Are We Robots?

May 6

Read: Ezekiel 36:22-37

Are We Robots?

“I (God) will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 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. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ez. 36:25-27)

God is the one who will “clean us from all our uncleannesses”! (v.25) The Lord is the one working to “cause us to walk in his statues and be careful to obey HIS rules.” (v.27) But how does he do this? How is it that God is working this out?

He does this by “giving us a NEW heart and a NEW spirit.” (v.26) You see, it is not enough to be “cleansed” or “made clean” (think “forgiveness of sins”). This is the BEGINNING of the story. What God is after is something greater. He is zealous for his representation in this world and his relationship with his creation. This is what humanity was created for. The journey begins with our forgiveness… our “slate wiped clean”… our “cleansing” but it continues on into our TRANSFORMATION through new hearts and spirits given to us by the Lord.

Those who are transformed through the presence and work of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Father are God’s “set apart people” whom he has “called from every tribe, tongue, and nation”. (cf. 1 Peter 2:9, Ezek. 36:24, Rev. 5:9,10) As ambassadors, we represent the Lord here on earth to those outside of us and to one another. (cf. Ezek. 36:23, etc.) We reflect out into the world the goodness of God. We also reflect BACK to him HIS goodness… this is WORSHIP. The theologian NT Wright likens it to an “angled mirror” which reflects what is good from above out into the world, and reflects the goodness in the world back up.

So if we are “new” why do we still struggle with temptation? What does God’s “causing us to walk” feel like… how do we experience it? Well, our new hearts and spirits are in our old body. (We will get new bodies later, at the resurrection) so for now we must navigate the weakness of our “flesh”. One new hearts and spirits - traveling as one with our old bodies - come face to face with other things that are “old”. There is a spiritual rebellion that has been raging on since our beginning as an earth and humans. (cf. Gen. 3, Rev. 12, etc.) We have a very real enemy in this world - the Devil and those other spiritual beings who rebel against God Most High. The effects of sin on this world are in the process of being reversed - yet there is still brokenness in the world… brokenness in it’s systems. There is still disease. There is till pain and disappointment. When we think of it - sin, the flesh, the world, and the devil are more than enough to complicate the efforts of a “new heart, new spirit, NEW YOU.” When you add in your own old habits and patterns of thinking… we can see how the new creation that we truly are must navigate / battle / resist these forces at work against the Lord through their attack on us!

The way that God “causes” us to walk in his statues and obey his rules is not through robotically controlling his people, but it is through forgiving us, showing us his GRACE, making us clean, and making us new through our “heart” and spirit. He “renews our minds” and reminds us of who we are now in his son, JESUS. This is how he is “causing it”. The enemy wants us to think that we are not changed. The enemy wants the people of God to doubt this transformation. The enemy wants to keep the people of God trapped in their ways. He wants them to think that they have not been “made new”. It is so cruel! The enemy wages war against us (as the image bearing off-spring of Eve, cf. Gen. 3) and then when we falter / our heals are “wounded” he tell us that we are the ones who did it to ourselves! When we are sure of who we are in Christ, and know the enemies that we face, we can “resist the devil and he will flee (James 4:7) God is working in us and through us as his people today! Love you guys. - JDP