The two tablets of the human heart
And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:3 ESV)
The physical heart is a marvel of God’s creation, but that is only the beginning. The spiritual heart is a greater marvel. Understanding this spiritual heart could be difficult, yet the concept of the human heart is crucial for walking with God and living victoriously. In 2 Corinthians 3:3, Paul uses a fascinating analogy that draws together the stone tablets of the law in the Old Testament and the fleshly tablets of believers in the New Testament.
In Exodus 31:18, the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets. In some way, these stone tablets were the paper or notebook on which God’s Word was inscribed. However, in the New Testament, He does not write on rocks but tablets of human hearts. So, our hearts are spiritual papers upon which God can inscribe the letters of His Word.
But this analogy goes further and has remarkable implications for our lives. Though not directly stated, the Scriptures reveal that there are two parts of the human heart: the human spirit and the soul. Interestingly, God’s Word is inscribed on both of these tablets sequentially.
At the new birth, God inscribed, engraved, or implanted His Word into our spirits—the innermost tablet of the heart. Ezekiel describes this process this way:
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26, KJV)
This implanting of the Word in our spirit is not something we do but what God has already done, and His Word in our spirits is essentially His seed or His nature in us.
While God wrote His Word on stone tablets in the Old Testament, He does something entirely different in the New Testament. In Christ, He writes on the inner tablet of the spirit and then gradually writes on our souls (the mind) throughout our lives as we read the Word and renew our minds. Quoting the prophecy of Jeremiah, Hebrews 8:10 states,
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”
The Word is inscribed in our minds as we know it, and we allow it to control how we think, feel, and make decisions. As such, this inscription on the outer tablet of the soul is crucial to our daily experience and behavior on earth here and now.
So there are two parts of what Scripture calls the inner man of the heart, and God wants to write His Word on both. His Word implanted in your spirit made you His offspring, but His Word inscribed in your mind makes you a mature child—a son.
Meditate
What is the difference between the human spirit and the mind?
Apply the Word
Understanding your spiritual makeup will profoundly impact your understanding of spiritual things. Grow in this knowledge and wholeheartedly devote yourself to inscribing God’s Word on the tablet of your mind.
Pray
Thank the Father for writing His Word in our hearts and for helping us engrave that Word in our minds.
Recommended Read
- Out Of The Abundance Of The Heart The Mouth Speaketh
- Four Warning Signs Of A Hardened Heart
- Four Types Of Hearts—Which One Is Yours?
- How The Heart Connects The Natural And The Spiritual
- A Mystery Of The Heart: Are You Carrying Someone In Your Heart?
Free Mini E-book: From Spiritual Dryness to Flourishing
