Devotions

Because men have slight notions of this disease, they propose slight answers to it, social and environmental remedies, which, whatever their temporary benefits, can never deal with the sin problem.

God proposes a radical approach to deal with sin. In Ephesians 4 He describes how He deals with it by making sinners new creatures. They have “put off the old man” and have “put on the new man.” The “old man” refers to the soul in the state of nature, depraved and diseased by sin. It is a dark picture. Moralists speak of man’s evolving and improving, but this is a vain dream. What sinners need is not cultural change but conversion, not outward reformation, but inner regeneration by the Holy Spirit. They cannot by their own power “put off the old man.” To do that requires the mighty power of God, which is found alone in Jesus Christ.

The “new man” is “after God created in righteousness.” We are remade in the image of God. It is not merely an empty ideal but a historic reality that produces a present experience rooted and grounded in a living reality, Jesus Christ. We put on “the new man” as we would put on a garment. We do not weave it; we wear it. God removes the filthy garments of sin from us (Zechariah 3:1-5) and replaces them with “the garments of salvation” (Isaiah 61:10), which are the righteousness of Christ. He has transformed our spiritual state; He is transforming our moral character; at death, He will transform our souls to be without sin in His presence; when Jesus comes, He will transform not only our souls but even our bodies into perfect conformity to Christ. What a total transformation!