13.1 Inside Tablets of Flesh

Here is one of the most profound statements in the entire Bible; we have never really considered its meaning. – Not on tablets of stone, but inside tablets of hearts of flesh (2 Corinthians 3:3). These words define God’s relationship with mankind; they define humans and our role; and they define the universe. Nothing we think we know about any of those other things can be true unless it is in harmony with the profound implications of these words, the ‘not’ as much as the ‘is.’

“Tablets of stone” is clearly the law, word on the outside, and all unfulfilled obligation. It is everything of the tree of knowledge and of Nicene Christianity, someday and faraway.

Rain upon Seed. Here is an Old Testament ‘ruling verse’ that has undergirded all my thinking since I was thirty years old. – For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

The seed is already in the earth (inside tablets of hearts of flesh) – the words of Christ are already written upon the scroll (Revelation 5). ‘Rain,’ then, pictures the Lamb coming as Spirit Word causing us to know what is already true inside ourselves.

God through Faith. Rather than building to a point, however, let me state first the premise of this chapter and its three lessons and then work out from that human reality.

Our weak humanity is forever. God’s invisibility is forever. Our faith that God is telling us the truth (His Word) is the only means through which the Father will ever show Himself.

And this is why the passage of Word through our faith, going from substance to appearance, is the pinch-point of everything, otherwise known as Resurrection or – the unveiling of Christ. In the next lesson, we explore definitions of this forever passage-way for the knowledge of God, a passage called faith. Then, in the third lesson, we consider the Word passing through our humanity to shape all things as Father-made-known.

Singing in Harmony. In this lesson, then, we begin with the Seed already planted in our hearts, the Word already written upon the scroll. It is the nature and design of my human heart of flesh to be permanently inscribed with every Word God speaks. It is my human nature to have all the Speaking of God flowing through my soul as my own human story of self.

Let’s restate Isaiah’s prophecy. – Spirit Word out from God comes as the rain upon my humanity. There, it sings in harmony with the Word already written upon my heart. This living Word in me, made ever more alive, made personal as me, then goes out from me to others, becoming their bread and their seed of planting and of singing. – This is me; this is the human me!

Inside of Christ. Now, when I say, “my human nature and design,” I am not referencing the present definitions of the human that are grounded in unbelief and that do not consider Christ.

That from the two He might create inside Himself one new man (Ephesians 2:15). – Therefore, if anyone is inside of Christ, he is a New Creation. The old things are already gone; look and see, the New has already become (2 Corinthians 5:17). Clearly, the new “me,” the only “me” that exists – for the old is already gone – is created entirely and only inside of Christ. Therefore, because I respect God, I consider myself to be made out of the Resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus and only by the pattern of Himself.

Already Written. That pattern that is Christ, the DNA of Resurrection Life, is, of course, the wondrous words of the gospel. Yet we have already discussed to great length the Words that are Christ Jesus always bringing us forth and sustaining us.

For that reason, in this lesson, we are considering the place where those Words are written inside of us, that is, our human heart of flesh. Both Isaiah 55 and Revelation 5 suggest that the Words of Christ are already written upon our hearts before Christ as the knowledge of God comes upon them to open them to us. And thus Ezra says, “Thy Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against Thee” (Psalm 119).

Tears of Weakness. It is in the tears of weakness alone that a man or a woman hides the mighty words of the gospel deep inside their hearts, refusing to “know” with their minds what it all means.

On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word (Isaiah 66:2). God is speaking of a profound recognition that the Words He speaks in the gospel are absolute, they are living, and they belong in our hearts as the rule and singing of our lives. And God is speaking of those who are honest enough to KNOW that they must fall short of those Words in themselves, and thus who wait upon Him for all fulfillment; He is speaking of those who never turn away from that Word, regardless.

Word Become Flesh. In the beginning [the source, the generation of life] in action was the word, and the word actively was towards God, and God was actively the word (John 1:1).

The capacity of the human heart to know word, to know this word God is, is incomprehensible – the human heart of flesh! Word written inside tablets of hearts of flesh. – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Word for flesh and flesh for Word. Flesh is made for Word, and Word expresses itself, as it is, best through flesh. Jesus took the little children in His arms and blessed them. God as He really is – through a heart and hands of flesh.

The Journey of a Life. The heart of flesh, then, provides the context and meaning of the journey of a life, with all its joys and sorrows, clarity and confusion, with Word entering inside very specific moments and showing itself in tender and powerful ways. When I think across the course of my life of those moments when Bible words strongly entered my heart, or when I heard the voice of God speaking into me, I can describe the entirety of those moments. I can even describe for you everything I was seeing with my eyes in that moment.

