Ezekiel 11:19, commentary and pictures

God promises a complete inward change, taking away the hard, stubborn and selfish heart of stone and giving in its place one soft and responsive heart of flesh with a new spirit put within. This change is conversion and the new birth through Jesus Christ by grace upon the heart, like the wind, which even the just and honorable must experience because outward exactness in keeping the law cannot take its place or earn heaven. It is the only condition for being saved and entering the kingdom of God, for discerning Christ's kingdom, turning from sin, belonging to God, and being made fit for eternal life. The renewed heart with Christ enthroned and dwelling within enables a person to walk in God's statutes and keep His ordinances, to love God and delight in His law with His laws in the mind and heart, and to live unselfishly so that speech, desires and service express the Saviour within as His people with God as their God. A heart of flesh is tender, merciful and compassionate toward God and what is right rather than hard and unfeeling, and it is lived out in consecration, sacrifice, sympathy for the self-denying, restoring sinners instead of condemning them, and responding generously in need.

New Heart Promised

Ezekiel 11:19 promises inward transformation in which God takes the stony, hard, stubborn and selfish heart out of the flesh and gives one responsive heart of flesh and puts a new spirit within. The hardness removed is resistance to God, and the heart given in its place is receptive and responsive to Him. This inward renewal is the work of grace upon the human heart, which is conversion and the new birth through Jesus Christ, illustrated by the wind. That change of heart brings conversion and makes people fit for eternal life.

Even a just and honorable person must experience this new birth, and mere outward precision and rigid precision in keeping the law cannot take its place or entitle anyone to enter heaven. It is the only condition upon which a person can be saved and secure an entrance into the kingdom of God. It is also what enables a person to discern the kingdom Christ came to set up, to turn from sin, to belong to God, and to become fit for eternal life. Without it there is no entrance, no spiritual discernment, and no true belonging to Him.

The renewed heart enables people to walk in God's statutes and to keep His ordinances and do them. It leads them to love God and delight in His law, with His laws put in their minds and written in their hearts, and to live as His people. With Christ enthroned and dwelling within, selfishness gives way to His unselfish love. Then speech and desires reflect the Saviour within, and the life expresses the truth in faithful, just service as God's people with God as their God.

Tender Heart Lived

A heart of flesh is a tender, merciful and compassionate heart that is responsive to God and to what is right, set against a hard, unfeeling, iron-hard heart of stone or steel. God removes selfish hardness from the heart in order to give such tenderness and compassion. Those who have a directing influence in His work must be wholly consecrated to Him so that they have hearts of flesh and not hearts of steel. God's people are to pray that they themselves will be made tender rather than hard-hearted.

The tender heart carries a spirit of sacrifice and gives the ability to understand and sympathize with those who deny themselves for God's work. Hearts softened by the Spirit of Christ show tender love and compassion that restores those who have sinned instead of condemning or abandoning them. Such a heart is revealed practically by responding generously to another person's request in an emergency. A person with this responsive heart can be led to respect consistent Christian steadfastness, as when a wife's faithfulness commands her husband's respect.