A New Heart By The Gospel

"They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 11: 18-20 NIV)

"Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!" (Ezekiel 18: 30 NIV)

"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and (to) be careful to keep my laws." (Ezekiel 36: 25-27 NIV)

"Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" (Jeremiah 23: 29 NIV)

Notice these words of John Gill on the above verse from Jeremiah 23: 29 and on the statement that God's word (gospel) is "like a hammer that breaks the rock (of the heart) in pieces."

"and like a hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces? to which the heart of man may be compared, being hardened by sin, confirmed in it; destitute of spiritual life; stupid and senseless; stubborn and inflexible; on which no impressions are made, and is impenitent and inflexible; see Zec 7:12; now the word of the Lord, in the hand of the Spirit, is a means of breaking such hard hearts, and taking away the Obduracy and hardness of them; there is a legal contrition of it, through the law part of the word, by which there is a knowledge of sin, and the soul is wounded with a sense of it, and sore broken, but without any view of pardon, righteousness, and salvation by Christ; and there is an evangelical contrition or brokenness of heart, through the Gospel part of the word, by means of which the stony heart is not only broken, but melted and dissolved into true evangelical repentance for sin, through the discoveries of a Saviour bruised and broken for its sin, and through a view of free and full pardon by his blood, and justification by his righteousness. Now the word is only an instrument; it is not the efficient cause of all this; as a hammer is but an instrument, and a passive one, can do nothing of itself; it must be taken up and used by a powerful hand, or it can do no execution; what is a hammer without a hand? so the Gospel is only an instrument in the hand of, the Lord; but when he takes it into his own hand, and strikes with it, it will break the hardest heart in pieces, and make a stony heart a heart of flesh, Eze 36:26."

Why is it that the "Reformed Baptist" pastors with which I have had to do, in the past two years, with little exception, have all told me that "God must first create the new heart before the gospel will be of any avail" or that "regeneration precedes faith (and conversion)"?

Why do they not see, as did Dr. Gill, that the hammer of the word is not a means used only after "regeneration" but in the whole of regeneration, from start to finish? Why do they think that this "hammer" cannot be a means in creating this "new heart"?

Besides, if one looks at the texts above, there are several problems for the Hardshells, Hyper Calvinists, and those who promote the "Reformed" view of "pre-faith regeneration."

God tells the people to "get themselves (or 'make themselves' KJV) a "new heart" and a "new spirit"! How does this fit in with the hybrid view of the advocates of the "pre-faith" view of "regeneration"? Yes, of course, the command does not imply ability! We are not believers, as Baptists, in the Pelagian formula that says that a "command implies ability"!

Certainly the design of God in these commands was twofold. First, he no doubt designed it as a form of sarcasm, telling them basically, - "okay, you think you can change your heart, go ahead! Give it a try!"

Secondly, he could be saying this in order that the people, discovering that they cannot do as he commands, seek God to do this for them.

Still, who can deny that this very command to "make (or 'get') themselves a new heart" was a means or instrument to bring about their receiving the new heart and spirit?

Also, notice what precedes the creating or giving of this new heart. The people repent and turn and throw away their idols!

It was old John Bunyan who often spoke of how, in regeneration, God would often first take the sinner off his old idols before he brought him into love for God and God alone.

Consider also how the text says "repent and live"! How does this fit into the "reformed" "ordo salutis"? Why did the Lord not say "live and repent"?