Supporting Texts: Romans 1:21-22, 24, 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20, 5:19-21; Colossians 3:9-10.
When a person trusts in Jesus Christ and receives Him as Savior and Lord, he or she is, at that moment, born-again, or to use another word, regenerated. Again, at that precise moment, a transformation takes place in his or her basic nature. This change is eternally significant. That transformation initiates a lifelong molding of the new believer into the likeness of the Lord Jesus, a process that ultimately culminates in complete glorification when that believer stands in the presence of the Lord.
Salvation, as defined in the Bible, is not a matter of improvement or perfection of what has previously existed. Salvation is total transformation. The Scriptures speak of believers having a new mind, a new will, a new heart, a new inheritance, a new understanding, new righteousness, new love, new desire, and many other new things that he or she never had before trusting in Jesus Christ. These new things are summed up in the statement of Romans 6:4, which tells us that as true believers we walk in the “newness of life.”
At the new birth, the very moment of a sinner’s confession of faith in Jesus Christ, a person becomes a “new creature, the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is not simply that he or she receives something new, but that the new believer becomes something new. The Apostle Paul explained salvation this way: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). This new creation or nature is not added to the old nature but replaces it. The transformed person, now a believer in Christ, is a completely new “I.” In contrast to the former love of evil, the new self – the deepest and most real part of the Christian – now loves God’s law, longs to fulfill its righteous demands, hates sin, and longs for ultimate deliverance from sin’s presence. This transformation of the believer in Jesus Christ is the focus of this section of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians.
Chapter four of Ephesians opens the practical section of the Epistle with an appeal to maintain Christian unity. Paul supported this by enlarging on the way in which the body of Christ is built up and strengthened. Now, before dealing with specific moral and ethical commands, he reminds Christians about the kind of life they once lived and the need for a clean break from the past in order to live their new lives in Christ. Today, we will look at the conduct of the old self, followed by the conduct of the new self.
THE CONDUCT OF THE OLD SELF. Ephesians 4:17-19
God’s Will for the Believer. When Paul says, “This I say, and affirm together with the Lord,” he means that what he is about to reveal is God’s will for the believer. These are the things the Lord Jesus wants every Christian to know and do. The statement is not ambiguous; it is direct and takes the form of a command: a life changed by the Holy Spirit because of regeneration in Christ causes a new nature and that demands changed behavior. If a person claims to be a Christian, and their lifestyle and conduct has never changed, it causes doubt on the reality of their salvation.
Allow me to remind you again of the truth of Second Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” The old things are old behaviors triggered by the thoughts of the old nature. That old nature has passed away through salvation in Christ. In its place are new things: new thoughts, new attitudes, new habits, and new behaviors. The Christians vocabulary and outlook on life have changed and should be reflected in how they live their lives.
Do Not Walk as the Gentiles. Most of the Christians of Ephesus in Paul’s time were Gentiles who had grown up in a pagan world. When they were children, there were no churches for their parents to take them to. They had become adults in a dark world that did not know God. Ephesus, the city in which they lived, was home to the temple of Diana, which was known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Heathen practices, immorality, crime, and graft were epidemic throughout the city. Into this pagan city the Apostle Paul helped to plant this church that grew as these pagans heard the message of forgiveness in Christ and they repented to embrace Jesus as their Lord.
But this meant that they must change. God did not want them to keep acting as they did before they were saved. They must stop worshiping at Diana’s temple and engaging in cultic practices. They must instead start living as redeemed saints and worship Jesus and only Jesus. They must abandon all the thoughts, attitudes, and practices of the pagan world of the Gentile and live a Christ-centered life. Keep in mind that Paul had also reminded Hebrew Christians that they must not cling to the grave clothes of Judaism either.
