Heart change. What does that mean? We frequently use this term to differentiate between genuine actions from those that are not. For instance, we all want our children to obey, but we want them to obey with a sincere heart. How can you tell the difference? Sometimes it’s obvious, but honestly, sometimes it’s not. And if they obey insincerely, does it count? The bed is still made, and the dog is still fed, but it may have been done without heart.
It does matter. Speaking of the Pharisees who were really good at keeping the Law, Jesus said, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Matthew 15:8-9).
This was a sad state of affairs. God’s chosen people were just giving lip service to God. This was nothing new, for Jesus was quoting Isaiah who hundreds of years before had predicted God’s discipline because of their “lip service,” and obedience with no heart. Indeed, they were disciplined, repented, came back into the land, and now back to their age-old problem: heartless religion.
This is why God declared that He would institute a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Hebrews 8:7-12). The people of God needed a heart change. The law of the Old Covenant was intended to reveal God’s holiness and serve as a means to live distinctly from the surrounding nations, but it became nothing more than meaningless regulations.
Think of those who lived under the Levitical law. The details of Leviticus and Deuteronomy are dizzying. There were countless regulations regarding food, family life, commerce, farming, worship, and more. It was an impossible standard.
The natural inclination was initially to value and cherish the law by adhering to it. Keeping the law was precisely what God required of them. However, human nature, being what it is, ensured that obedience became the primary driving force. Humans tend to organize things into neat and tidy packages, and it’s comforting to know at the end of the day, one did not break the law!
However, it was easy to interpret the law as simply stating what to do and what not to do. When asked why one did or didn’t do something, the response could be, “Because that’s what the law requires.” But what about the heart? You see, one can obey without a genuine heart.
Enter Jesus. He basically gave only two commands: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). It comes down to this: Love God and love your neighbor. But we like to complicate things.
By the time Jesus came on the scene, the Pharisees had a system of 613 laws besides the Levitical Law. 365 of them were negative commands and 248 were positive. The Old Testament Law was impossible to keep, and the religious leaders of the day had made it much worse. The result was a heartless religion of lip service.
Isaiah 12:13: “Then the Lord said,
‘Because this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote.’”
How about us? Is it possible for us to simply pay lip service to God with our lives and worship? Is it possible that our hearts are often far from Him? Do we sometimes just go through the motions of our faith with no spiritual reality or vitality? Yes.
But unlike the nation Israel in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah, or the Jews in the time of Jesus, we have something much, much better, with better promises.
We have Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, “the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.” Those promises include a new heart, a new nature, a new life, the indwelling Holy Spirit, a heavenly position, and a heavenly destiny.
In Romans 6:17, Paul gives thanks to God, “that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.”
The blessings of the new covenant change our hearts and enable us to obey God’s commands. Not obedience for obedience’s sake, but obedience out of a heart of love and gratitude for all our Savior has accomplished for us.
It’s not behavior that needs to change, it’s the person who needs to change. We cannot legislate heart change. That’s God’s business. Yes, once a person has a new heart, the new nature, the Holy Spirit, change is still incumbent upon them, for the Scriptures are full of commands and prohibitions, even in the New Testament. But we now have the ability to change.
In the end, only God can change someone’s heart. We cannot change the heart of our child, our spouse, our brother, or sister. So we are responsible for ourselves: our own heart attitude, our own obedience of love, and a heart that is near to God.
Jesus is at the right hand of the Majesty on High, so “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:1-2).