Look for God’s Spirit

Look for God’s Spirit

God’s Spirit will circumcise the hearts of His people.

“And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” Deuteronomy 30:6

This must have struck the people of Israel as a very curious promise. What could it mean to have their hearts circumcised? Circumcision was a right and duty securing entry to God’s Covenant for the children of believing parents. Surely the circumcision of their hearts would be of a similar nature?

That a spiritual act is envisioned here is evident by the focus on the heart and soul, the inward and intangible aspects of a person’s life which are, as we have seen, such prominent features of the worldview of God’s Law. God promised that a day was coming when He would do something to renew their hearts and souls so that they would be able to know His blessings and keep His Law (vv. 7-10). Israel was familiar with the existence of the Spirit of God, since He was reported to have attended to the original creation and had been given to their elders for a season. But here God was pointing the people forward to a time when the Spirit would come among them in a more universal, personal, and permanent way.

Ezekiel foresaw this day (Ezek. 36:26, 27), as did Joel (2:28ff). Jesus specifically promised the Spirit to all His followers as an indwelling, teaching, and convicting presence, so that they could know eternal life (John 14-16). While the Law is not as specific concerning the Spirit as subsequent revelation would be, it did point the people forward to a day of greater fulfillment, when God Himself would do something within their souls to fulfill all the promises and demands of His Covenant.

That “something” would be the gift of His Spirit (Acts 2, Gal. 4:6).

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.