Radical Transformation Gods Way:Godly Principles to Know Who You Are In Christ
The changed life begins when God opens your ears to hear Jesus Christ in the gospel and respond with obedient faith. Before, you stood outside, not understanding the things of God. To be taught in Him is a lifelong process that begins at the moment of salvation, but never ends. Since Christ is the center of all of Scripture, to be taught in Him is to grow to know the glory of Christ in His person, His offices, and His work on our behalf. Someday when we see Him as He is, we will be instantly changed to be like Him 1 John 3: Meanwhile, we must engage in the process of being taught in Him.
The reason that Christ is the focus of instruction is that He is the embodiment of truth John The truth of salvation is only in Jesus Christ. We learn the truth about how to love God and how to love one another. We learn the truth about the coming judgment, and about heaven and hell. All of the truth that we need for life and godliness centers in the person of Jesus Christ. Note that Paul here makes a deliberate shift in how he refers to Christ.
In verse 20, he talks about learning Christ , but here he says that the truth is in Jesus. This is the only time in Ephesians that he uses the name Jesus by itself.
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The change seems to be more than stylistic. He was crucified, raised bodily from the dead, seen by many of His disciples after the resurrection, and ascended bodily into heaven. But, why does Paul want us to think of the truth that is in J e sus? As Lloyd-Jones points out ibid.
But, in sharp contrast, the truth of the gospel is rooted in history. The Christian message is the proclamation of certain facts that happened in history in the person of Jesus. If the gospel accounts are fictional stories, then there is no salvation in Jesus! If the historic person of Jesus did not die on the cross and rise bodily from the dead, as testified by many reliable eyewitnesses, then you are still in your sins 1 Cor.
Everything in the Christian faith rests on the truth being in the historical person of Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead!
When we meet Jesus Christ personally through faith, we are changed people! But, how does the process continue? Paul goes on 4: There are different opinions about how these infinitives function.
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In my opinion, the best view is that the infinitives explain the changes that took place when we trusted in Christ, but they also have the force of ongoing commands. At the moment we trusted Christ, we did in fact lay aside the old life and put on the new life, much as a baptismal candidate took off his old clothes and put on a new, white robe for his baptism. We began the process of inner renewal. But, day by day we must continue to put off the dirty old life and put on the new life in Christ, as we are renewed in the spirit of our mind.
In other words, we must live daily in light of the truth of what God says we now are. We are new creatures in Christ 2 Cor. Live each day in light of that truth by decisively putting off the old life, being renewed in your mind, and putting on the new life. Paul uses the same phrase in Romans 6: In Romans 6 and in Col. When Christ died on the cross, we died with Him positionally. When He was raised from the dead, we were raised up with Him. We are to reckon these facts to be true in our daily practice, so that we will not yield to sin Rom.
Because in those passages Paul clearly states this putting off of the old life as a done deal, some argue that it is not something that we have to go on doing now. They contend that it was a once and for all matter that happened at the cross. But, although we died with Christ, in other places Paul commands us to put to death our members that are on the earth Rom. Why do we need to put to death our members if we already died?
My understanding is that we must daily apply experientially the facts that are true of us positionally. So, yes, at the moment we got saved, we put off the dirty clothes of the old life. But, every day we must reckon that this is so by putting off everything associated with the old life and putting on the new life in Christ. When Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, they were officially free from their many years of servitude, but some of them went on living as if they were still slaves.
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It was a done deal—they were no longer slaves. But, out of habit and way of thinking, many of these poor people still lived like slaves. So, they needed to live in accordance with the new facts. Even so, our old life involved a process of being corrupted by the lusts of deceit. Sin only defiles, enslaves, and ultimately destroys the person who is deceived by it. When Christ saved us, He liberated us from bondage to sin.
We died to sin by virtue of His death on the cross. We were raised to new life in Him. Now, we must daily put off the dirty clothes of sin and put on the new clothes of righteousness and holiness in Him, because He freed us. There is still in us a strong tug toward the old life, but we do not have to yield to it. The changed life involves putting off the old man. Why does Paul here refer to the spirit of your mind? Why not just, be renewed in your mind as in Rom. Perhaps the best view is that it refers to the principle that regulates or controls the mind.
Paul means that our entire way of thinking and what controls our thinking needs renewal. This means that true biblical change must not bypass the mind. Sometimes, evangelists use emotional stories or music or a dramatic setting and then appeal to people to make a decision for Jesus. But they have bypassed the mind. Such decisions, made on the basis of emotions, will not last. God reasons with us through the truths of His Word.
Actually, although He tells us what we need to do to transform our way of thinking and living, Jesus Himself said that most people—including the religious—have failed to really understand and do what He said! Your life can be better! Come behind the scenes with us and read the surprising truth about what God really says about how to transform your life! Subscribe now to Insights Into the Meaning of Life posts. Priceless, meaningful answers, sent to your email free of charge! The word sin is used to make things sound alluring; but otherwise, sin seems outdated.
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