Your New Self

Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17. I want to read the Scripture to you, and then we’ll, after having given you the setting, begin to talk about it, and see what God will say to us in it this morning. Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 17, the apostle Paul says, This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former manor of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And we’ll stop there. When you receive Jesus Christ, when you are born again, when you enter into God’s kingdom, a tremendous change takes place in your basic nature.

You are a totally different individual. In fact, the change that occurred when you were saved is more dramatic than the change that will occur when you die, because your new nature has already been created. The new you has already been made. You are already fitted for heaven. You are already a citizen of God’s kingdom. All death does is free up that new nature to enter into the presence of God. The greatest change has already happened when you were saved, and everything is new. In 2 Corinthians 5, 17, Paul said, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Now note it. He is a new creation. He doesn’t receive something new. He is new. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. There is a new creation. In Galatians 2, 20, Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. It’s a new I. Only it’s not I. The life which I now live is the life of Christ living in me. Now I want you to keep focused on that thought. It’s a new you. It’s a new I. It’s a new creation. As you study the epistles of Paul, you find that he talks about a new will, a new mind, a new heart, a new power, a new knowledge, a new wisdom, a new perception, a new understanding, a new life, a new inheritance, a new relationship.

A new righteousness, a new love, a new desire, a new citizenship, etc. In fact, summing it all up, the Bible says it is newness of life. Newness of life. Now I’ve heard a lot of people teach that when you become a Christian, God gives you something new. You still have your old nature, your old sin nature is still there and so forth, but God gives you something new. According to the word of God, you are new. It isn’t just a matter of addition, it is a matter of transformation. Do you understand the difference? It is a renewed you.

It is I am crucified with Christ. The old I goes out of existence. Nevertheless I live, risen again, but it is not I that lives, but it is Christ living in me. Yet not I, says Paul, but Christ liveth in me. Listen people, you need to grab this at the very beginning of our thoughts this morning. You are a new you. You say, well if I’m such a new me, how come I sin? Because you are a new you in a smelly old coat, and that coat is the flesh, that’s your humanness. That’s why in Romans 7.17 and Romans 7.20 Paul says, it is sin that is in me.

And again in 20, it is sin that is in me. In other words, when I sin, it isn’t my new nature sinning. Now this may be new to you, so hang on. It is no more I that do it, he says. It’s not that resurrected I, it’s not that new nature that sins. And by the way, there is no old nature, that’s a term foreign to scripture, there’s the old man. But the old is gone, you’re new. But it is not the new I that sins, he says it is sin that dwelleth in me.

In other words, it’s that smelly coat of humanness that that new nature has to endure until it goes to be with the Lord. So what you need to deal with as a Christian is that smelly old coat. You need to get it off. That’s why Peter uses the verb strip off, which means to take off dirty clothes and throw them in 1 Peter 2. Get rid of that stuff. We are not a remodel job. I want you to know that. And we are not just something to which something was added. I don’t believe that a Christian has two natures.

I think a Christian has one new nature. I die, ego dies, I live, so that Christian is a single new man, a total new creature, a new living eye. But sin is a problem, because he’s got a smelly old coat of humanness on him. And what the Bible approaches is the fact that we need to begin to throw that old smelly stuff off. The new man is a new kind of human behaviour and we are to put on a new man, that is a new humanness, to accommodate and fit and go with the new nature.

But most of us have to fight to get rid of that old stuff. In Colossians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says that if we have been risen with Christ, in other words, the old eye died and the new eye rose. If we are a transformed brand new nature, risen with Christ, then certainly we better kill the members on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil desire, covetousness, etc. In other words, you’ve got to get rid of the stinky old coat. When I went down to the Union Rescue Mission years ago, and I preached down there, they showed me the de-leasing room, where they go in there and delice.

And they’ve got a whole bunch of those things on them, and it’s quite a job, and they burn their clothes. It wouldn’t do a bit of good to delice a guy, and then put him back in his old bum clothes. Nobody’d believe he’d had a bath, got to get a new garment for a new man. And the same thing is true in the spiritual. As we have a new nature, as we have been recreated in Jesus Christ, as we have been made new, as we have been transformed, so that we now, right now, this moment, are ready for eternal heaven, our nature is ready.

Then we need to chuck the old patterns, the old things, the old practices, the old life that hangs on us. Christ is formed in us. Paul even said that. He said, oh, I have birth pains until Christ is formed in you. Galatians 4, 19. It is the very life of Christ in us, and we are, it says in Ephesians 2, created in Christ Jesus. But the struggle is with that sin, that coat of sin, that is our humanness. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of why we have to study your new self.

Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].