Men get good hearts in order to hear and know and love the word of God.
And not all men get new hearts. Or new eyes and ears.
Dr E: “Men get good hearts in order to hear and know and love the word of God.”
“these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Does life give belief, or believing result in life? What is the order in scripture?
I have no doubt that humans need good hearts in order to hear and know and love the word of God.
The question in my mind is "when" and "how" did they get these "good hearts." (good soil)
1st, the verse clearly indicates that the seed grew because they ALREADY had this good soil (good hearts).
If, as Jeremiah says, the heart is "deceitful above all things", then this good soil happened at some point after their conception and before their conversion.
The only alternative I can see is that they had some kind of "latent good soil" that they were born with.