My son, John, has taken several evangelistic trips to India. He has proclaimed the gospel of Christ in many places in that heathen land. At one place a man came forward to talk with John after he had preached the gospel of salvation in Christ, and the man said he would like to receive Christ as Savior. When he finished praying, the man exclaimed, now I have the new God Jesus to go along with my other gods. John stopped him and explained that he could not be saved until he received Jesus as his one and only God. There is no other God but the Lord Jesus Christ. He told the man he had to trust only in Jesus and cast all the others away. Only that is true saving faith.
Behaviors of the Old Self. To distinguish the ways of the pagan Gentiles, Paul listed four characteristics of an unsaved life. First, their minds were futile. The transforming power of the Holy Spirit begins by transforming our thinking. The unsaved Gentiles’ thinking was futile. This includes all areas of thought: philosophy, science, morality, and ethics. The very basic foundation of their thinking is futile – empty, vain, and useless – a thinking that is void of substance. Why is that?
Because, secondly, their understanding is darkened. Gentiles – people without Christ – live in a darkened world. For them there is no divine light or illumination. They stare blindly at a dark and dismal existence and try to make explanations about things they cannot clearly see. It is a consequence of their own making and a result of their abandonment of God, as we find in the first chapter of Romans. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:21-22). They were in darkness because they turned away from the God of light and instead embraced the darkness. Well did the Apostle John write, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” (John 3:19-20).
The third characteristic is that Gentiles are ignorant of God’s truth. This willful lack of knowledge resulted in being excluded from the life of God. No wonder that they come up with false religion and false doctrine. They do not know God and do not know His truth. People are condemned by their own thoughts. God’s judgment is not caused by external difficulties but by the internal thoughts found in the hearts and minds of men and women. Sin starts in the mind, with thinking, and then spreads to contaminate and pollute the soul. Every sin, corrupt habit, evil thought, wicked behavior starts in the ignorant mind that is excluded from God.
Fourth, Gentiles are characterized by the hardness of their hearts. These people are spiritually and morally calloused. They have found what they think are good reasons for what they do, but it is all complete foolishness based on their dark, ignorant, and corrupt minds. In Romans 1:24, the Bible states, “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurities, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.” Their minds have become depraved and they are now absent of all moral restraint. Greed is unbounded covetousness and impurity is uninhibited lust. These behaviors were typical of the unsaved Gentiles living in Ephesus and many of the new Christians had lived this way. But the believer must completely abandon this way of life. They must leave it and never go back.
THE CONDUCT OF THE NEW SELF. Ephesians 4:20-24
The New Life Is Christ-Centered. In contrast with the old man of verses seventeen through nineteen, believers did not come to learn Christ that way. Their minds are no longer darkened; their lives are no longer alienated from God; their hearts are no longer hardened and impure. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Subject (“you heard Him”) and the Object (“you were taught in Him”) of a believer’s spiritual growth.
Clearly, God expects a difference in the lives of every Christian. There must be a discernable difference in their thoughts, habits, and behaviors. The words “learning Christ” is a direct reference to salvation: it is what it means to be saved. The ways of God and the ways the unregenerate are incompatible. Verse twenty-one reminds us that Bible sermons and lessons are important. These people had heard the truth about Christian living from Paul and other pastors who had told them the truth about Jesus. As Christians they were responsible to hear faithfully and apply the truth to their thinking and their living.
Lay Aside the Old Self. So, what were the Christians of Ephesus supposed to do with their old pagan practices? What are we to do with our old corrupt and sinful thoughts, habits, and behaviors? Paul says, “lay them aside.” He seems to be telling us to lay it aside as you and I would take off a heavy winter coat and lay it aside. Just take that old self off, lay it aside and never put it on again. In fact, just throw it away!
I suppose we could illustrate the old self as an old garment a man has worn for years. It has become filthy and stained and it has a horrible odor. It is so bad, in fact, that people cannot endure being around that man for very long. It is full of holes and is worthless. Why does he keep it? Why does he keep wearing it? It is only corrupting him.
