Freedom in Christ: The New Self

I concluded my last post with Paul’s teaching that new Christians are to “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:24) The concept of somehow becoming a new person, a “better” person, has always intrigued me but while I was trying to live apart from God, pretending there is no God, I didn’t even have a standard by which to measure whether or not I was becoming “better.” All I could do was observe other people, but different people had different criteria. Some thought “better” meant having more money or more degrees or a more likable personality. Some thought it meant going to church more often or going to the right church, but all seemed to agree that the change for the better could be accomplished by trying harder and getting a little help (or a lot of help) from the establishment. All that was needed was better government, a better education, a better counselor, a better self-improvement manual.

Then I came to realize there really is a Creator and I was created to “be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” He is the standard, and I not only fell short, but I was sinking deep in sin. That conviction was the driving force behind my conversion to Christ’s kingdom of light many years ago. I had come to know I needed a Savior and when I received Jesus Christ into my heart I became a child of God, I had a new identity. But some Christian leaders were saying there is no real change in the basic character of a Christian until we get to heaven. Then we will be changed, but for now we are “just sinners saved by grace.” What a downer! I wanted to be a new person right now, and I was!

I’m so glad I started to read about the life of the apostle Paul, and learned how radically he was changed after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Saul of Tarsus, persecutor of Christians, became the great Apostle Paul, missionary to the Gentiles, who Christ used to establish his church on earth. Paul knew he was a sinner saved by grace, in fact he thought of himself as “the chief of sinners,” but he also knew he was not just that.  He wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). This verse is about the life all Christians should be living by faith, as we daily “put on the new self,” experiencing who we really are in Christ, . 

Freedom in Christ: Introduction

The apostle Paul exclaimed, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” and answered his own question with a joyful prayer, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom.7:24, 25). He was proclaiming the fact that God set us free from this body that is subject to sin and death when he sent His Son for our salvation, and we responded by believing and receiving him. Why then do we still experience struggles such as Paul described in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”?  He wants to obey Jesus, but there is a struggle going on within him.

Paul explains this conflict by the concept of our “old self.”  Writing to new Christians, he says: “… you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” (Eph. 2:1-2) We were all spiritually dead before we believed and received Christ. The sin nature was being formed in ways unique to each of us because our DNA is unique, and the circumstances of our lives growing up were unique. Paul calls this spiritually dead self the “old self.”

The bad news is that we are, in many ways, the same person we were before we received Christ. We have the same biological DNA, many of the same behavior patterns, and the same Social Security number. The good news is that we now have a new spiritual identity. John says that, “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12).  We now have the spiritual DNA of our heavenly Father, but as with any new-born baby we need to grow. Paul, continuing his letter to those new Christians in Ephesus says, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4: 22-24). This process of putting on the new self is just getting to know who you really are in Christ and living accordingly. It will be the subject of my next post.