"The stone which by nature moves downwards cannot be habituated to move upwards, not even if one tries to train it by throwing it up ten thousand times" - Aristotle, Nicomachaen Ethics
Like a rock, we are not, by nature, not falling upwards. And we cannot, even by great rigor reverse our natures. We do not, by nature, desire to change our natures and even if we did, we couldn't.
Ezekiel 11:19
And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh
If our rock-hard hearts could have been trained to be softer, there would have been no need for a new heart. If old hearts could learn new tricks, transplants would be unnecessary.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Our old hearts could not resist their natures. They move downwards and only downwards. Even if we, by great zeal and devotion, we to chuck our hearts upwards ten thousand times, they would, by nature, return to their downward movement. If is where they always end up going.
For us to be saved, we need new natures. We cannot rouse our old natures to new heights without watching them fall to new depths. We don't need better rocks, smoother rocks, warmer rocks... we need to be done with rocks.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
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