Ephesians 4:20-24 (ESV Strong's)
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.
Tag: Put On Christ
In the above text we are told to put on the “new self.” If we are not careful we might think that, after conversion, that is something WE do, OURSELVES. But, the text actually says to “put on the new self, CREATED after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” What Paul is telling us is that at our conversion (repentance, faith, belief), Christ began to “recreate” us in His likeness. We are to, through Christ’s work and power, “put off” the former way we lived and thought and “in Christ” we are to be “renewed in the spirit” of our minds. That means we begin to think Biblically. Paul is about to tell us (in chapter six) to put the armor of God. One piece of armor is the “helmet of salvation.” That piece of armor is to indicate our mind is part of the salvation of experience, not simply our soul. Christ is in the process of “renewing” our mind. He wants to change our thoughts to be Christ-centered. This is what it means to “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” The effort we put into the “putting on” experience is our faithful belief and obedience to God’s Word. It is the Spirit of God that is transforming us. We are the vessels of His work. We must continue to believe and obey His word and the Spirit will continue to shape us into the image of Christ. That is how we put on Christ.
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