A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Despair over unworthiness need not stop you; God promises to fit you for His mercy by His grace before He bestows it. The Spirit sprinkles clean water on the conscience, Christ's blood washes away guilt, and His grace purifies the whole soul. This is the covenant of grace itself, not mere restoration from captivity.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 36:25-38
A new heart and new spirit are one and the same: a heart renewed by God's grace with new light, new will, new affections. The stony heart, hardened by sin, senseless and stubborn, cannot be removed by man or minister alone; only omnipotent grace can do it, by faith in Christ and love shed abroad in the soul.
AI summary
The stony heart is unimpressible, like rocky ground that cannot bear fruit; the heart of flesh is docile and fit to receive good seed. God says He will give what He commands you to make yourself, showing man's responsibility and God's sovereign grace not as rivals but as coexistent truths.
AI summary