But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to 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.
Ephesians
Ephesians 4:20
Paul had been speaking of the pagan unbelievers saying that they were greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But this is not how we learned Christ. The Christian life is not like this.
There is a sort of parenthetical phrase he puts in here saying, “assuming that you heard the truth and were taught in the truth about Christ.” It’s possible for professing Christians to live in a way that does not reflect the gospel and it may be because they have not been taught the truth about Jesus. There are plenty of false gospels out there.
So, what is the truth about the transformation that has and is taking place? First, we are to put off, or lay aside the old man, the old self. Take it off and lay it aside. This is the self which belonged to the old way of life, the pagan, unbelieving way of life. It has been corrupted by deceitful lusts. Some lusts are especially adept at deceiving us. We think we are desiring something good and right, or at least something essential to our being. We are being deceived by such lusts. The old self has been corrupted by these lusts. Therefore lay aside not just the lusts, but the person we used to be.
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and the new has come (2 Cor 5:17).
Whenever we have to put off something, there needs to be something else that we are to put on. So, in verse 23, we are told to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. Literally to have mind-renewal in the area of our thinking. We need a new way of thinking.
In Romans 12:2, Paul urges us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Our minds are renewed by our meditation on the Scriptures. That’s why God told Joshua to meditate in the Word day and night so that his way would be prosperous and successful (Joshua 1:8).
Be renewed in mind and put on the new self. We are to take off the old corrupted self and put on the new self. This is the self that has been created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Even after having done this, we find ourselves drifting back. what we need to do is to reaffirm this step frequently: daily, or hourly or whatever is necessary to win the battle.
It is a putting off, and a putting on. The two go together. Picture it like changing clothes. It’s something we do. God saves us by His grace and changes us, but the residual effects of sin, and even the very presence of sin itself resides in our flesh. Using our renewing minds, we are to take the conscious step of putting off the old and putting on the new.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:00 AM March 16, 2021.