The Scriptures talk of the work of the law written initially on the heart of all humans (Romans 2:15). Then they speak of the law of God being written on the heart of believers upon regeneration. Historically, Reformed theology has paid a lot of attention to the significance of this and its implications for sanctification and the relationship of Christians to the law.
Some of the Scriptures that speak of the law written on the heart in regeneration are:
- Jeremiah 31:31-33 (ESV) – “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.”
- Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV) – “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.”
- Hebrews 8:10 (ESV) – “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Historical Comments
“[H]e confirms…that the newness…was not…the substance, but…the form only: for God does not say here, ‘I will give you another Law,’; but I will write my Law, that is, the same Law, which had formerly been delivered…[He doesn't] promise anything different as to the essence…he makes the difference to be in the form only…he states the same thing in two ways…that he would put his law in their inward parts, and…write it in their hearts. We…know how difficult it is that man should be so formed to obedience that his whole life may be in unison with the Law of God, for all the lusts of the flesh are…enemies…it is in a manner a renovation of the world when men suffer themselves to be ruled by God…This is the reason why the Prophet was not satisfied with one statement, but said, I will put my Law in their inward parts, I will write it in their hearts…To write the Law in the heart imports nothing less than…that the Law should rule there, and that there should be no feeling of the heart, not conformable and not consenting to its doctrine.” – John Calvin’s commentary on Jeremiah 31:3
“What was in the tables of stone was nothing but a transcript of what was written in the heart of man originally; and which is returned thither again by the grace of the new covenant, Jeremiah 31:33; 2 Corinthians 3:3.” – John Owen in his Commentary on Hebrews
“For he governs ‘by writing his law in the heart,’ which makes our heart agree with the law, and by implanting Divine love in us, which vanquishes enmity and disaffection and virtually contains in itself our obedience, or ‘keeping his commandments.’ ” – John Howe in The Redeemer’s Dominion Over The Invisible World
“the differencing mark here of a heart on which God’s likeness is, is, that the law of God is written on that heart…This is the peculiar privilege of a child of God…a child of God heartily approves of [the law of God] …There is a principle within the man lying the same way with the law, and bending towards what it directs to, and away from what it forbids…This is the new set of the heart, given in the new birth, consisting not in bare wishes to be conformed to that law, but in a resolute bent of the heart for it, which will never leave its struggling, till it overcome at last” – Thomas Boston in Of Adoption
“In Hebrews 8:8-9 [Jeremiah 31] is quoted as the sum of the covenant of grace made with believers in Jesus Christ. Not, I will give them a new law; for Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it; but the law shall be written in their hearts by the finger of the Spirit, as formerly written in the tables of stone. The Lord will, by his grace, make his people willing people” – Matthew Henry in his comments on Jeremiah 31:27-34
“[This is] not the ceremonial law, which was abolished when this covenant was made; but rather the moral law still in force, which is a transcript of the nature and will of God; was inscribed on Adam’s heart in innocence; is greatly obliterated by sin; a contrary disposition to it is in man; this is reinscribed in regeneration; and hence a regard is had to it by regenerate persons, in which lies part of their conformity to Christ” – John Gill
“God’s law can never be written upon the old natural heart: there must be a new and spiritual nature given, and then…God will set up the proclamation of his blessed will, and what he commands shall be done…If God is to write the law upon the heart, the heart must be prepared, and…entirely renewed by a miracle of mercy, such as can only be wrought by that omnipotent hand which made both heaven and earth..What is this writing? First, the matter of it is the law of God. God writes upon the hearts of his people that which is already revealed; he inscribes there nothing novel and unrevealed, but his own will which he has already given us in the book of the law.” – Charles Spurgeon in The Law Written In The Heart
“Paul says, ‘I delight in the law of God after the inward man;’…so is it with every true child of God…There is a further writing of the law in the heart when the man of God is made to appropriate that law,—not only to approve of it, but to approve of it for himself…the law is not fully written in the heart till a man, approving the law and appropriating it to himself…delights to obey it….This…is to have the law of the Lord written in your heart so as to delight in it after the inward man, and to delight to practice it with the outward man, daily striving to make the entire life to be in accordance with the dictates of God’s will.” – Charles Spurgeon in God’s Law in Man’s Heart
Contemporary Comments
- “However, unlike the old covenant, the new covenant will bring perfection. The law of God will be written on hearts and minds , enabling believers to live as the people of God” – Ligonier Ministries in Written On The Heart
- “The believer has been changed inwardly, given a new heart, the same shape as the Law of God …We make progress into a life of obedience to God’s Law…How striking that the work of regeneration is here defined in terms of the Law being written on the heart and mind of the believer.” – Alistair Begg in Pathway to Freedom: How God’s Law Guides Our Lives
- “Reformed Baptists have a conviction that the Law of God..is regulative in the life of the New Covenant believer…God’s way of holiness has not changed. The law written on the heart in creation (Romans 2:14, 15) is the same law codified in the Ten Commandments on Sinai and the same law written on the hearts of those who enter into the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:33 and 2 Corinthians 3:3)….The Apostle John wrote ‘He who says, ‘I know Him,’: – Jim Savastiow