NEW LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST

Ephesians 4:17-32

Key Verse: 4:23,24

“…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.”

In the previous passage Apostle Paul talked about unity and diversity in the body of Christ. Today, Paul talks about purity in the body of Christ. The church is the gathering of believers and each believer must grow in the holiness of God to keep unity. Then the whole church grows. Sanctification of the church is another side of the coin with unity. Apostle Paul here uses a very helpful figure in these two phrases, "put off the old self" and "put on the new self." The unbelievers do not struggle to put on the new self because they have only the old self. But we are different. We have the old self and the new self since we are chosen and adopted as God’s people. We have constant struggles not to repeat our old sinful habits our old self enjoyed and to put on the new self. There is a healthy tension between our old self and new self. Many young believers ask, “Why do I have to struggle so much to have new life in Jesus?” But our struggle is a sign of spiritual growth. Though we have new life in Christ, our struggle to grow in Jesus must continue until we become like God in true righteousness and holiness. Paul encourages us to put off our old self and to put on the new self by imitating Jesus. Paul gives us practical examples how to live according to the new self. Once we become God’s children, we must throw away our old bad habits like the unwholesome talk and we must live like God’s children in Christ. I pray that God may sanctify our heart through his word daily so that we can grow to be like him. May God bless us to put on the new man daily by following Jesus in this Fall semester.

PART I. YOU MUST NO LONGER LIVE AS THE GENTILES DO (17-19)

In verses 17-19 Paul vividly describes the characteristics of the life of the Gentiles. Let’s examine how the Gentiles were separated from God.

First, the futility of their thinking (17). Look at verse 17. “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” One German philosopher said, “I think, therefore I exist.” Men are distinguished from the animals because they are able to think. I believe that thinking is one of the greatest privileges God bestowed upon mankind. We can think about millions of things without limit. We can think about many good things. But in reality we think about bad things most of the time. That’s the problem. The Gentiles think about themselves most of the time and there is no room for them to think about God and others. Romans 1:21 says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” The core problem of the Gentiles is that they did not glorify God nor gave thanks to him. This means that the Gentiles live without God. Their futility was intentional. When they lived a life without God, their thinking became futile. They live in the futility of their thinking. Here “futility” refers to emptiness, fruitlessness, meaninglessness, and loneliness. The Gentiles look very busy in engaging many activities but at the end of the day they feel empty, lonely, and meaningless. Modern man possesses many things and enjoys pleasures of the world. But modern men feel lonely among a crowd. Modern men feel fruitless though they attempt to do many things. Why? They live without God as the Gentiles do. Materialism and hedonism cannot replace God. The futility of their thinking frustrates them. Compared to their hard labor, they feel unhappy and empty. King Solomon reflects the futility of their thinking in Ecclesiastes 2:11, “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Life without God leads men to the futility of their thinking.

Second, they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God(18). Look at verse 18. “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” How dare you say that the Gentiles are darkened in their understanding when we live in the age of the information revolution. People are getting smarter and they seem to understand everything because they can get all the information at their fingertips through the search engine in the web page. They are doctors and engineers. Even kids are getting smarter than before. They are inundated with a flood of new information daily. But most information is garbage. The problem is that they are far away from the truth of God because the computer information does not teach them wisdom of God. As a result, they are darkened in their understanding of God. They lack God’s wisdom. This means that they were dead spiritually. When they did not understand God, they hardened their hearts and became ignorant of God. The terrible consequence of their ignorance was their separation from the life of God. They become like a dead branch cut off from the tree that will wither and die soon. When they are cut off from God, the source of life, they will lose life and be thrown into the fire in the end. People who live without God looks okay outwardly but they are dead inwardly because they do not have the life of God.

Third, having lost all sensitivity (19). Look at verse 19. “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” The Gentiles lost sensitivity in God but developed sensuality in their physical world. They seek fun and female and feeling vigorously. Not only they want to see but also they want to touch. They want to hold other’s hands and they want to hug and they want to feel the touch. If they feel good, they just do it. They are very sensitive towards their physical desires because they indulged in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. They say “more Bud.” When they lived like animal men, they lost spiritual sensitivity because God gave them over to sensuality. When they sinned the first time, they felt guilty and decided not to sin again. But when they continued their sinful life, they lost spiritual sensitivity and did not feel anything in the end. Some mass murders did not show any remorse in their trial because they lost their spiritual sensitivity. When a dentist pulls out teeth, he makes us numb so that we may not feel any pain. In the same way they lost all spiritual sensitivity and they do not feel any pain though they indulge in their sinful desires. They were uncomfortable in sin for a while but they slowly became comfortable in their sinful environment because they were desensitized in sin. To the world, it is okay to indulge in every kind of impurity as long as everybody does it and you feel good. Some scientists put a frog in a water container and heated the container slowly. The frog felt comfortable adjusting to a new environment because the water temperature was changing very slowly. But in reality the water was getting hotter and hotter and the frog lost sensitivity and did not jump out of the container and died. What does this allegory teach us? We can lose spiritual sensitivity slowly when we began to compromise with sinful environment. When we feel no spiritual sense, we die spiritually. How many of you still live as the Gentiles do? Apostle Paul warned us today that we must on longer live as the Gentiles.

