Ephesians 4:22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Pastor Herk continues by asking, do the clothes fit the man or are we merely dressing the part according to who we want others to believe that we are. The Apostle Paul is indicating that the concept of taking off the old and putting on the new is a completed act which took place in the past “born again” conversion unto salvation process. In other words, it is a picture of our position in who we are in Christ with instructions for actions and practices that Believers are to carry out in their lives. The process begins with us changing our minds, repenting, taking off the old man and turning around. Stop walking away from God in sin, do a 180 degree turn towards the Lord, His Word, His Will and His Way of holiness and righteousness.
The Greek word for “put off” is “apotithēmi”, meaning to cast off, lay apart (put aside, put down), put away, put off from oneself. So, what are we to cast off and put aside? Everything that corresponds with to our former godless way of life before knowing Christ. The Greek word for “old self” (conversation in the KJV) is “anastrophe”, meaning your secular manner of life, your worldly conduct, materialistic behavior, or earthly deportment; futile thinking, spiritual ignorance, the hardened heart against God and the things of God, the lack of guilt and shame for sins committed, of greed and lust for more. The old self, “anastrophe”, fallen way of life has been corrupted by our sin nature’s wicked desires (“wicked”, meaning evil in principle or practice; deviating from the Divine law of God; addicted to vice; sinful; immoral. This is a word of comprehensive signification, extending to everything that is contrary to the Moral Law, and both to persons and actions.
The natural man may be ignorantly blind of their worldly thinking and sin against their Maker or know and live in sin due to their love of darkness, worldly passions and rebellion. In Scripture, the wicked persons who live in sin; transgressors of the Divine law of God; due to original sin and the many sins committed regularly, the wicked are all who are unreconciled to God, unsanctified or impenitent; a people laden with iniquity! Rather than focusing on the desires of God, their lives are dominated by their sinful desires which are contrary to the laws of God, and either not knowing or knowing but not believing that they need a Savior deceive themselves unto eternal damnation in Hell. The lie of Satan in Genesis 3:5b Is that “you will be like God”, a god unto yourself.
Our relationship with God starts through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord which is totally and completely God’s work. Our rebellion in sin, but His love, His mercy, his election, His redemption, His forgiveness, His reconciliation, His salvation, His Son sent, His Spirit given by His grace alone to remove the old self and way of life. But, we do have a responsibility to make a response to God’s ability and dress our lives accordingly to who we already are in Christ. The first step in that process is to make sure that we lay aside all the things that characterize our old sinful secular lives. But, its not enough to just put off the old; we also have to put on the new. Jesus said in Matthew 12:43-45 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
Fill the transformed inner being where wicked sin has been vacated with dedicated and devoted sacred holiness, Spirit-filled righteousness, Christ-mindedness, pious godly plans and virtuous ventures; our new way of life. We have to be the new person in mind, will and emotion aligned with God’s perfect Word, Will and Way. We cannot continue in the old ways, otherwise in the tempting fallen world that fallen sin nature of the flesh tends to creep back into the void. As God told Cain in Genesis 4:7, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Ephesians 1:9-10 tells us the plan, God made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. God’s plans and promises do not fail. Part of the perfection of creation is that man was made in God’s image. We are not God, but created in His image. The new man is in the process of becoming more like Christ each day in Word, Will and Way, speaking the same words and thinking the same thoughts in regard to life, living in the godly Christian worldview. Are you knowing in the knowledge of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and more like Christ then a month or year ago? That old fallen man corrupts us by sinful flesh desires, tempting worldly ideology and tantalizing seductive deceptions and distractions by the devil. But, the new man walks in the Spirit in a right relationship with God and recognizes the counterfeit life of sin.
We cannot generate that holiness on our own, but God imputes to us the righteousness and the holiness of His Son at our born-again conversion from death in sin to life ib Christ. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus came from Heaven to Earth to go to the Cross as an atoning sacrifice and took our sin upon Himself that we may be reconciled in righteousness to God and be saved, then rose to life after three days to conquer sin and death forever in every believing disciple eternally in Heaven. God’s resurrects the dead unto life as a free gift. This is the "Good News" of the Gospel.
Everything about the old man’s fallen way of life is based on deceit, and everything about the life of the new man in Christ is based upon truth. The new life that we have in Christ is completely a result of God’s work in our lives and a free gift. We are completely dependent upon the work that God is doing in our lives daily, and we need to reflect that. We are encouraged to dress the part according to who we are in Christ.
Let continue Pastor Herk message on dressing the part of a Christian in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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