Hearts of flesh

One of the first steps to being a Christian is to understand the need for Christ and salvation. And one of the first tenets we discover in our initial few days of bible study is the difference between law and grace. In the old testament, we see that law was given by God as asked by men. While the law in itself is good and essential, the old covenant or law didn’t provide a means for us to understand how to obey the law. The best person in the old covenant couldn't keep all the commandments - he could at least attempt to keep the 9 commandments (externally) but never could he keep the 10th commandment - which was to not desire what belongs to another. Since this was in the mind, people kept on hiding the sin which perpetually occurred in their minds.  Here comes the need for Christ and the holy spirit

a.       God needed someone to present a perfect sacrificial life of obedience and this was Christ the son of man.

b.      The holy spirit was to be the counselor who will make us walk in the ways of the lord, enabling us and changing us from within.

When Christ came to give us the new covenant, he made the law simpler but more acute (lusting was equal to adultery, anger was equal to murder, the thought was considered as bad as the action!) But he also helped us through the abiding presence of the holy spirit to know how to obey the law of the spirit !!

§  We are the testimony of Jesus christ. 

§  We are the good news which many people will see.

§  We are the only bible that some people would read.

§  We are the temple of the living God and in us resides God himself (holy spirit) as we reside in christ.

 (2Cor 3:2) Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

(2Cor 3:3) [Forasmuch as ye are] manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

God has written the law in our hearts of flesh causing us to walk in his ways. But our hearts were not always fleshly and soft. We had a hard hearted past as it is written in ezekiel. It's only in a born-again person can the law be written in the heart. The stony heart is a picture of the law, and the fleshly heart is a picture of grace.

(Ezek 36:26) A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Praise God for doing all it takes to live in his ways

·         He found us even when we were sinners with stony heart

·         He gave us a new heart and a new spirit

·         He wrote the law in our hearts

·         He gave us the holy spirit

·         Even when we fail, he doesn't give up on us, but gives us his hand to help us up again

·         He watches over us in love

What a wonderful God we serve!

Praise the lord Jesus Christ