PART II. YOU MUST LIVE AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT (20-24)

Here Paul describes the main characteristics of new life in Christ Jesus. In the previous passage we examined how the Ephesian Gentiles were once dead in their sins and were separated from God due to the hardening of their hearts. But now they were saved by the grace of God and became new creation in Jesus Christ. They were changed from children of darkness to children of light. Then how should they live as children of light? Look at verses 20-22. “You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 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.” Paul first explained how they came to know Christ. From now on Paul used the person “you” and not ‘they” any more. He spoke directly to Christians who were children of light. He is speaking to you and me. The saints in Ephesus heard of Jesus and were taught in Jesus. Paul chose YDJ candidates and taught them the word of God for 2 years in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.(Acts 19:9-10) There was a great spiritual revival. They burned their sorcery books and burned them publicly. They learned how to follow Jesus. They were taught how to imitate Jesus’ life. Our ultimate life goal is to learn Jesus and to make him known to the world. To Christians learning Jesus is their joy of life. We come to Sunday worship service to hear Jesus and learn from Jesus. Romans 10:17 says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” I pray that your faith in Jesus may grow through the word of God.

Then what should we do in order to learn from Jesus? Look at verses 22-24. “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.” His answer is to put off your old self and to put on the new self. This is the principle of Christian life. Of course, we cannot go back to our old man Adam once we are born again into the kingdom of God because our old self died when Jesus died on the cross and our old self was buried when Jesus was buried in the tomb. (Romans 6:4) We are a new creation in Christ because old has gone and new has come. (2 Cor. 5:17) Therefore, we cannot go back to old self. Then what does it mean to put off our old self? Here our old self refers to our old habits or conducts which still remain in our new life. The Gentiles have no spiritual struggle and they have only easy life. But Christians wage a healthy spiritual struggle between our old sinful habits and our new self in Christ. For example, Israel people came out of their slavery in Egypt and became free but they had their old habits of complaining and falling into slavery mentality. They needed forty-years wilderness training to put off their old bad habits and to have new life as God’s people. Even Apostle Paul struggled between his old self and new self. He said in Romans 7:22-25, “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Paul compared his struggle to waging a war between his old self and new self. We call this process of struggle as sanctification. We continue to grow through the process of sanctification until we become like God in true righteousness and holiness. All Christians go through the same process. Isabel Smith returned from Venezuela summer conference last Monday. She said, “I have a life-changing experience. I am a sinner. In Venezuela all people confessed their sins freely and every testimony was like a life testimony here. ” Now she is born again by faith in Jesus. Therefore, she cannot go back to her old self but she has to struggle to put off her old sinful habits. We don’t become saints overnight as soon as we are born again. We have to grow in Jesus continuously. Put off the old and put on the new daily. That is the principle of Christian life. We can grow in God’s holiness by following this specific procedure of putting off the old and putting on the new.

“Putting off the old and putting on the new” are related to wearing clothes. Some people are very sensitive how they wear their clothes because their dressing reflects their personality. Koreans are very sensitive in their dressing. In the ancient time clothing reflected their position of authority. In the hospital we recognize their positions by their uniforms. Prisoners wear their blue color uniforms. When they are released from the prison, they put off their blue color uniform and put on a new nice civilian cloth. They throw away that blue uniform right away. M David Yun said, “When I wore my soldier’s kaki uniform during my army days, I acted like a soldier. But when I wore a civilian cloth during my vacation, then I acted liked a civilian. My mentality switched depending on what kind of cloth I was wearing.” It will be funny if M. David continues to wear the army uniform after he was discharged. When we become a new man in Christ, we must wear a new cloth. Romans 13:14 says, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Jesus Christ is our new cloth to put on everyday. Adam is our old cloth to put off every day. We act like Christians if we put on Jesus’ clothing. We act like unbelievers if we put on old cloth. Paul is using the very simplest of terms to illustrate what we must do in the realm of thought, of the attitudes of life. Are you still wearing those old dirty clothes you put off long time ago? Throw them off. We must throw away dirty thoughts and corrupted desires, just as we would put off our dirty clothes. How do I look like if I put on the old suit? I look strange and then I put off the old suit and put on the new one. When I smell that OB beer, I have a temptation for my old life. But I must put off that old habit in Jesus’ name. S. Mahmia said, “I struggle to overcome my sinful thoughts over and over though I became a child of God. I tried to put off the old self very hard but I failed many times” Here we cannot put off our old self with our will power or human effort. We must claim Jesus’ victory on the cross. We must come to Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit. We must put off our old self by the power of God’s word and put on the new self through our daily struggle. She has her new self to put on because she has new life in Jesus

Therefore, the first step in experiencing what God intends for us is to recognize that. Put off the old, lay it aside, refuse to accept it, no longer justify it or give it place in our life. That is the first step, but it is only half the picture. The other is to recognize, as Paul does, the wonderful possibilities of the new life, of the new man. Look at verses 23-24. “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.” In that phrase, "to be made new in the attitude of your minds," we have the fundamental difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. It is true, of course, that non-Christians sometimes realize that things are wrong in their lives, that the attitudes they exhibit are destructive, and that there are things they are doing that are wrong, and so they change them. But they merely change to another expression of the same basic sinful nature. They never become new creation. They improve their human condition and patch their life here and there. They may fix their flat noses and change their hair colors. But they are the same person. That is the problem. They change the outer form, but the problem remains basically the same. They do not have new man to put on. They do not have their goal of life in Christ. They only have the old self.

