- “And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:19-20
- “I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.” Ezekiel 36:25-27
The prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel give insight into what God had planned from the beginning in the redemption of mankind. They both describe the state of the new human nature under a new covenant. We have applied these prophecies to address the questions of, “dead in spirit” and “is the human spirit recreated in the new birth?”
The first point we ought to address is; if the use of the term “heart” refers to the soul or spirit? The interpretation of the heart to mean spirit has in some way given support to the belief the spirit in mankind to be dead [spiritually dead]. However the heart is mainly used to describe the various facets of the human soul [mind, emotion, conscience and will]. Ezekiel presents heart and spirit in one sentence, in doing so he has given the heart to refer to a distinct feature of mankind other than the spirit, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.” Therefore heart does not mean spirit, and the application of “the heart of stone” to mean “dead in spirit” is flawed.
In the above verses, Ezekiel prophesies of a new covenant in which God, gives mankind a new heart and a new Spirit to enable us to walk in His statues. And Paul in Hebrews writes contrasting the old covenant to the new and says, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises. For if what was first had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second.” Hebrews 8:6-7 The point being, due to the fault in the first covenant, which was the weakness in our flesh [sin], God had sought to solve in the new by bringing a change in us which the new testament refer to as the new birth, to be born again from above.
“For of the Law being powerless in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent His Son in likeness of sin of flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the Law should be fulfilled in us not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4
In the first prophecy, Ezekiel gives a general overview of what is done in us; a change of heart [from stone to flesh] and the giving of a new Spirit. So that we might walk according to God’s purpose and be His people. The total process is encapsulated in, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;” and this is the consistent theme in both prophecies, to which He goes on to give in detail in the second. By describing the means by which the heart of stone is removed to be a heart of flesh and the means by which we are able to walk in His laws.
We have already said the heart represents a facet of the human soul, in this case it is better suited to the conscience which was dead in sin and had become callous, hard as stone. Was dead as stone due to sin, is now made alive and tender as flesh. It is the conscience that is cleansed from evil [sin], not the will, emotion or even mind.
[To sprinkle clean water: Born of water]: Water is used to describe the word of God, and is a feature of the new birth, “Unless anyone be born of water and of the Spirit.” John 3:5 The water of the word is used to cleanse us from all our impurities [our sins]. The Lord speaking to His disciples says, “Already you are clean by reason of the word that I have spoken to you.” John 15:3 And Peter describes it as, “Having purified your souls in obedience to the truth.” 1 Peter 1:22 This purification of our souls through the word is described in Hebrews, “We should draw near with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, our hearts having been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our body having been washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:22
A New Heart is a heart undefiled and unstained by sin. It does not mean we receive a new soul, but our conscience which was defiled and dead in condemnation of sin is cleansed, freed from the guilt of sin. The heart that was dead in sin [the heart of stone], is given new life through forgiveness [a heart of flesh]. The act of forgiveness in itself is a means to convert our heart from stone to flesh. Stone is dead, flesh is living. Paul in Colossians writes, “And you being dead in the trespasses and in the circumcision of your flesh, He made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.” Colossians 2:13
[I will put My Spirit within you: Born of the Spirit]: In the first covenant we were not able to keep the Law, due to the weakness in the flesh [sin]. But in the new covenant His Spirit comes in to enable us to walk in His ways. The new spirit is His Spirit coming into us, not the recreation of a new human spirit. “Now you are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you; but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” Romans 8:9 The new Spirit Ezekiel was speaking of is the Spirit of God, which was not yet given, and John writes, “Now He said this concerning the Spirit, whom those having believed in Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:39
Therefore the overall nature of the new birth is, we hearing and believing the gospel of our salvation are purified from all sins [our hearts are made new] and the Lord in return gives us of His Spirit that we may walk in His ways and be His children. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:14 And Jeremiah prophesised, “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. [AND] …. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:33-34
Israel in the flesh sought to serve God in a law written on stone to obtain the righteousness of works in the flesh. However, now all through Christ can obtain righteousness apart from works of the flesh through faith, and the precepts of the law are written on our hearts and minds. Paul writes, “having been inscribed not in ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.” 2 Corinthians 3:3 The point is if something is abhorrent to us, to our conscience, to our nature we wont do it. We are moved to love righteousness and to hate what is evil, through the Spirit of God. Therefore it was not dead in spirit but a soul that was dead in sin. And it is not a recreation of a new human spirit but the receiving of the Spirit of God.
Spirit-Mankind = The Human spirit [one with] the Spirit of Christ [Joined to] the Soul [living in] a Mortal body.
Bread Bait. 
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