Through the prophet Ezekiel, God renews the covenant with Israel. Once again, the people have been in exile, and God send a prophet to encourage them and give them hope. Once again, the people are reminded of the promises of God, of God’s side of the covenant. God not only promises to return them to the Promised Land, but God also promises to give them new hearts, to put God’s spirit within them, to reestablish the covenant they had forsaken, not because they had turned back to God, but because God had once again turn to them. This is God’s initiative, God’s willingness to restore the covenant which they had broken. God wanted to put the pieces back together, but not just back together the way they were before, but back together into an even more glorious future for God’s Chosen People.

Too often, today, Christians think that they are saved by their “personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” The opposite is actually true. We are not saved because we have a relationship with God in Christ, but precisely because God had chosen to have a relationship with us. It is God’s initiative that saves us, not ours. God chose to send Jesus Christ to be our Savior. We did not. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves.

A number of years ago, some evangelical Christians came to our house. They asked me if I had been saved. I answered them quite simply, “Yes, and I had nothing to do with it. It happened some two thousand years ago.” God saved me, not because of my choice(s), but because of God’s choice. If I think I had anything to do with it, I will be tempted to arrogance. If I know that it is all God’s working, pure grace, then I can only respond with gratefulness.

The promises of God made through the prophet Ezekiel invite the same response, gratefulness for all that God has done, is doing, and will do for us.