But the Christian has the possibility of doing something entirely different, living on an entirely different principle, a different level, because he has been made new in the attitude of his mind. This describes the regeneration of the life by the Spirit of God coming into the heart that believes in Jesus Christ. Romans 12:2a says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by renewing of your mind.” Our new self can be renewed, refreshed, and revived through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have hope to grow in the image of God and to become powerful servants of God’s word. Right now Shannon struggles a lot but he can be a powerful Bible teacher in Jesus. When we believe in Jesus Christ and receive him as our Lord, our Savior, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind. Our basic, fundamental life is changed. Christ is our life now, a radical difference has come in. There is the word of deliverance. The new man is in the likeness of God, it is the life of God, it is the image of Jesus Christ, and it is his life lived in us. So put on that kind of life because it is available to us, it is ours. What is the outcome of putting on the new self? Notice how it is described as resulting in a true righteousness in contrast with the false. But this is real. And, not only that, it is holy. We all want to be like God, in true righteousness and holiness. But the process to attain this is twofold: Put off, and put on. Our problem is that we are afraid to put off the old self, for fear that we will be left with an empty husk of a life. But we should not worry about this. God will fill our hearts with many good things. When we make rooms for him to come, the Holy Spirit comes in and dwells in us. God will fill us with the fullness of Christ. We will experience a new level of joy and happiness in God. We want to feed sheep and serve others sacrificially. It never seems to dawn on us that the Holy Spirit is simply waiting for us to put these things off in order that he might rush in and fill us with the wholeness that is God's intention for man, the wholeness of Christ.

PART III. PRACTICAL EXAMPLES OF NEW LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST. (25-32)

In verses 25-32 Paul gives us practical examples how to live a new life in Christ. These practical examples define our relationship with other fellow believers within the church. What are things we must put off from our old self? What are things we must put on to our new self? Look at verse 25. “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.” We should put away such things as lying and instead speaking truthfully to our fellow Christians because we are all members of one body. Paul says, "Let every one speak the truth with his neighbor." That is putting on Christ. We are "putting on Christ" when we speak the truth. Now he adds a special reason for doing this. "Because," he says "we are members one of another." That means that, in the body of Christ, as members of Christ's life, we do not live to ourselves. Therefore, if we lie, we not only hurt ourselves, but we hurt others as well.

Look at verses 26 and 27. “In your anger do not sin” do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Now he moves to another practical matter, one of the most common problems of life, anger. Sinful anger is part of the old life, it is to be put off. If you are angry because your feelings have been hurt, or your pride has been injured, or you have been mistreated in some way-- this is sinful anger and is to be put off. It arises out of the old life, it is part of the life of Adam. Therefore, we are to put this off, this sinful, self-centered anger that arises from a deceitful urge. He said, “In your anger do not sin.” It is easy to sin when we are angry towards our coworkers and become emotional. We become like a volcano to erupt. We must treat our anger as soon as possible. He encourages that we should not hold a grudge and we do not let the sun go down upon it and we do not let it carry over to another day. He adds another word of warning. If you do carry anger over, no matter what kind it may be, you give the devil an opportunity. An opportunity to do what? To create bitterness, to let that anger ferment until it turns to revenge or burning resentment. In any case anger is not good even to our health. It causes stress, indigestion, and high blood pressure. Those who get angry easily have higher mortality than those who smile a lot. When we are angry, we must go to Jesus and pray until anger subsides. Put off the old, put on the new.

Look at verse 28. “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need” Paul encourages to work with our own hands. He himself was a tent-maker. He not only supported himself but also supported others. Christians work hard not to accumulate money but to share it with others.

What should be our speech habits in Christ? (29,30) What are the things we should get rid of and the things we should practice? Look at verses 29-30. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” In America talk show is popular. Rush Limbaugh became popular by bashing president Clinton. The unwholesome talk among the Christian community can kill someone like poison. Our talk can build up the body of Christ or destroy the body of Christ. We must say only the word to build up and the word beneficial to the listener. James 3:6 says, “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” We have to be very careful about our speech habits. Good talk heals and melts cold hearts and brings love and hope to all. The unwholesome talk also grieves the Holy Spirit. We must put off such things as corrupt speech or jokes or gossips. We must speak with grace. Look at verses 31 and 32. “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” We must put off such things as bitterness, rage, anger, brawling and slander. Instead we should be kind to one another and compassionate to one another and forgive each other just as God in Christ forgave all our sins.

In conclusion, let us put off our old self and put on the new self so that we can grow in God’s righteousness and in his holiness. May God bless you through this message. Let’s read the key verse 23-24.