Ezekiel 36:26

Read the verbs and notice who owns every one of them. I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit inside you. I will remove the heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh. Four active verbs, one subject, and it is not the person being changed. That is the shape of the promise, and it is the opposite of a performance framework. Where Ezekiel says God gives, a system of requirements says the individual must earn. Where Ezekiel says God removes the stone, the requirement system says keep working on it. Then ask the question that does the work, gently and without any edge: if your heart is still stone after a lifetime of service, what has the service achieved? And if God has already given you a heart of flesh, what is the service earning that he has not already given? Note also that the promise here is unrestricted — it is made to the house of Israel, and Paul applies it to every believer at 2 Corinthians 3:3. There is no anointed class carve-out in the text. Compare Ezekiel 36:27, Ezekiel 36:25, 2 Corinthians 3:3.