Ezekiel 18:31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby you have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit… This will appear — I. FROM THE NATURE OF A NEW HEART. It is a heart that loves, and fears, and serves God. It is called "new," as being entirely another and a different heart from that of the sinner. The sinful heart is a selfish heart — a heart fixed in its supreme affections on the world, and opposed to God. A new heart is a heart of benevolence or love. The sinful heart rejects the Saviour; a new heart believes in Him. A sinful heart loves sin; the new heart hates it. The sinful heart leads its possessor into sinful practices; the new heart prompts to a course of holy obedience to the will of God. II. FROM THE NATURE OF MAN. Man is an intelligent voluntary being. He is capable of knowing his duty, and of performing it. He has understanding; the power of knowing what is right and what is wrong. He has the capacity of feeling the motives to right and wrong action. He has a will or heart; the power of choosing and refusing, or of loving and hating. He not only possesses these powers and capacities, but he uses them. And the only question is, how ought he to use them? Ought he to use them right or wrong? With ample powers to love God or to love the world, he is required to love the one, and forbidden to love the other. Ought he not to comply? Ought not such a being to put away his old heart of enmity, and to make himself a new heart of love? III. GOD COMMANDS SINNERS TO MAKE THEMSELVES A NEW HEART. The text is explicit. The command is, Amend, reform; make you a new heart. The same thing is implied in every other command of God given to sinners. There is not one which does not require a right heart — the exercise of those affections in which a new heart consists. Does God require sinners to love Him? It is with all the heart. Does He require them to believe? It is with the heart. Does He require them to pray? It is to seek Him with all the heart. And so of every other command. IV. THE SAME THING IS EVIDENT FROM FACTS. It has often been done; and this in two forms. Thus Adam was once holy — his heart was right with God. Now, in turning from holiness to sin, he changed his own heart — he made himself a new heart. And surely, if a man can turn from right to wrong, from holiness to sin, he can turn, and ought to turn, from sin to holiness, from wrong to right. But this is not all. Every Christian has, in fact, through grace, made himself a new heart. "Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth, through the Spirit"; "Ye have put off the old man, and put on the new man." True, when the sinner does this, he does it through the Spirit. Still he does it. He purifies his soul. It is his act. It is an act of obedience. He obeys the truth. And what does God do, when by His Spirit He brings the sinner thus to act? He causes the sinner to love, to repent, to believe — to give his heart to God in the exercise of these affections. It is not God who repents, believes, and loves, but the sinner. V. IF SINNERS ARE NOT BOUND TO MAKE THEMSELVES A NEW HEART, THEN THE LAW OF GOD IS NOT BINDING ON MEN. There can be no sin in violating a law when there is no obligation to obey it. On the same principle, man has never broken the Divine law. Or, rather, there is no law of God; for a law which imposes no obligation is no law. If, therefore, the sinner has not always been, and is not now, under obligation to make himself a new heart, or, what is the same thing, to love God, he never has sinned at all — he commits no sin now. Can any believe this? VI. THE SAME IS EVIDENT FROM THE NATURE OF THE GOSPEL. The Gospel is a system of grace from beginning to end. Its great atonement by blood — the awakening, renewing, and sanctifying influences of the Divine Spirit — is all grace. But, as we have seen, if man is not bound to make himself a new heart, he is not a sinner. Christ, then, has not died for sinners. He did not come to seek and save those who were lost — those who deserved eternal death; but those who were innocent. Again: if the sinner is not bound to make himself a new heart, there is no grace in the influences of the Holy Spirit. Grace is favour shown to sinners — to the ill-deserving. If, then, man is not bound to make himself a new heart, without the aids of the Divine Spirit, then he is not to blame, is not ill-deserving for not having such a heart, and of course there is no grace in giving him such a heart. VII. THE CHARACTER OF GOD DECIDES THE TRUTH OF OUR DOCTRINE. Here I present the simple question of reason and of equity. Ought the sinner to love the all-perfect God? God, his Maker, his Preserver, Benefactor, Saviour — God, the best friend he has in the universe — God, whose character is infinite excellence, combining all that is comprehensive in wisdom, vast in power, enrapturing in goodness and mercy — claims the sinner's heart — claims it of right — claims it under His own promise and oath to give all He can give to bless. In opposition is arrayed the world, which deceives, ensnares, corrupts, and destroys the soul forever. And can reason, can conscience, hesitate as to the reasonableness and the equity of these opposing claims? Remarks. 1. They who deny the sinner's power as a moral agent to make himself a new heart, deny the scriptural doctrine of the Divine influence, or the work of the Holy Spirit. 2. This subject shows us that ministers are bound to exhort sinners to make themselves new hearts, and to do nothing, which implies that they are not to do this. 3. We see the absurdity of the sinner's plea, that he cannot change his own heart. 4. We see why the influences of the Holy Spirit are necessary to change the hearts of sinners. 5. The duty of the sinner to make himself a new heart is to be regarded by him as a practicable duty. (N. W. Taylor.) Parallel Verses KJV: Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? |
    |