We may recognize that His ways are good, but we cannot, by our own reason or strength, create the faith and love for God that He desires.
We need more than better habits. We need new hearts. And that is exactly what God promises to give.
Jesus came to fulfill that promise. Through His death and resurrection, He won forgiveness for our sins. Through the Gospel, the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts. In Baptism, God washes us clean and joins us to Christ, giving us new life in Him, giving us a new heart.
The change begins with God’s action, not ours.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Christians suddenly stop struggling with sin. We still experience the conflict between our sinful nature and the new life God has given us.
It’s what we sometimes refer to as the “now but not yet” reality of the Gospel. God has given you new life right now, but we will experience it to the full when Christ returns. God has given us a new heart that wants to follow Him, but we still also have our sinful nature that battles against us so we do not yet have a life without sin. That sinful nature will be destroyed when Christ returns.
Sometimes that struggle can be discouraging, especially when we find ourselves confessing sins we thought we had overcome. But the answer isn’t to give up or to rely more heavily on our own determination.
It is to return to Christ.
The same God who gave you new life continues to work in you through His Word and Spirit. He calls you to repentance, forgives your sins, strengthens your faith, and produces the fruit of that faith in your life. He even, just as He promised, has put His Spirit within you. And His Spirit works in you to grow the fruit of the Spirit, to will and do the good works God has prepared for you, and convict you of your sin to lead you to repentance.
And one day, when Christ returns, the work He has begun will be complete. Sin will no longer trouble us, and we will live in perfect righteousness and holiness before Him.
Until then, we live each day by His grace, trusting not in our ability to change ourselves, but in His promise to make us new.
Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father,
I confess that my heart is often drawn away from You. Forgive my sins and the times I have trusted in my own strength to become the person I should be. Thank You for washing me clean through Christ and giving me new life through Your Holy Spirit. Continue Your work in me, strengthening my faith and shaping my desires according to Your will. Help me to live each day as Your forgiven and renewed child. In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:
After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.
In Christ’s Service,
Pastor Kurt
