Soft hearts

I’ve been studying the Old Testament so much lately I’m starting to forget that God made a New Covenant with us. It’s so easy to overlook the fact that the apostles and early church fathers and were Jews and that their entire religious belief system was built on the Mosaic Law.  The dichotomy between the Ten Commandments and the age of grace seems at first glance to be clearly divided as the waters of the Red Sea crossing. But even as Moses is breaking the first two tablets of stone, God is using the law to prepare our own hearts to receive the grace and mercy that will one day take the form of His very own Son, Jesus.

Paul conveys this beautifully in chapter 3 of Corinthians: “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men: clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, writing not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on the tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” Paul summarizes this great truth in a few sentences. “And we have such trust through Christ towards God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter of the law but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

Another incredible scripture-prophecy is recorded by the prophet Jeremiah 600 years before God would give us the New Covenant “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:31

What a skillfull surgeon God is as He carefully circumcises our hearts. The process starts with  sinners taking the first step of faith and believing that Jesus is God’s solution to our sin problem. Then the Holy Spirit begins to cut away the dead flesh and the calluses that have grown around our hearts. The love of God will soften and restore any yielded heart through the oil and the wine. As our hearts become more pliable they are ready to give God’s love to others who are desperately searching for it. Although God’s plan did not happen overnight but took thousands of years to perfect as He began to prepare the world for the birth of His Son. In fact the entire world had to be at just the right point in history for the arrival of the Messiah.

Are you ready for the Savior? Are you ready for God’s solution to sin? Jesus was born into poverty in a stable only to suffer and die in agony on a Roman cross. We glimpse the humanity of Jesus as He pleaded with the Father that if there be any other way to redeem the world let it be but He ended saying “not My will but Your will be done.” What the law could not complete, the Son of God accomplished while hanging lifeless from a crude device used to execute criminals. Jesus’ death redeemed all mankind in a moment as He said “It is finished” and His resurrection brought forth brand new life! Picture an ugly caterpillar going into a cocoon and in the twinkling of an eye emerges as a beautiful butterfly.  

But just like that caterpillar bursting out of a dark cocoon we to need to have the calluses and scars removed from our hearts. Then as the scales begin to fall from our eyes we can have compassion for others around us who do not yet know the One True and Living God. The more we love the more our hearts will continue to soften, allowing every aspect of our lives to be available to the Holy Spirit for His use.  You won’t have to thump people over the head with the bible by preaching the “Letter of the Law” instead people will see the love of Christ in you and through the actions that flow from your life. Surrendering to the Spirit, being a vessel that God can fill is what Jesus came to model for us all. Remember we are His workmanship created for good works in Christ!