New Year: A Fresh StartSample

Living with a New Heart

One of the most remarkable modern-day medical advances is organ transplants. More specifically, I am amazed at the ability to transplant a heart from one human body to another. The idea that someone could have their diseased heart removed from their body and a healthy heart transplanted from someone else's body is incredible to me. It is an example of someone receiving a new heart that enables them to live.

As impressive as this is, this is not the most amazing type of "heart transplant." There are no guarantees that someone will be different when receiving a physical heart transplant. If they were mean, selfish, and prideful with their old heart, they would probably be mean, selfish, and prideful with their new heart. They may continue to live, but their lives might not be different.

God, however, has promised to give us a new heart that will be life-changing for us. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God says He will provide us with a heart transplant. He will give us a new heart, which will be better. It will not be hardened by sin. It will be clean from all the filthiness of our sin and the things we set up as idols in our life. We will have a heart that is altogether different from the one we had, and it will not simply allow us to stay alive. Still, it will enable us to experience a transformed life.

It is interesting to note the cost involved in a heart transplant. When a physical heart is transplanted, it means that someone has died. The donor heart is available because someone has had injuries or a disease that has taken their life. They would be dead even if they did not donate their heart, but the fact remains that a heart transplant can't take place unless someone dies.

The same cost is involved in a spiritual heart transplant. It only is possible because someone died. We can have a new heart only through the sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross. As He hung on the cross, He took our sin upon Himself and died so that we might have a new, clean heart. At a high cost, a new heart is available to us.

As a new year begins, do you need a new heart? It is available through a relationship with Jesus. He wants you to have a heart that is clean and new. The cost has been paid, and it is available for you.