In His high priestly intercessory prayer to His Father, the Lord Jesus Christ said, “I do not ask that you take them [Christians] out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world” (John 17:15,16). When we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, we do not go to heaven immediately. instead, we remain in the world to live a different life style. This means living out our salvation in the “here and now.” Salvation means “deliverance from sin and its consequences.” And this is precisely what happens when a person is “born again.” That person enjoys a “new life” in Jesus Christ.
New life in Christ! Abundant and free!
What glories shine, What joys are mine,
What wondrous blessings I see!
My past with its sin,
The searching and strife,
Forever gone, there’s a bright new dawn!
For in Christ I have found new life!
(Composer: John W. Peterson, 1921-2006).
Becoming a Christian requires “putting off” and “putting on.” The apostle Paul states “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” (Ephesians 4:22-24). It is absolutely impossible to “put on” the new lifestyle with the existing old lifestyle, since they are opposed to each other. Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, [how we came into this world]and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again” (John 3:6,7. Italics mine).
Being born again, changes us from the inside out, meaning we now have the mind of Christ in us. Hence, Paul says, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive”(Colossians 3:12,13). This text runs parallel to Paul’s teaching in Ephesians. These things actually bind Christians together and demonstrate changes that result from of our faith in Jesus Christ.
Prior to trusting Christ as Lord and Savior, we were “dead in trespasses and sins,” Paul writes to the Church at Ephesus, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1,2). It is therefore obvious that the Ephesian Christians had “put of” the old life style with its sinful desires and practices and have “put on” the new lifestyle by trusting Jesus Christ their Savior. Rather than remaining “dead in trespasses and sins,” the believer is now “dead to sin,” in that sin has no more control over him. “For sin will have no dominion over you” (Romans 6:14). in the past, sin was “in charge” of our lives. Our allegiance was to Satan. However, through faith in Jesus Christ we receive a “new nature” and the power to live for God.
The Bible declares, “We know that our old self has was crucified with [Christ] in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:6,7). The term “old self” means all that man with the corrupt human nature was in Adam. Positionally, the “old self” has been crucified and the believer can now “put off” the old self and “put on” the “new self,” having become a partaker of Christ’s divine nature and life. It must be clearly understood that in no way can the old self be “made over,” or even improved upon for that matter. Rather, the new self is Jesus Christ “formed” in the believer and He lives His life in and through us. Paul carefully highlights the walk of the believer and the changes that result from the new life. See Ephesians 4:22-32 and Colossians 3:12-17 for these changes. God bless you.