Heart transplant operations have
commanded more widespread personal interest than any other scientific
achievement of modern times. At this writing there lives a man whose heart
belonged to another. This peak in medical accomplishment inspires hope for many
heretofore hopeless victims of heart disease. Yet with heart disease
increasing, an inadequate supply of hearts suitable for transplanting, and with
the body’s rejection phenomena, such operations will probably never become
commonplace.
Popular attention, very naturally,
is on the physical aspects of the new heart and its problems. But we feel the
spiritual condition of the human heart (our entire make-up of mind, soul, and
spirit) merits our serious consideration. Spiritual heart disease is also on
the increase. It grows in direct proportion to the population, for it is a
universal malady. All born into the world have this congenital problem.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6).
God’s Word gives us a solemn
diagnosis of the condition of man’s heart. "The heart is deceitful above
all things, and incurable:who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9 J.N.D.
trans.). Man’s basic problem, "an evil heart of unbelief," is
thoroughly exposed in the Bible. From Genesis, where "every imagination of
the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually," (6:5) to
Revelation, where God says, "I am He which searcheth the reins [minds] and
hearts," (2:23) the condition of natural man remains the same:"there
is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. 3:12).
The Lord Jesus said, "…
Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matt. 15:19). Crime, violence and
other symptoms clearly point out the depravity of the human heart. Are we
willing to admit that this sevenfold stream of incurable evil flows from the
unregenerate or natural heart?
There can be no comfort to
anyone who would like to hide his condition from the Lord. The diagnosis is not
a human opinion for "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins"
(Jer. 17:10). "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the
outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). What
folly to think we can cover over our sins from God. "Shall not God search
this out? For He knoweth the secrets of the heart" (Ps. 44:21). "Who
can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" (Prov. 20:9).
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes:but the Lord [weigheth] the
hearts" (Prov. 21:2).
For those who reject God’s
diagnosis there is no cure. For those who accept it, there is hope. God, not
only makes clear the condition of the unregenerate heart but also provides the
cure—a work of transformation. This is not reformation or medication, not a
used heart, but a new heart.
The Lord through Ezekiel cried
out, "A new heart . . . will I give you," (36:26) and when He was
here on earth pressed that need on Nicodemus:"Ye must be born
[anew]" (John 3:7). It is a divine transplant operation in which the Great
Physician also supplies the new heart. "And I will give them one heart,
and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of
their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh" (Ezek. 11:19).
There are no operational hazards
nor fear of the rejection phenomena for those receiving this new heart.
"Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die" (John 11:26)
"Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
The only risk involved is for
those who refuse or "neglect so great salvation; which at the first began
to be spoken by the Lord." It is more than a risk; it is to seal your doom
if "ye will not come to [Christ], that ye might have life" (John
5:40). Then the feared rejection will come, but it will be by God who says,
"Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels" (Matt. 25:41) and again, "Depart from Me, ye that
work iniquity" and "[treasure] up … wrath against the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (Rom. 2:5).
"It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God" in judgment (Heb. 10:31). But
"he that hears My Word, and believes Him that has sent Me, has life
eternal, and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into
life" (John 5:24, J.N.D. trans.).
Money cannot buy a new
heart—physically or spiritually. It must come through the death of another!
"When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly" (Rom. 5:6). "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). "Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3).
God in mercy and love offers a
new heart "freely by His grace." Our realizing and confessing our
lost and sinful condition and our turning in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ
bring about that marvelous transformation of our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Everyone needs a new heart—and can have one.
Heart transplant operations are
the subject of conversations everywhere. Why not tactfully lead your
conversations from the transplanted, borrowed heart of flesh to the deeper
spiritual need of a new heart? Oh, how we need to get the message out in these
last days, with souls perishing all about us. "They that are whole need
not a physician; but they that are sick" (Lk. 5:31). May we boldly praise
the skill and glory of the Great Physician of our souls. Let us be more urgent
with referrals to Christ.