Rend you heart and not your garments

Rend you heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and he relents from sending calamity. Joel 2:12

As we read the Old Testament, we must be careful to distinguish the Old Covenant perspective from that of the New Covenant. The book of Hebrews teaches clearly that “if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.” Yet it is true that throughout the Old Testament, the New Covenant is clearly revealed. This text in Joel is one such place. The power of the New Covenant is that it is grace initiated, grace enabled, and grace sustained. The primacy of grace that is made crystal clear in the New, is here clearly foretold by an Old Testament prophet.

Man’s heart has always been the issue with God. When God called to Adam in the garden asking, “Where are you?” He wasn’t asking where he and Eve were physically, but where was their heart now. The regaining of the human heart was so essential to God, that the New Covenant when spoken of by Jeremiah and Ezekiel promised a “new heart”, a heart that was soft toward God, replacing the heart of stone which was the result of sin.

We as New Covenant believers must keep that ever before us. The tendency to revert to outward means, and believing that they can cause us to receive favor from God is a primary sign of the insidious spirit of religion. Even in an Old Covenant context Joel says, “No, rend your hearts and not your garments!” Don’t fall into the deception that says if you could only do the right things outwardly that you will be right with God. Doing follows believing in this walk of faith. And believing is rooted in the abiding work of grace and what is now complete in Christ. This walk is a walk of resting. Working out our salvation is a work of resting. Thus the writer to the Hebrews says, “Be diligent to enter the rest of God.” We must work to rest.

When my life is not as it should be, if it’s for one minute, one day, or longer, the challenge isn’t to “get it together”, but to once again rest. My life’s strength and sustenance is the Lord Jesus Christ. I am complete in Him. Yes, there is a faith walk, and there are good works I am called to, but they are the by-product of the work of grace in my life that is now my tutor and mentor. Yes there are choices to make, and my will is always important, but the choices and the intent of my will is no longer a self-imposed righteousness, but rather to once again find the place of rest I now understand to be my salvation. Yes, it is true; He is gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in compassion. That I now know well.

R. Martinez