By Dennis Pollock
In the Book of Jeremiah, God says this of Israel:
They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. (Jeremiah 32:38-40)
As you read through the Old Testament, you hear again and again of Israel’s failure to obey God, and their proneness to forsake the true God and wander off into idolatry. And in response God would judge His people, bringing much misery upon the nation. But here in Jeremiah, we find a ray of hope for Israel. God promises that the time will come when He gives Israel a heart that will produce in them a respect for and fear of God resulting in them never departing from Him.
Notice, God doesn’t simply say, “My people are going start doing right and obeying Me.” God takes the initiative for Israel’s obedience. He will divinely insert a fear of Himself into the heart of His people. In another place in Jeremiah, He promises, “I will give them a heart to know Me…” (Jeremiah 24:7). Israel is promised a new heart which will give them what they always seemed to lack. They will now know and respect God.
Being a former middle school math teacher, I am reminded of just how little interest thirteen and fourteen-year-olds have in mathematics. Apart from a few very exceptional students, most of them have absolutely zero interest in math. Teenage girls are interested in looking pretty and attracting the attention of boys, and teenage boys are obsessed with impressing girls and playing sports. They are not the least concerned about algebra, geometry, or math equations. As a math teacher, I had to fight to try to get my students to see that math has value and that they would do themselves a lot of good by paying attention and making a diligent effort to learn and excel in math.
I have sometimes thought that what these kids needed was some kind of heart transplant. What if they could be given the heart of a true mathematician? Suppose they somehow absorbed, overnight, a sudden love and passion for math? Now, instead of being bored by math class, they are begging, “Teacher, please give us more homework. Please extend the hours of our math class! Please spend more time at the chalkboard and explain this subject to us!”
Of course, that never happened but in a sense that is where the world finds itself about the things of God. And I’m not just talking about Israel, here. Israel was a model for the whole world. We were all born alienated from God, and without any real interest in knowing the true God. We had other fish to fry, and other things to do besides read the Bible, talk to our Heavenly Father, and absorb ourselves in the things of God. And that was exactly how I was in my teenage years. I had no interest in my Creator. I was way too busy trying to grab as much pleasure as I could, and the notion of God turned me off. But at the age of nineteen, something strange happened. Through faith in Jesus Christ, I was given this new heart that Jeremiah talked about. Suddenly in a very brief period, I transformed from totally disinterested in God to passionately obsessed with God. Even though I am not Jewish, Jeremiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in my life. And I have not departed from God since then, over fifty years ago.
This concept of a heart transplant that produces a fear of God and a love for God is a vital aspect of New Testament theology. It is part and parcel of the new birth that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul says in his letter to the Philippians: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13). As God’s children through Christ, we do not love God, we do not seek to please Him and live for Him simply because we decided one day that this would be an appropriate thing to do. We have been given a new heart and a new set of desires for God that we never had before, and now God works in us through the Holy Spirit to want God and to want to obey Him, or as the Holy Spirit puts it: “to will and to do for His good pleasure.” We do not give ourselves the “want-to;” our “want-to” comes directly from the Spirit of God.
This is why the people of the world cannot understand us. They look at evangelical Christians, who hold to very strict moral standards, who refuse to party with them, who are faithful to their spouses, who live simple, honest, responsible lives, who work hard and put their families ahead of their pleasures, and they say, “What kind of a life is that? There is no fun in that! You must be the dullest people in the world!”
But we don’t see it that way. The Holy Spirit living inside us gives us great pleasure in a simple, honest, hard-working, life, respecting others, and keeping our sexuality limited to our spouses. We look at our ungodly neighbors and co-workers, living wild, unrestrained, undisciplined lives, strewn with broken relationships, unreasonable anger, and reckless immorality, and we say something similar: “What kind of life is that?” The Bible says: “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Unbelievers don’t get us; they can’t identify with us because they cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. It is virtually impossible for a man who has never received a new heart given by Christ, to understand or appreciate the lifestyle of a man or woman who does possess that new heart.
In Hebrews, we read the result of this new birth and a new heart. God says: “I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (1 Corinthians 2:14). God’s laws, rules, and principles, written in God’s unique, divine font, are written on our hearts and we take great pleasure in living a life pleasing to our Heavenly Father. We do not merely accept God’s code of morality; we gladly embrace it and even enjoy it. In a Messianic passage from the Psalms, we read:
Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:6-8)
This refers to Jesus Christ, who came to this earth, and told His disciples: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” Jesus had an overwhelming love for the will of God. He didn’t just do God’s will – He loved it.”
And this new heart, this divine nature, this delight in God and His ways is precisely what we are given when we put our faith in Jesus and experience divine life. A new heart, a new nature, a new life. Is it any wonder Jesus referred to this experience as being born again?
