Did you ever realize that all human beings are born with a damaged heart. Now I don’t mean that there is a physical deformity in their new heart, although a small percentage of people are born with a physically damaged heart, I mean their new heart is spiritually dead.
The Scriptures speak about this heart condition when it says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The late Pastor Oswald J. Smith stated the human condition all of us are born into as follows: “The heart of the human problem, is the problem of the human heart.”1
When our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, sinned, all humanity born after them inherited not only their sin nature, but in the above words of Jeremiah: a desperately wicked heart. But if we are born dead in our trespasses and sins as we read in (Ephesians 2:1) and with an incurably evil heart, how can we ever have a relationship with the God of the universe; who is holy and perfect.
Fortunately, for all of us the great Physician, Jesus Christ, is able to perform a unique surgery that no human doctor can. Yes, human cardiologists can perform heart transplants but the heart they are giving their dying patient is either an old human heart or a mechanical one. In both cases this replacement heart can help the patient physically live but he is still spiritually dead. Only Jesus Christ can give us a new spiritual heart through a unique operation. In this operation God has provided the surgical means needed for this transformation for we read in (Ezekiel 36:26): “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
My friends herein lies the heart of the gospel. Jesus gives us a brand new heart and with this heart we become new creations, with a new capacity to say no to sin and yes to Jesus. And with this new heart we can do things that the old heart could never do. For example, we can love our enemies, forgive those who have deeply hurt us, and praise and glorify our Father in heaven. In addition, we can rejoice when we are persecuted for Christ’s sake, and experience the peace of God deep in our hearts even when we are going through the storms of life.
Clearly, if it were not for God’s intervention, then our hearts would indeed be beyond all cure. So, let’s praise God for His incalculable gift – our brand new hearts!