Fallen and Flawed

Hard-Hearted Ignorance [Our Condition Apart from the New Birth]

**Part of the 10 Hard Truths about Being Born Again series**

Our problem–that is, our condition apart from the new birth–is not our ignorance…

It’s something deeper.

Paul says that an unbeliever is alienated from God due to his ignorance. An ignorance that comes from a hard heart.

We are excluded from God…we are children of wrath…we are spiritually blind…we are dead from sin…we are all these things and more from an ever hardening of our hearts to the things of God.

A hardening that intensifies as we continue to sin. As we continue to turn away from God.

This is why subtle, slow rebellion is so dangerous. It’s a slippery slope into moral and spiritual death.

Here’s How Subtle, Slow Rebellion Works

We begin by distorting spiritual and moral issues. We then succumb to sensuality. To greed. We turn blind and hard as a rock. And we lose all moral restraint…

And suppress the truth with our sinfulness.

That some souls never reach these extremes is due only to God’s common grace and the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit.

But this is why we need more than God’s common grace. We need to be born again. Why we need a new heart. A heart of flesh. And not a heart of stone.

The stony heart is like the stony ground–unfit to absorb the seed and bear good fruit.

The Heart Mastered by the Messiah

In Christ–in the new birth–we are promised a new heart. Ezekiel 36:26 says:

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

A new heart turned from sin and towards God. A heart succumbed to its Creator. Sanctified. Sensitive to sin. Etched with the law of Christ. Subservient to the law of Christ.

A new mind converted from carnal to spiritual. Happy to pursue God’s law. Bent on complying with the whole will. Passionate to be mastered by it. To suffer for it. And upset when he breaks it.

A hard heart softened into flesh. That is the work of Christ. That is the new birth. That is the start of a campaign to mould one’s self into the image of his savior–Jesus Christ.

What We Must Do

Unless God awakens our spiritual senses and exposes our ingratitude, we cannot do this ourselves. We must allow him to turn us to faith. To Jesus Christ. Who’s loved us and continues to love us perfectly. We must humble ourselves before him.

Related posts:

1. Bondage to Worldly Wisdom [Our Condition Apart from New Birth]
2. Enemy of God [Our Condition Apart from New Birth]
3. Slaves to Satan [Our Condition Apart from New Birth]

Tags: Christ, Heart

3 Comments to Hard-Hearted Ignorance [Our Condition Apart from the New Birth]

Leave a comment