On With The New

Ephesians 4:24 " And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness".



We are called to grow spiritually in our walk with Christ.This is a must ,like the physical body grows and matures, so must our spiritual body grow and mature.But how do we grow spiritually?Well it starts with a deeper understanding of God, His word and his will for our life.The growth process involves overpowering the pulls of the flesh, replacing them with the character of Christ, and you begin by not habitually practicing the sinful old nature.Now I'm not saying as a christian you will never sin but as a christian you will not make it your practice to sin, you will strive to avoid sin, you will resist the devil turn and turn back to God.Paul's instructions were to put off the old man and his ways, and put on the new man which was created to be like God in true righteousness.

First we must put off the old self, by realizing that the old person is our carnal,selfish nature, which is hostile to God.This is our unconverted mind and the individual acts of sin that spring up from it.But this is the self that we put to death symbolically through our baptism.We have put to death(in faith) whatever belongs to the old earthly nature.Through the study of God's word we identify wrong practices and thoughts, which hinder our walk in the newness of life, and we must as Paul said "die daily" as we are made aware of ungodly characteristic in our minds.We find at times we stumble in our fight against sin ,when we attempt to overcome it with our own strength rather than putting to use the power God makes available to us thru his holy spirit.It is through Jesus dwelling in us that we can live a new and godly life resisting the temptation to sin.

But if we strive only to put off the old we will find ourself incomplete,we must put on the new, which is the most challenging part of this process.We must with God's help build into our character the positive traits that are opposite of those of the old self. We must put on the new man with all it's godly attributes. We must focus our attention and efforts on the godly behavior we desire to practice,consentrating on the positive to eliminate the negitive.When is a liar not a liar? Because he dosn't speak ,does that mean he is no longer a liar.He is still a liar between lies,so to speak.The only way a liar can demonstrate a change in character is to speak the truth with his neighbors.He must put off the old and put on the new.We a former liar consistantly tells the truth, his old ways begin to shrival up and die,this is what happens when with the help of God's spirit we allow the new man to constantly be present in our lives.When is a thief not a thief,because he is not stealing now he could just be between jobs.But with God's help he can get a job where he is now in a position to give  to those who are in need, and not always looking to take from someone.We can overcome the sinful nature of the old man by remembering that we are a new creature in Christ old things have past away.With the help of God's spirit, and walking in the faith of God's word we can live in the newness of life as we put off the old and put on the new.