PUT ON THE NEW MAN
Tuesday – January 17, 2017
I thank God for all of you in my prayers, those that partner with this ministry and those who pray for and are friends of this ministry. God is so good. Today, Tuesday, is the day I remind us all to pray for the governments of these United States. We are now very close to the end of a very wicked administration and we all stand at the precipice of dramatic change. The ride is going to be rough, the heathen rage, but if we as a Church of Jesus Christ will not waiver the return to the light, the return to righteousness is certain. The myth and foolishness of not discussing politics and religion has in part brought us to this place and discarding that wickedness will let the light shine extinguishing the darkness. Now back to our study in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 4:23-24 (KJV)
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
As we read our text and examine it making the light therein contained our light notice that action is required on our part. Not only do we play a very active role in initiating the renewal of the spirit of our minds as we “put on the new man” but we have an ongoing responsibility for our mind renewal. You have probably noticed that your shirt or blouse does not just magically appear on you in the morning and neither will this ‘new man’. Let’s take a look at this 24th verse in the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB).
Ephesians 4:24 (HCSB)
24 you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s ⌊likeness⌋ in righteousness and purity of the truth.
As we diligently acquire the Word of God making it our own, our thoughts, our words, and our ways will become more and more like Jesus. We have never stopped being in the image and likeness of God, we have never stopped being of like kind with God, however the perversions of the devil and the world systems rendered us unrecognizable. We were thinking, speaking, and acting like our counterfeit father, Satan. Now the Word of God is transforming us day by day into His image and likeness just as we were created to be from the beginning. A short time ago I discussed this idea and this necessity that we be a new man, a new creation. Our being this new man is initiated by our repentance and the Holy Spirit quickening of our dead soul, then our new Lord in response to our steps of diligence will open the Scriptures to us. As we choose to have ears to hear and eyes to see our birth Father, God, will by His Holy Spirit teach us all things. He does not simply download it like we might information on our computers or a new program. No, we have to learn it one precept at a time, one line at a time, moving forward from the foundational Truths, milk of the Word, into the meat. In this process we are progressively transformed into His image and likeness, becoming the sons of God our Father has so fervently desired doing the work of God furthering the Kingdom of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (KJV)
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Notice in verse seventeen the term ‘in Christ’ not ‘in Jesus’. The term ‘in Jesus’ occurs seven times in the New Testament and the term ‘in Christ’ occurs seventy-seven times. Seventy-seven occurs one time in Scripture (Ezra 8:35) speaking of lambs. Jesus is ‘The Lamb’. Seven of course is the number of spiritual perfection or completion. Without Jesus, without choosing to be in Jesus, making Him our Lord, there is no spiritual perfection for us and only stealing, killing, destruction now, and Hell upon our physical death. When we receive Jesus the Holy Spirit makes our dead soul alive and He then resides within us. At our request to the Father we can be baptized in the Holy Spirit meaning that not only is He within but now is compassing us about and we are in Him as well. So being ‘in Christ’ means that not only have we embraced Jesus but we have fully embraced the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
In this same verse we find out that in Christ we are a new creature or creation. We are still created in the image and likeness of God but we are a new or different creature or creation. The one thing that sets us apart from Adam is that we are in Jesus, the lamb, and therefore are in the presence of His redeeming and cleansing blood as we sit with and in Him at the Mercy Seat, on the Throne of God, at the right hand of Majesty on High. Adam walked the high wire without a net, praise God brother and sister, we have a net and His name is Jesus.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
