The above prayer of the Psalmist is the same prayer that every sinner prays in faith in order to be saved. God first brings the sinner to the realization that his heart and spirit, yea his very nature, is opposed to God and righteousness. When he comes to this realization, this epiphany, this Eureka moment, he is prepared to see his need of a new heart and spirit, the need of being "renewed" so as to have a "pure heart" and a "right spirit." Wrote Ezekiel:
"Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." (Eze. 18: 31-32)
"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. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." (Eze. 36: 26-27)
A new "heart" implies an old heart. So too a new "spirit" implies an old spirit. The old heart and spirit are the heart and spirit of sinners who are in rebellion against God. It is an unregenerate heart and spirit. In being saved God, like a surgeon, "takes away" the old "heart of stone" and replaces it with a new heart. Before the surgeon can operate on the heart and make it new, the patient must 1) agree that he needs a new heart, and 2) trusts the surgeon to do the work of removing his old heart and giving a new one. The Psalmist knew he needed a new heart and spirit and so he seeks the heavenly physician to do the work needed in his heart and spirit.
Our Hardshell and Hyper Calvinistic brothers think that the Lord does not first show the spiritually sick his need of surgery. He rather believes that God does this work without the consent or choice of the patient. He also absurdly teaches that a sinner who prays such a prayer as that of the Psalmist shows that he already has a new heart. But, the Psalmist in such case is praying for what he already has, and is deceived in his prayer. The prayer of the Psalmist is not evidence of a pure heart and renewed spirit but the want of it. The same Hyper Calvinists will say that the heart that is created or given is one that does not include faith and repentance, for these he says come after the fact. Well, what does the bible say? What are the adjectives used to describe the new heart and spirit versus the old heart and spirit?
First let us take notice of what the bible says about the old heart that needs removing.
The Stony Heart
1. Heart alienation from God ("their heart is far from me" - Mark 7: 6)
2. Hardness of heart (stubbornness - Mark 16: 14)
3. Heart not right with God (Acts 8: 21)
4. Foolish heart (Rom. 1: 21)
5. Impenitent heart (Rom. 2: 5)
6. Blind heart (Eph. 4: 18)
7. Evil heart ("evil heart of unbelief" - Heb. 3: 12)
8. Unbelieving heart ("evil heart of unbelief" - Heb. 3: 12)
1. Good heart ("honest and good heart" - Luke 8: 15)
2. Honest heart ("honest and good heart" - Luke 8: 15)
3. Heart of flesh (soft heart - Mark 16: 14)
4. Pure heart (I Tim. 1:5; etc.)
5. Believing heart (Heb. 3: 12; Rom. 10: 9; etc.)
6. Penitent heart (Rom. 2: 5)
7. Wise heart (Rom. 1: 21)
8. Reconciled heart (Mark 7: 6)
The new heart is a believing and penitent heart. It is a heart that is wise, pure and clean, soft, sincere, and honest.
New Spirit vs Old Spirit
"But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." (I Cor. 6: 17)
Not till a heart and spirit are joined to the Lord by faith are the heart and spirit renewed and recreated. That is when the sinner's spirit becomes one with the Spirit of the Lord. When the spirit becomes one with the Spirit of Christ it goes from being unholy in spirit to being holy. (I Cor. 7: 34)
The bible also speaks of the "spirit of faith" in opposition to a spirit of unbelief. (II Cor. 4: 13) The new spirit given in regeneration is a believing trusting spirit, a spirit that believes God and his word.
The bible also speaks of the morally filthy spirit (II Cor. 7: 1), which spirit is washed in regeneration. The new spirit is a holy, righteous, and pure spirit. The apostle Paul spoke of being "renewed in the spirit of the mind." (Eph. 4: 23) The mental and intellectual spirit is renewed so that a man does not think as he did previously when the spirit of the mind was evil and unrenewed.
Paul also spoke of the "spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ" (Eph. 1: 17). This certainly is a description of the new spirit God promised to give to believing sinners. It is called by Peter a "meek and quiet spirit" (I Peter 3: 4). John says it is a "spirit that confesses that Jesus is the Christ." (I John 4: 2) He also spoke about the "spirit of truth" in contrast to the "spirit of error" (I John 4: 6). The promised new spirit is a spirit of truth, the old spirit was a spirit of error. Paul spoke of the "spirit of fear" that lost sinners possess, contrasting it with the liberating spirit, the spirit "of power," the spirit "of love," and the spirit "of a sound mind." (II Tim. 1: 7)
When we read of the new heart and spirit that God gives, let us not therefore divorce it from being as described in the above verses.
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