With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. 1:11-12, NIV)

I’ve been studying the New Covenant a lot lately. Actually, for several years now. I’ve often asked (and been asked by others) two primary questions about salvation and the New Covenant. 1) How can one know he or she is saved? and 2) What is the fundamental difference between the Old and New Covenant? In this passage we have a key to understanding both questions.

What does Paul pray for here? He prays that the Lord would bring to fruition “your every desire for goodness and . . . deed prompted by faith.” In short, Paul is saying that the believers now have a new desire. A desire to be good and to do good. Now, we in the evangelical world often shy away from the term “good” (especially when it’s linked to “works”), because it’s often used in a vague way. Jesus said that only God is good (Matt. 19:17). Apart from Christ, no one has anything “good.” Indeed “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6).

The Foundation of Change: The New Covenant

But what about those of us who are in Christ? Are we no different? I suggest we are. The New Covenant says we are. I’ve written on this subject before and how the believer is changed, but here I want to focus on the effect of that change. We find the New Covenant in these passages:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31–34)

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. (Ezekiel 36:25–29)

In case you aren’t familiar with these passages or the New Covenant, here’s a brief background. These passages appear in the Old Testament. They were prophecies given by God to Israel and later extended to the Gentiles as well (more on this in a bit). When we take these passages together we come up with four important promises:

• A new identity. Notice the Lord promises to give “a new heart” and to “remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” The heart, in Jewish thinking, is the center of the being, very core of the person. Whereas the old heart of stone was hostile to God, the new heart will be inclined toward Him, to love and obey Him. The person has been changed from sinner to saint.
• A new status. The Lord also promises to “sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” Whereas the sinner was defiled by sin, the one cleansed by God is totally clean. The person has been changed from defiled to clean.
• A new motivation. Instead of obeying God just because the law said so, the Lord promised that Israel (and we) would now obey because the law is written on our heart. He says, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” Again, the heart is the center, the very core of the being. So, now our motivation is internal. The very law of God is written into our makeup! We are changed from keeping the law because it’s what we do to keeping the law because it’s who we are.
• A new relationship. Not only is the law written in our heart, but the believer also has the very Spirit of God indwelling him! The Lord promised, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” As if the law written on our very hearts wasn’t enough, we are given the Holy Spirit to teach and encourage us. We are changed from us living in God’s presence to God’s presence living in us.

How do we know that these promises apply to all believers, not just Israel? Because God gave the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles on the same basis. We read this in Acts 11, after Peter visited a Gentile by the name of Cornelius and then reported back to the Jerusalem church:

As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11:15–18)

Then we read this, in Peter and John’s testimony before the Sanhedrin:

The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. (Acts 5:30–32, emphasis mine)

The Holy Spirit is given to all who obey the Lord and respond to the gospel. 

New Desires and Old Desires

So, we see that one who is saved is changed. He really is the new creation that Paul describes in 2 Cor. 5:17. Along with the new identity, status, motivation, and relationship comes new desires. New desires to do good. To love. To serve. The question might be (and is) asked, “If that’s true, then why do we see Christians still sin and fail to live out that change?” It’s a good and fair question.

The short answer is, the flesh. We still have the flesh, with its desires intact. The desire of the flesh is primarily to live independently of God, to “do things my way.” That’s how we operated before Christ. So, the flesh wants one thing, but our new heart and spirit want another. As Paul puts it,

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:17).

How do we distinguish between the desires of the Spirit (and our new heart) and the desires of the flesh? That is the question. We should first keep in mind the greatest commandments:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37–40)

As one writer described it, these commandments tell us that we are to move toward God in loving obedience and service and toward others in love and self-giving service. Thus, anything that causes us to move away from those goals is to be resisted. This includes any desire of self-protection that would keep others at a distance. Anything, however, that seeks to move us toward God and others can be seen as a Spirit-led desire.

Many of our desires will be recognizable. We want to serve others. We want to share our faith with others. Maybe the neighbor down the street is lonely or needs practical help and we find ourselves wanting to help. Some of these new desires will no doubt surprise us. What Paul prayed for in our opening verse should be our prayer as well–that the Lord would help us fulfill every desire for good and every work prompted by faith in our life. Thus, we will both become good (according to His definition) and do good (by His definition).

Some choose to not move until God gives them a specific command, fearful of making a wrong step. This is not His way. He calls us to step out in faith, obeying the desires of the indwelling Spirit and our new heart. If we take a wrong turn in our lives, He is more than able (and willing) to bring us back to His path, teaching us along the way to listen to our deepest desires for Him.

Don’t be afraid to reach out. If you are a believer in Christ, embrace your new identity. Embrace your new desires. Pray that the Lord give you more and strengthen them. And then act on them. Then you will live out the promise:

But forget all that—
    it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
For I am about to do something new.
    See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
    I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18-19, NLT)