Are you dressed in grave
clothes or wedding garments?
Now that we have been saved by
grace how then shall we live? How are we to walk in
this new life?
The apostle Paul uses an
illustration in terms of taking off one set of
clothes and putting on another in Colossians 3:9-10.
“Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the
old self with its evil practices, and have put on
the new self who is being renewed to a true
knowledge according to the image of the One who
created him.”
The verbs in this passage are
in the past tense. “You have taken off your old self
. . . and have put on the new.” The aorist tense
indicates something that has already taken place. It
has already happened, and not something to be done.
The action is to take off
completely; to strip off one’s self. If the old self
really has been put off, one must not at a critical
moment revert to the way one acted before his
conversion. The plural describes the deeds, which
characterized the former life.
In Colossians 3:10, the idea of
“new” is the newness in quality, and it is the
continual action “which is ever being renewed.”
We are to take off once for
all, definite concluding action. Stripping off is to
be done at once, and for good. The old manner of
life is to be done with.
“In reference to your former
manner of life, you lay aside the old self (Lit.
man), which is being corrupted in accordance with
the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the
spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which
in the likeness of God has been created in
righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians
4:22-24).
The “old man” is your manner of
life which Paul described in 2:3. Westcott said,
“The whole character representing the former self
was not only corrupt but ever growing more and more
corrupt.” Every aspect of the old man’s behavior is
putrid, crumbling, or bloated like rotting waste or
cadavers, stinking, ripe for being buried and
forgotten.
The other action is to “put on”
one’s self, to cloth one’s self. It is newness in
quality that is put on. Paul is not suggesting the
restoration of the original state. The old and new
is contrasted.
The present tense in Ephesians
4:23 emphasizes the continual renewing. We are to
put on in the sense of putting on a garment (v. 24).
Thus, the believer puts on, or fulfills the divine
demands God places upon men. This is the habitual
action that is to characterize the life of the
Christian (v. 25).
The “renewing in the spirit of
the mind” of which Paul speaks in Eph. 4:23 is to
make new again, or to renew. It is also found in
Rom. 12:2 when he speaks of “the renewing of the
mind.” This renewal is kin to make new, different.
It is an adjustment of the moral and spiritual
vision and thinking to the mind of God. The stress
in Rom. 12:2 is on the continual operation of the
indwelling Spirit and the willing response of the
believer. “Be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Paul is speaking of a radical
change, “being transformed” which is the same word
for “transfiguration” of Jesus in Matthew 17:2. It
is “to change into another form,” which is an inner
change, a radical renovation. We are changed from
the inside out.
Our practical everyday
sanctification is the restrained and obedient powers
of the personality brought into subjection and
submission to God’s will by the Holy Spirit.
Are you responding to the
appeal of the Holy Spirit to put off all conduct
associated with your former life apart from Christ
and put on a new pattern of behavior that looks like
Christ? We are to follow Christian standards because
God has already made us new creatures in Christ
Jesus. The apostle is demanding a high form of
behavior on our part because something decisive has
already taken place in our lives. We have already
been made new in Christ by the new birth. Because
that has already taken place, we must live like it.
Old grave clothes are ok for a
corpse, but they are completely inappropriate for
wedding garments in preparation for the wedding
supper of the Lamb. If you are the Bride then dress
like one.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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