God Changes Hearts

                                         "Unless God stoops in His grace to change
                                           our hearts, we will not love Him."
                                                                        R.C. Sproul



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          Before conversion, Christians are enemies of God, who are reconciled
     with Him through the death of His Son, and saved through His life.


                                         "For if when we were God's enemies,
                                          we were reconciled to Him through
                                          the death of His Son, how much more
                                          having been reconciled, shall we be saved
                                          through His life!"
                                                                        Romans 5:10


          We were dead in our sins and therefore objects of God's wrath.
     Our sins nature prevented us from having a right relationship with God.

                                          "... you were dead in your transgressions
                                           and sins.  Like the rest, we were by nature
                                           objects of wrath."
                                                                       Ephesians 2:1,3

          We were unable to love Him or do anything else to please Him.

                                          "... the sinful mind is hostile to God.
                                           It does not submit to God's law,
                                           nor can it do so.  Those controlled
                                           by the sinful nature cannot please God."
                                                                       Romans 8:7-8


          Our hearts are deceitful, and can be changed only by God's power.
     He changes our hardened hearts, which can respond only in rebellion against God,
     so that we will follow and obey Him.  We receive the Holy Spirit and become His people,
     and He becomes our God, solely through His power and grace.

  

                                           "The heart is deceitful above all things,
                                             and beyond cure."
                                                                       Jeremiah 17:9


                                             "I will give them an undivided heart
                                              and put a new spirit in them;
                                              I will remove from them their heart
                                              of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

                                              Then they will follow my decrees and
                                              be careful to keep my laws.  They will
                                              be my people, and I will be their God."
                                                                              Ezekiel 11:19-20


             Because of His great love for His people, God, who is merciful and gracious,
     regenerates spiritually dead, rebel sinners, and saves them through His Son, Jesus Christ.
    

                                               "But because of His great love for us,
                                                God, who is rich in mercy, made us
                                                alive with Christ even when we were
                                                dead in transgressions -- it is by grace
                                                you have been saved."
                                                                             Ephesians 2:4-5

   

              Jesus was the Substitute for everyone who will ever believe in Him.
     We, in turn, now love Him and others, because He first loved us.

                                                "This is how God showed love among us:
                                                 He sent His one and only Son into the world
                                                 that we might live through Him.

                                                 This is love; not that we loved God, but that He
                                                 loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice
                                                 for our sins.

                                                 We love because He first loved us."
                                                                                1 John 4:9-10,19