Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
Excuse me while I vent a little ...
If one were wanting to talk about regeneration, would one pick this passage to help explain it? Are these promises for us? Are all promises in the Bible ours to claim? Maybe some would say yes. But let's look at a few more verses in Ezekiel 36, verses 24-25:
For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
Should we claim these promises then, too? Are we going to return to the land of Israel and remove all images and idols from it (cross references - Is 2:18, 20; 43:5-6; Ezek 34:13; 37:21)?
And what about verses 28 through 30?
You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. "Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. "I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations.
Has abundant grain, fruit and produce of the field been promised to us as well?
Context is king. We must always look at the context to find who is being addressed and what subject is being talked about. When we look at verse 22, we see that the house of Israel is being addressed. And the subject? The Lord is promising Israel, that though they are scattered and exiled for a time, they will not always be. God promises to gather them again and cause them to walk in His statues.
Don't get me wrong, verses 26-27 do seem to speak about our regeneration. However, it's not what is being spoken of here. So why go to Ezekiel and pull these few verses out of the middle of a passage so obviously not about us in order to talk about what happens to us at our conversion? Wouldn't it be so much better to use passages like these instead?
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom 8:6-8).
But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Rom 10:8-10).
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation (Gal 6:14-15).
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7).
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