If, indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
—Ephesians 4:21-24 (NKJV)
My friend in Christ, you are a new creation. You are reborn by the Holy Spirit. The old “you” is dead, and Christ has made you new in His righteousness (2 Corinthians 2:17, 21). But do you think that you have lost your right standing with God because you still deal with the struggles of your flesh? You haven’t. We can’t change the temptations that come against us. But when we believe who we are in Christ and choose to clothe ourselves in our new identity, we have His power to overcome.
As far as the east is from the west, God has removed sin from you (Psalm 103:12). When you believe your old sin nature has been crucified with Christ and that it is not you who lives but Christ who lives in you, you have His power to overcome (Galatians 2:20). To believe your old nature is dead, your mind must be renewed by the truth of your new nature revealed in God’s Word (Romans 12:3, Ephesians 4:23). And when you choose to walk in the truth of the righteousness that Christ has earned for you, you put on who you are in Christ (Ephesians 4:24). You become new in the motive and attitude of your heart. You have the power to defeat the daily temptations that come against your new nature.
Your new nature is your true identity in Christ. In Today’s English Version Ephesians 4:24 reads, “and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
You cannot make yourself new. You cannot earn what Christ has already earned for you. It only frustrates you and robs you of His power to stand against sin. Christ has given you His righteousness. Be renewed in the way you think to know yourself as God knows you in “true righteousness and holiness.” Put on your new identity. It was created “after the likeness of God.”
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
You are a new person in Christ’s perfect love. All your sin has been crucified with Christ. It is Christ who lives in you, and the life you live, you live by faith in the righteousness He has given you (Galatians 2:20). You believe that as Christ is, you also are in this world—that you are “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Christ has earned for you His new life of righteousness. Allow the Word to teach you the new person you have been made in His redeeming love. Claim and believe its truth in your heart. Clothe yourself in your new identity. Deny the old sin nature that rises to claim you—that tries to convince you that it still owns you. Christ owns you. You are His.
“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
© 2022 Lynn Lacher
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