Ezekiel on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1508 to 1512, fresco, restored.
Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
Ezekiel 18:31.
The English evangelist, C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), told of a simple peasant who possessed a dilapidated rifle. One day he decided to have it repaired. So he took it to a gunsmith who examined it and came to the conclusion: “Your rifle is worn out through use. It would be dangerous to shoot with it. What do you actually want to have repaired?”
“Well,” said the peasant, “I think it needs a new stock, a new barrel and a new trigger. Then it everything should be all right again.” “But then you might just as well buy a new rifle,” said the gunsmith. – “You are right enough,” the peasant had to admit, “A stock, a barrel and a trigger together really amount to a new rifle. Then give me a new one.”
Even when it is a question of ourselves and our moral condition, we humans like to try every possibility to repair things. We want to improve our sinful nature and try our best to lead a better life. But what we really need is a new creation! God is waiting for us to acknowledge the fact and not place our trust in ourselves any longer, but in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Image: By Michelangelo – http://www.zeno.org/Kunstwerke.images/I/77j309a.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5056804
