What happens when God gets ahold of a heart? It is radically transformed. This guest post by Puritan James Smith is a short declaration of such a change and what the nature and attitude of the Christian is to be.
“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin!” Psalm 51:2
“Create in me a clean heart, O God!” Psalm 51:10
A clean heart is one that is . . .
purified from guilt–by the blood of Jesus; and
cleansed from filth–by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our hearts by nature, are all unclean. They are the most unclean things in existence! Nothing is so filthy, so impure, so loathsome–as the human heart!
The awakened sinner discovers that he is unclean, that his heart is unholy–and he desires to be thoroughly cleansed. He is not, he cannot be satisfied with outward reformation; he wants inward renovation. No promise in God’s book suits him so well as, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws!” Ezekiel 36:25-27
“O Lord,” he cries, “fulfill this precious promise in my experience. Give me the new heart, and take away the stony heart from me. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin. Make me holy–whatever I may suffer in the process.”
The clean-hearted person . . .
hates sin,
shrinks from sin, and
longs for entire freedom from sin!
But if the heart is not changed, the only thing feared is punishment, and the only thing sought is happiness.
The Holy Spirit alone can give us such views of sin–as will lead us to hate it; and He alone can give us such views of our own hearts–as will prompt us to cry, “Create in me a clean heart, O God! Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin!”
by James Smith, “The Voice of Mercy in the House of Affliction!” 1855)
Taken from the puritan writings collected at: GraceGems.org