Then
will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your
filthiness…I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments.
—Ezekiel 36:25, 27
Here we find the same promise as in Jeremiah,
the promise of being so cleansed from sin, and so renewed in the heart, that
there would be no doubt of walking in God’s statutes and keeping His law. In
Jeremiah God had said, “I will put My law in their inward parts” (Jeremiah
31:33), and “I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not
depart from Me” (Jeremiah 32:40). In Ezekiel He said, “I will…cause you to
walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments.” In contrast to the
old covenant, in which there was no power to enable them to continue in God’s
law, the great mark of the new covenant would be a divine power enabling them
to walk in His statutes and keep His judgments.
“Where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound” (Romans 5:20), bringing about wholehearted obedience. Why is this so
seldom experienced? The answer is very simple: the promise is not believed, is
not preached; its fulfillment is not expected. Yet how clearly it is laid out
for us in a passage like Romans 8:1–4! In this passage, the man who had
complained of the power “bringing [him] into captivity to the
law of sin” (Romans 7:23) thanks God that he is now “in Christ Jesus” (Romans
8:1) and that the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made [him] free
from the law of sin and death” (verse 2), so that the requirement of the
law is fulfilled in all who walk after the Spirit. (See verse 4.)
Once again, why are there so few who can give
such testimony, and what is to be done to attain it? Just one thing is needed:
faith in an omnipotent God who will, by His wonderful power, do what He has
promised. “I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it” (Ezekiel
22:14). Oh, let us begin to believe that the promise will come true: “Ye
shall be clean: from all your filthiness…I will…cause you to walk in My
statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments.” Let us believe all that God
promises here, and God will do it. Beyond all power of thought, God has made
His great and glorious promises dependent on our faith. And the promises will
bring about more of that faith as we believe them. “According to your
faith be it unto you” (Matthew 9:29). Let us put this truth to the test
even now.
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