How To Have a Good, Fruitful Heart
This is like a Part 2 to my article: “The Oldest Truth in the Bible”
To find ‘The Oldest Truth’ article, click here. God looks at our hearts more than at anything else (I Sam 16:7).
Do We Have Deceitful Hearts We Can’t Trust?
Jeremiah 17:9 says don’t trust our heart. It is deceitful and wicked. But this is under the Old Testament. Paul says Old Testament law is condemnation and death (II Cor 3:6,9). Ezekiel calls this a heart of STONE, founded on the Old Testament law. The law strengthens sin (I Cor 15:56), and it deceives us (Rom 7:11).
Therefore, apparently, under the Old Testament and Old Covenant law, we could have a deceitful, wicked heart that couldn’t be trusted.
All Things Are New in Christ’s New Gospel
Paul says all things are new in the New Covenant (II Cor 5:17). ALL things become new. The curses are taken away in Jesus (Gal 3:13), except for the curse of trying to live by the Old Covenant law (Gal 3:10).
This includes our hearts. We live in the power of God (Rom 1:16). We are now given a heart of FLESH, not of stone.
God’s gospel grace is sufficient in us for all of life (II Cor 12:9). Grace is not just a word or coping and endurance. It is a word of empowerment. Jesus says repent of all other beliefs; only believe his gospel (Mark 1:15). Repentance is another gift from God, and it causes us to embrace and receive gospel truth (II Tim 2:25).
To live in God, we must be ‘dead’ to Old Testament law (Gal 2:19).
We Have Good, Trustworthy Hearts in the Gospel
What the New Testament gospel gives us is ‘a heart transplant.’ Paul calls it a transformation and renewal, but it’s the same type of thing.
Repentance of sin was the ministry of John the Baptist (Mk 1:4). But this ministry was finished with him (Luke 16:16), because Jesus did away with sin and became sin for us (Heb 9:26, II Cor 5:21). Today, repentance is repenting of wrong beliefs (Mk 1:15, II Tim 2:25). This causes us to live in the ‘light,’ as Jesus says, not in darkness under the Old Testament ways with our hearts veiled (II Cor 3:14–17).
The gospel causes us to be ‘begotten’ (or birthed) in God (I Cor 4:15). Thus John 3:9 (KJV only — modern Bibles mutilate this verse) says if we’re born of God we CANNOT sin, because God’s SEED remains in us (like his sperm).” This is why Paul calls us ‘a new creation,’ which is like a new species.
It is GOOD for our hearts to be established with grace (Heb 13:9). This means God’s gospel of grace (Acts 20:24). The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2).
Having a good, trustworthy, beneficial heart is easy: just keep it filled with God’s gospel grace so it produces good fruits. As I said in the last article: “Things produce after their own kind.” We don’t plant apple seeds and expect to raise pumpkins. Jesus says, “No good root produces bad fruit” — and visa versa.
David Is Called ‘A Man After God’s Own Heart’
We are told this in Acts 13:22, which is of course in the New Testament. David lived under the Old Testament law of guilt, so how can this be? David didn’t really know the gospel — or had God given him a glimpse?
Paul quotes David, and gives us a very big look into his heart. He says: “David describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works. David says, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will NOT IMPUTE SIN” (Rom 4:6–8). (SEE THIS!)
What this tells us is David had greater revelation of Christ’s gospel, 1,000 years before it was proclaimed, than most of us do today, 2,000 years after it was given to us by means of the life and cross of Jesus.
David shows us his heart knowledge of God’s truth: ‘after God’s heart.’ He had a GOOD heart. It was so full of God’s grace. We have good hearts too if we truly lock into Christ’s gospel, and live in the grace he knew.
