New!

What does Paul mean when he says to put on the new man?…

‘…put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

When a person is born again they can say with Paul…

‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’

They become a new creature….

‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’

So how do we put on this new man if we’ve already been made new?

If we’re born again we are IN Christ and we ARE a new creature BUT we don’t always walk out the position we now have in Christ. Yes, there will be a change in the way we think and we will want to live pleasing God rather than ourselves BUT we still have the enemy of our souls and our old nature to contend with. So there will still be times when we mess up and don’t feel very new.

Friends, once again, it’s a fight, the battle is hard and it’s every day and if we want to win these daily, hourly, battles between flesh and spirit we HAVE TO fight!

We make so many conscious decisions throughout the day where, without really realising it, we make a choice…ME or God? This is where the battle ground is, right there in our minds, in those moment by moment decisions.

Will I choose patience or impatience?

Will I choose calmness or anger?

Will I choose love or hate?

Will I choose humility or pride?

Will I choose MY way or THY way?

But what a mercy, we don’t HAVE to fight alone, in fact if we try to we will fail BUT we fight through Christ who is in us, though the One who has already won the victory over sin, death and hell in our behalf!…

‘Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’

Also we need what Paul says in the preceding verse, to….

‘be renewed in the spirit of your mind;’

Although we are a new person in Christ the spirit of our mind is soon clouded by the world and sin and we need to be continually renewing our minds, doing what we can to turn our thoughts back to Jesus, renewing our minds in the Word, putting on the new man, remembering that we have Christ IN US as our helper!!

I’d love to know what you do throughout the day to keep your thoughts on the things of Christ and not the things of this world. Comment below….

Eph 4:23,24, Gal 2:20, 2 Cor 5:17, 1 Cor 15:57,