Ezekiel 36:25, John10:10 "So, Now I Have A New Heart"

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  Ezekiel 36:25

“The thief has come only to rob, kill, and destroy, but I have come so that you can have life, and have it abundantly.”   John 10:10

John 10:10 explains that we have an enemy, but it creates a real dilemma for most of us. There’s no question that Satan does the job when it comes to robbing, killing and destroying –but what about the other part of that verse. Jesus said that He came so that we could have abundant life, the fullest lives possible, lives lived to maximum potential. Can you see the dilemma? Many of us believe in Jesus and have trusted Him for forgiveness and salvation. But this verse implies a lot more than just forgiveness –it says that we can have lives lived to the fullest. And, frankly, that’s not the experience most of us have.

If Jesus had said, “I came to make lives better,” I would feel like my experience bears out what Jesus says. If Jesus had said, “I came to forgive sin and make life more meaningful,” I would be saying “that’s exactly my experience.” I know that my sins are forgiven, and my life is more meaningful now than it ever was before –and there is no doubt that my life is better than it used to be. Yet, despite all of that, my life is nowhere near maximum potential. There is obviously something else still going on. And to understand what is really going on, we have to go back to the fact that we are constantly under spiritual attack. We have an enemy.

You might wonder why Satan hates us so much –why does he even care? What difference do we make to him? The answer is found way back in the book of Genesis. In Genesis 1:27 we’re told, “God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.” Satan would love to destroy God’s glory –in fact, to destroy God -but that isn’t possible, so he has made it his mission to destroy those created in God’s image. What difference do we make to Satan? None. The only reason he cares about us is because God cares about us. Satan is seeking to hurt us in an attempt to hurt God.

So, whether we like it or not –and I don’t, but my not liking it doesn’t change the reality –whether we like it or not, and whether we even acknowledge it or not, there is an epic spiritual battle raging around us, and we are caught in the middle of it. In fact, we are the prize that is being fought for –this epic battle between the angels of God and fallen angels –the demons that follow Satan, is being fought over our hearts. The heart is central to everything. That’s because of why were created. We were created to love. I think that somewhere down inside we all understand this –love is the whole point. Without love, life is meaningless.

But, you see, loving requires a heart that is fully alive and free. And this is where we have problems. Our enemy knows how important our hearts are –and that’s why he is so intent on destroying them –that’s why he is intent on breaking our hearts –on twisting our hearts –on deadening our hearts. If he can disable and deaden our hearts, he has effectively foiled God’s plan for us –God’s plan that our hearts be fully alive and free to love God with all of our hearts –to worship with all of our hearts.

The promise of the Father to replace our wounded hearts of stone with hearts of flesh -the promise of Jesus to give us abundant life, means at least this: Jesus can take that heart that Satan has brutalized and broken and crushed, and heal it and restore it and give it back to us fully alive and free –free to love again. Free to accept God’s love.

Before I had a new heart, I could never quite grasp the extent of God’s love –my damaged heart was incapable of grasping it. My new heart, though, understands that God is very fond of me. My new heart knows that Jesus truly loves me.

Of course, as I begin to understand that Jesus loves me, I also begin to realize that He knows me. How can He love me in a personal way if He doesn’t know me in a personal way. Jesus knows me. That’s a thought that is comforting and frightening all at once, isn’t it? I’m sure we all have a few things in our past that we’d rather not parade out in public. I used to think that I’d be more comfortable with God if He didn’t know all about my failures and faults. It’s embarrassing to think that God knows everything about me –even my secrets. But then I realized that He loves me. That changes everything –doesn’t it? I mean, if God said that He loves me, but didn’t know the worst about me, I’d always have to hope that He didn’t find out. I’d always have to worry that if He really knew me that maybe He wouldn’t love me. But the fact that He loves me even knowing the worst about me means that I never have to worry about it. He already knows that I’m worse than any of you think I am –in fact, He knows that I’m worse than I think I am. And He loves me.

Now, if God knows the worst about me and loves me anyway, that means that my sins are, indeed, forgiven. He knows me, and through the shed blood of Jesus, He has forgiven me. Because I have a new heart I am aware of God’s personal love for me –and that leads to a deep seated awareness of God’s forgiveness. When I prayed and asked Jesus to forgive my sins, and asked Him to restore my damaged heart, He already knew about my sins –He knew about sins that I’d forgotten I’d committed. He knew about sins that I didn’t understand were all that horrible –but he knew exactly how horrible they were. He knew everything there was to know about me, and He loved me, and forgave me. Until Jesus gave me a new, healed, restored heart, I wasn’t able to grasp the depth of God’s love and the completeness of His forgiveness.

But, now with a new heart, I can understand that God loves me, and I can grasp that my sins are truly forgiven –and that leads to one other thing I begin to be aware of. I begin to be aware of my freedom. We often talk about the freedom we have in Christ. We sing songs about freedom. We acknowledge our freedom with our lips –and maybe even with our minds –but until we have new hearts we are incapable of actually grasping what it means to be free in Christ. If we don’t really get it about the depth of God’s love and the completeness of His forgiveness, how could we possibly realize what His freedom means to us? But now think about this. If God really does know every possible thing about me –and if He knows not only the sins I’ve already committed, but even the ones I will commit in the future –and He says that He loves me, and that all of my sin is forgiven, that means I’m free. I'm free to respond to His love without worry, regret, guilt, shame or fear of failure. All of that has already been dealt with.

There is no greater bondage than going through all the religious motions in a desperate attempt to be forgiven and loved. But, you see, we don’t have to do that, do we? We don’t have to try and earn God’s love, because now we know for certain that God already loves us –and with our new hearts we are able to respond to God’s love. That’s relationship –receiving God’s love, and loving God in return. Relationship is better than religion. And that’s what allowing God to heal our hearts is all about. And, I think, that is what abundant life is all about.