What exactly is this old self? Evangelical scholars and many Christians have different opinions. Dr. John MacArthur wrote that Christians do not have two natures, only one. “Christians are no longer the old self but are now the new self. The change occurred when they believed in Christ. The old self is the unregenerate self. It encompasses everything a person is in Adam before union with Christ. The new self is the regenerate self united with Christ who replaces the old man. When a person becomes a Christian, he puts on the new self and becomes a new creation in Christ. The unregenerate self is gone forever.”
Dr. Lewis Chafer seems to disagree. “Unregenerate people have but one nature, all those who are regenerate have two natures. The “old man” is the Adamic nature which has been judged in the death of Christ. It still abides with the Christian as an active principle in his life and his experimental victory over it will be realized only through a definite reliance upon the indwelling Holy Spirit.”
Perhaps both opinions have merit. Dr. Henry Holloman suggests that we include the idea of “the flesh” in the discussion. Typically, when we speak of “human nature” we seem to understand an unchangeable nature. I can lead us to think that we cannot change our evil ways. Yet that is not true: God demands holiness! If we rather recognize the flesh as the problem, we can see the potential of change and a spiritual victory. He wrote, “Believers are said to be in the Spirit. Unbelievers are in the flesh, walking according to the flesh and having no ability to please the Lord. The flesh does not lie dormant within us like a sleeping enemy that goes into action only when aroused. Scripture teaches and experience confirms that the flesh urges us to carry out its passions, desires, and deeds. Therefore, do not leave your bodily members vulnerable because the sinful flesh is a raider who will seize your bodily members and use them as instruments of unrighteousness. Each Christian should affirm or reaffirm this personal decision: “I plan to keep my body and my mind committed to God and controlled by His Spirit.”
Put On the New Self. In verse twenty-four, Paul gives us the solution: “put on the new self.” In the eleventh chapter of John, the Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. He came from the grave wearing old and foul grave clothes. We have no doubt that Lazarus did not hesitate to remove those old grave clothes and put on new clothes because he was no longer in bondage to the dominion of death and was now alive. Take off the old and put on the new!
How is that possible? Paul tells us in verse twenty-three it is by being renewed in the spirit of your mind. How is the spirit of our minds renewed? It is by continually taking into our minds the marvelous truths of the Word of God. It is by reading, meditating on, and praying God’s Word. It is through the Word we grow in our knowledge of God, deepen our commitment to His will, and empower our spiritual growth. Only the Bible tells us what the new self is, and it is only the Bible, with the Holy Spirit’s enablement, that we can make it part of our daily lives. We learn to walk in God’s ways by surrendering our wills to His truth and making our minds obedient to His will.
The new self has been created with the characteristics of righteousness and holiness of the truth. True believers have been made new in the attitude of their minds; they are no longer futile in their thinking, darkened in their understanding, and ignorant. These are facts that believers have learned. Believers are new people in Christ, and hence they can no longer live as unregenerate Gentiles live.
From these verses we have learned that we no longer belong to the old corruption of sin; we belong to the new creation in Christ. We have removed the old man’s polluted graveclothes! We have found that we do this by “being renewed in the spirit of our minds.” Salvation is a decision that leads to the process of spiritual growth and sanctification. Through Christ, once and for all, we have been given a new position in His new creation, but each day, we must by faith put into practice what He has given us. The Word of God renews the mind as we surrender our all to Him. Scripture teaches, “Sanctify them through Your truth: Your Word is truth” (John 17:17). As the mind understands the truth of God’s Word, it is gradually transformed by the Spirit, and this renewal leads to a changed life. Physically, you are what you eat, but spiritually, you are what you think. The Bible tells us, “As we think in our hearts so are we” (Proverbs 23:7). This is why it is important for us as Christians to spend time daily meditating on the Word, praying, and fellowshipping with Christ.
As we prepare our hearts to celebrate the Lord’s Table this morning, let us spend a few quiet moments considering the ways our Lord desires that we walk in the newness of the life He has given to us. In what ways does God want you to surrender to His will this day?
