A New Creation
“...put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be born again or made new in Christ. For some people it is like a long-term project. It’s like finding an old antique that needs to be cared for and restored. They see God working on their lives like a renovation project. He straightens out crooked and bent frames. He must patch the holes that have worn through over the years. There needs to be new paint, buffing, and polishing, until at the end, they have been restored and look new.
However, this is not what God does. The old man or woman has been so utterly wrecked by sin that God instead makes us something completely new. Now, this feels hard to really grasp at times because we are still in a broken body of the “flesh” with all its weaknesses. But God has made the inner man alive and completely new, and He uses the flesh to teach and grow us in this new life.
Paul, in this letter to the church, says we must put off the old self which belongs to the former manner of life. He is pointing out that the life of sin belongs to the old self. It’s not part of the new, but people often choose to continue in old patterns of behavior and old patterns of belief. One preacher said it this way, “I may be new, but we all carry around sin habits that need to be broken.” The old life is corrupted by the “flesh” and old desires. These desires are not rehabilitated, rather they are to be completely done away with.
In the latter part of the verse, notice that Paul says the new self is created after the likeness of God. Our new life was created--that’s stated in the past tense here. It's done. It's not being created. It was created. Paul says the new man or woman who is born again was created in the likeness of God. But here is where the tension comes in. The new man or woman who is created in true righteousness and holiness still must be aware of the old life because it will greatly influence how the new life is experienced in its onset. Paul tells us to put off the old self and put on the new self. But if you are reading the verse carefully the question arises, “Why put on the new self when we are created in the new self already?” We should just do this naturally, right? How can something be completed and not completed at the same time?
To put on the new self is how we experience the new life and grow in the knowledge of God. We become more like Christ as we experience what it is like to live in righteousness and holiness. To put on the new life like “clothing that covers the body” is then a real and understandable way to express that we are to be living life as God desires for us. We are enveloped in God’s new life, and it is seen by those who observe how we are living. It is not like the old life at all. So, the more we allow the old life to hang around, the less we reflect what God has created us to be.
We are commanded to put off the old self and, with the “mind of Christ,” live life as God created us to live. The new man and woman not only grow in the knowledge of God, but they begin to understand what sin has destroyed. They also experience more joy and peace that the new life delivers. We experience what God created us to be by putting on the new self, and as John Piper likes to say, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him!”
With this new self in view, what sin habits of the old self do you need to put off? In what ways has God grown you in an understanding of Who He is? In what areas of your life are you becoming what God created you to be?
Prayer
Father, we thank You that You have given us new life in Christ and with that new life we are able to experience a relationship with You in deep and joyful ways. Help us to see those sin habits of the old self and put them off. Reveal to us where we need to put on the new self and help us be what You created us to be in Christ Jesus. For this new self and new life, we give thanks! In Jesus name, Amen.