And every life is unique and that entrance of word in specific and personal moments is unique and different from one person to the next. Our hearts were made for the Word God speaks becoming compassion for others.

A Great Contrast. Consider the great effort God has made to give us the contrast between a tablet of stone and a heart of flesh, between a tree of knowledge and a tree of life, between word as ideas for the mind and Word as the Lord Jesus in Person, between “All that the Lord says I will do” and “Let it be to me according to Your Word.”

We are talking about a depository of words, a library, even. To everyone, words etched on stone, mounted on the wall and memorized, knowing the difference between right and wrong, promising to do one’s best, these words are honored and considered to be right, yet they are the way of death. No one trusts the heart of a “Christian,” yet that is the only place Jesus will be found.

What Is This Heart of Flesh? God gives the ministry of death so that, in fleeing from its inadequacy, we might KNOW the way of life. Then we turn and ask the question, what is this heart of flesh filled with every Word God speaks? And what is this Person who is every Word spoken, living inside our hearts? This really is the essence of the matter, of what we are as humans.

Let’s try one gospel verse, a set of human words. – And to know even more the surpassing, beyond-all knowledge of the love of Christ, that you might be filled unto and with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19). Consider first only the words and their arrangement.

As the Lord Jesus. – Filled with all the fullness of God. –

Then we see that these words must enter into our hearts through faith, that is, we must believe that God is telling us the truth, and then we see that they also enter into our hearts as a person, the Lord Jesus. Of course, we could never believe these words apart from an immediate miracle of the Holy Spirit. But then, having believed, we realize that the words (Jesus) have been the writing of our hearts all along.

Consider the entire contention in Revelation Chapter 5, the great task given to Jesus of opening up our hearts so that all can read the gospel words already written there.

Personal as You. Then join the picture of Jesus’ removal of the seals that bind and opening up one’s heart so that what is written there can be seen and known by all – together with – our giving an account, a word, of our life in the presence of God.

What I am reaching for is that this whole process is God’s great workshop where He is making every Word that He is, not just personal as Jesus, but personal as you and me throughout the entire course of our lives. What is this human heart of flesh, that it can contain infinite arrangements of words, that it can be the Home of the Lord Jesus, and that it can be the personal story of my own life? Yet it remains flesh, and flesh is weak. Stone is strong – but “not stone.” Flesh is weak, but filled with God.

The Story of a Life. The Word became flesh, it became the story of a life. And then the same Word becomes the story of many lives. This is the essence of being human. – Every Word God speaks written upon hearts of flesh, written as the entirety of one human life lived.

The next chapter, then, is about our response back, that is, reciprocity, or as John called it, “the Song of the Lamb.” The truth is, giving an account of our life in the presence of the All-Carrying One is the most glorious realization of Word become flesh there could be. Placing the Lord Jesus Christ as every Word God speaks upon every moment of our lives is not just our duty, but our glory.

There You Shall Put the Covenant. The human heart contains in it every joy and sorrow, every wrong and right, every fulfillment and loss of an entire life. It is the “black box” as on an airplane, that records everything. The task of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, then, includes placing every Word God speaks into every memory of one’s life.

And there [inside your human heart of flesh] you shall put the Covenant that I shall give you (Exodus 25). This is what I have done in Prepare a Path, the account of my own life inside the presence of God. By placing the Lord Jesus as Personal Word upon every moment of my life, I have discovered something I never knew; I have discovered that it was always He.

Who Is Worthy? I have said that the only thing happening upon this earth of any importance is the shaping of the human heart to contain and to reveal God’s heart. These words from John’s vision take on a whole new meaning, then. – And I was weeping loudly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll nor to see or perceive it. And one of the elders says to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has overcome to open the scroll… (Revelation 5:4-5).

To open the scroll of your life in order to unveil for all to see the Lord Jesus written upon every moment and recorded as every Word God speaks, to break off the binding seals and open your heart for you to know it, is something only Jesus can do.

Perfection Revealed. Here is what you will discover in that moment. – Every part of your life has been PERFECT for God’s purpose, for in every moment Word has come to you and found its place in you. – Not on tablets of stone, but inside tablets of hearts of flesh.

This is the center of the human heart, of what it means to be human, the capacity to KNOW and to REVEAL the Father through one’s own human personality and expression. When you read the Bible, then, through union with Christ and through the ruling verses of the gospel, you are reading what has already been written all through your own heart. You are reading about yourself.

Our part is to believe that God is telling us the truth.