V. What God Wants
Thoughts on ḥesed
God is present through the Holy Spirit in everyone who belongs to Him, working to install and grow the heart that is like His, the heart full of ḥesed, and to drive out the stony heart that is full of sin and the world’s concerns, the heart full of death.
The heart that is like God’s heart knows through God’s own word what the good is in every situation. That heart obeys God because that is its deepest desire. Those tough, law-like imperatives in the Sermon on the Mount—loving your enemies, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, ten times as impossible as what most people thought the Ten Commandments required—are the spontaneous response from a heart that is like God’s. Through ḥesed, every demand is answered and fulfilled. Our proof of this is Jesus.
On the other hand, it is futile to attempt to perform the outward works of ḥesed without a heart like God’s, because the human heart is deceitful. It will pervert the very best of works into pride or contemptible self-service. Like the works of the Law, the outward works of ḥesed alone cannot please God. There is no salvation there.
And that little matter of forgiveness, where Jesus insists that those who do not forgive will not be forgiven, remember that? Some people have trouble with that verse because it sounds like forgiveness of sins may not be as universal as some other Scripture passages seem to say. But it is simple: those who have a heart like God’s heart always forgive, and those who cannot or will not forgive lack a heart like God’s and therefore cannot exhibit or receive ḥesed.
But the heart that is like God’s is the very foundation of empowerment. The Body of Christ is a collection of such hearts. There is nothing that God cannot do through one whose heart is like God’s—no act of goodness or sacrifice, no knowledge, no power, no miracle is beyond reach. It is the kind of heart that is in constant communion with God through the Holy Spirit. It is the kind of heart through which God will work any power in the Spirit, at need. It is the kind of heart that cannot sin and cannot die.
The heart that is like God’s is the heart that produces a person’s eternal character. In the eternal realm, sin will be impossible. The dead heart, the heart of stone, will be gone, totally replaced by a heart that produces and enjoys nothing less than ḥesed. The miseries of the world will no longer be able to blackmail the joy of that heart.
All the fruits of ḥesed will have eternal significance, from a cup of cold water given to one of the thirsty brethren, all the way up to Christian martyrdom. The quality of ḥesed is as fully present in the smallest kindness as in the most elevated act of sacrifice. Ḥesed humbles the proudest soul and heals the most broken.
The very nature of ḥesed, and God’s desire that we should have it, coincides with salvation. The gifting of a heart like God’s heart is what salvation looks like. It is salvation. It is holiness. Without it, we shall not see God (Heb. 12:14).
Does the gift of a heart like God’s sound attractive? impossible? too good to be true? Ask for it in faith. There is no gift God would sooner give.
Robert McAnally Adams is a retired mathematician and curator of The Christian Quotation of the Day. See cqod.com