But they still needed to repent/obey with all the heart and soul first. Then God would give them a new heart ...
Deuteronomy 30:1-3 (KJV)
1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,
2 And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt **obey** his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, **with all thine heart, and with all thy soul**;
3 That **then** the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
Ezekiel 36:26 (KJV) **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.
It is the Spirit of repentance that comes from a new spiritual heart through God's grace which is by faith. God is not calling the old man to himself who is dead in trespasses and sins and can not hear the voice of the Spirit. Only a new spiritual creation can hear and respond to God's spiritual calling. The old man is buried with Christ in his death and only a new spiritual creation that is quickened can rise out of death.
2Co 5:14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
2Co 5:15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
The one which lives has been quickened out of death but the old man is dead! Why would the Spirit call the old man who is dead to himself?
Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved
The grace we are saved by is for the one quickened out of death not the old man dead with Christ in his death.
Thus, it is faith through God's grace that is given to the new spiritual man and it is the new spiritual man that hears the voice of the Spirit. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." It is the new spiritual man that begins to change his way of thinking and has a new spiritual disposition to believe God and respond to the gospel message.
