A New Heart

On December 3, 1967, the South African cardiac surgeon Dr. Christiaan N. Barnard (1922–2001) performed the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant and the second-ever heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.

The patient was Louis Washkansky, who lived only eighteen days with the new heart. With the development of more powerful antirejection drugs and additional experience, heart transplant operations have become a standard procedure around the world. In the spiritual realm, all human beings need a heart transplant.

The Lord promised that He Himself would do the procedure.

In Ezekiel 36:26, He says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (NIV).

Verse 27 presents the purpose of the transplant: “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (NIV).

And Jeremiah 31:33 adds, “I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (NIV).

In reality, “Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them... Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.” As in the days of Jesus, many good Christians today have only an outward religion without a genuine conversion experience (Matthew 23:1–36).

Could this be true of us as well? Why not surrender completely to the Lord now, and ask Him for a new heart?