Spiritual Heart Transplants

"The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the old covenant I made with their forefathers ... This is the new covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ... no longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother, saying 'Know the Lord.' because they will all know me. ... "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." [Jer. 31:31-34]

The problem with the Old Covenant was that it was patently external. It's laws were written on stone and they provided no internal power to live them out. Something far more radical was needed -- a spiritual heart transplant.

John Blanchard in his book The Truth for Life, relates the story of Dr. Christian Barnard, the first surgeon ever to successfully perform a heart transplant, impulsively asking his patient, Dr. Philip Blaiberg, "Would you like to see your old heart?" On a subsequent evening, the men stood in the pathology lab of the Groote Schuur Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa and Dr. Barnard went up to cupboard, took down a glass container and handed it to Dr. Blaiberg. Inside that jar was Blaiberg's old heart. For a moment he stood there in stunned silence -- the first man in history to hold his own heart in his hands. Finally he said, "So this is my old heart that caused me so much trouble." He handed it back, turned away and left it forever.

This is, in essence, what Christ does for us. He gives us a new heart. God has written His laws within us. He has made His people partakers of the Divine Nature [2Pet. 1:4]. "I will be their God" means He gives Himself to us. And "they will be my people" means He takes us unto Himself. When this happens, everything our complex nature can require is found in Him. St. Augustine said "You've made us for yourself and our souls are restless until they find their rest in You." "They will all know me" [v. 34a] ... The Old Covenant was corporately entered into by a nation, including those who did not know God personally [which was the vast majority]. But those who experience the New Covenant by faith in Jesus' blood come one by one as they are born into a relationship with God. It was Jesus himself who defined eternal life by saying "This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." [Jn. 17:3]

Amen!

Thankful to be a Friend of God

Marveling today at Jesus' words to those seated around Him at the table on the night of His betrayal..."As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I have learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last--and that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other." John 15:9-17

As I ponder this passage, I marvel at v. 15..."I no longer call you servants...instead I have called you friends!" We often call ourselves children of God and members of the Family of God...but as everyone knows we don't get to choose our relatives [or family]. We do, however, get to choose our friends! In fact, we are often judged by the "friendships we keep." And despite all our many failings, Jesus still chooses us and calls us His friends. Wow! And then He showed us "the full measure of His love" in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us. There is no greater love and no greater example of what it means to "be a friend" than that. So while I am thankful this day to be Jesus younger brother and a son of God, I am most thankful that Jesus cared for and loved me enough to count me as His friend!

The Near, But Not Yet, Kingdom of God

Pondering Jesus’ words in Luke 21 “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near…even so, when you see these things happening, you know the kingdom of God is near….be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

There it is again…the near, but not yet, kingdom of God. This, however, is the final culmination of all things. It will go from near but not yet, to now and forevermore, in the twinkling of an eye. We must not be numbed by all the earthbound, secular voices that say life will go on and on. It will not! All of life is moving toward Him. For “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation…and all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” [Col. 1] We are to keep looking up! While we wait for the “blessed hope, the glorious appearing” [Titus 2] in the same manner as John who exhorted us “Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be like has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is!”